Essay: Creativity and innovation management – competition vs collaboration

Creativity and Innovation Management – Competition versus Collaboration

For creativity and innovation it is important to consider whether collaboration or completion is valuable. Although there are some downsides with collaboration like: collaborative members working independently, resistance & dispute, ownership problems, Time pressure in members and their activities etc., still competition is beaten by collaboration.

Competition among individuals within an organization in idea generation forces people to shutdown. Who wins and who looses is based on the rules of the game which includes competencies and other factors. While in a innovation process creativity nourishes with new ideas from variety of sources. In competition individuals hold back information. Furthermore, the individual might not clear about the problem or reduce creative thinking or might not give enough time to think about the solution. Thus, increasing the possibility that the outcome is not a best solution or a best idea. collaboration is an important part of the innovation stages of selecting the ideas, development and commercializing an idea

Christiansen J. A., 2000 �Competitive Innovation Management: Techniques to Improve Innovation Performance”, Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Competition is short-lived. Collaboration can be forever.

In case competition outside the organisation Nagel (2001) says that Wealth is created by competition and innovation plays a centre role in competition. And innovation is a key which comprises collaboration among competitors.

Nagel S. 2001, �Handbook of Policy Creativity: Creativity at the cutting edge” Publisher: Nova Publishers,

Externally

Innovative companies engage in collaboration externally though joint ventures, alliances or less structured forms of networking. But many innovative organizations also believe in the value of internal and external competition, though this does not tend to be cut-throat competition with high levels of secrecy or fierce and negative politics. It has more to do with setting up competing projects teams that spur each other to higher performance where when the best teams the ‘losers’ are happy to support the winners on their way forward. In a company with a positive competitive culture, to lose is not equal to losing face or missing out on the next potential promotion. In companies that believe in collaboration, people cannot help but to collaborate

Innovative companies engage in collaboration externally though joint ventures, alliances or less structured forms of networking. But many innovative organizations also believe in the value of internal and external competition, though this does not tend to be cut-throat competition with high levels of secrecy or fierce and negative politics. It has more to do with setting up competing projects teams that spur each other to higher performance where when the best teams the ‘losers’ are happy to support the winners on their way forward. In a company with a positive competitive culture, to lose is not equal to losing face or missing out on the next potential promotion. In companies that believe in collaboration, people cannot help but to collaborate

Businesses should also collaborate with their customers. Bauknecht (2005) says people believes more on the recommendation of their peers, through social media, than advertisement

Collaboration cycle for business success

Using social media, Twitter, linkedin etc, as a way for collaborating with customer to identify and listen to the problems, complaints and their interests towards the products or service offered by the company. These social media Engage them, through social media ,

Engage the audience in an honest discussion about what they need and how the brand fulfills that need. Instead of pushing (incenting customers to buy), try pulling (create a dialogue so they seek out the product). Pull is an effective means of audience-centered, participatory marketing.

Provide real-time information and efforts will be rewarded. Tell a relevant story that is happening now. Inform and educate the audience. Encourage them to add commentary to the narrative. Respond in a timely manner. Embrace user generated content and customers will embrace the brand.

of the businesss.

Adopting social media for collorbarting with customers is a good goSo it is improtnat to listen and identify the customer problems and complaints

Consider these useful points when integrating social media into marketing plans:

Think carefully about the audience, the message that will be conveyed, and the results expected. Place an expert in charge of social media marketing plans (perhaps someone in PR, or communications, or social media research). Then, plot the strategy before implementation.

Create a topical conversation about the brand, then “listen” to the responses. Learn from these posts to develop a clearer understanding of what people are interested in, what is relevant to them, and what motivates them to gravitate towards particular products and services.

Bear in mind that businesses sink or swim based on their ability to adapt to consumer trends and tendencies.

Bauknecht K., Pr�ll B. and Werthner H. 2005, ?E-commerce and web technologies: 6th international conference, EC-Web? Publisher: Springer Science & Business

Charting the Impact of Social Media

Here’re our predictions about the future of collaboration and social media across

the enterprise.

Tracking Five Trends

Our investigation blends a quantitative and qualitative perspective to highlight the widespread adoption of social media within the enterprise. We’ve surveyed marketing executives (or their direct reports) in medium-sized and large companies and tracked their use of social media technologies. Thanks to the efforts of our sponsors, we’ve assembled a series of case studies and identified industry best practices. We’ve catalogued vendor capabilities for the social media marketplace and described the capabilities of over 35 vendors’ products.

All in all, we believe that five trends are now driving the future for collaboration and social media within the enterprise and beyond:

The growing appetite for innovative technologies

The focus on vertical solutions

The restrained role for IT

The advent of rich media

The importance of building communities

Let’s examine how these trends solve business problems.

Social Media Is Growing

From a quantitative perspective, the use of social media is growing. Our survey describes the evolution from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. We find that companies are going to be adopting new and different kinds of social media � building on the ubiquitous deployments of email, Web sites, and Web conferencing. But it’s not enough to simply communicate and share information in the abstract. Companies are concerned about the new uses of, and specific outcomes for, social media.

It’s also important to consider the new economics. Web 2.0 solutions are easy to implement, offer excellent functionality, and come with a low price tag � all factors that help to fuel growth. Some of the growth comes at the expense of Web 1.0 products, especially shared workspaces and email. There may well be more-effective ways to share information within a task team or across an extended enterprise than simply exchanging messages and attachments. Yet much of the growth comes from new opportunities. Web 2.0 gives rise to many new possibilities for engaging with customers, managing interactive experiences, and sharing information.