Innovation means adapting, adjusting or altering that which already exists for the purpose of adding value.
As Paul M. Cook, founder and CEO of Raychem Corporation, said “one of the biggest obstacles to success is success itself”. A truly innovative company will never stop asking fundamental questions concerning its most successful products and services, such questions as: how can we make it a little better, more sophisticated and what are the ways that might cut the costs. Also, an entrepreneur has to know the market place for his product, understand the customers’ needs and define how easy his product can be reproduced.
Another obstacle is….competitors. Usually, the entrepreneurs are repeating themes and patterns which have been noticed during the past two decades. That is why they have to deliver a demonstrably better product at the same price of the competitors’.
One more reason innovation declines over time in an organization is that the skills required by managers to run a company smoothly are very different from those of an innovative entrepreneur. Innovation is an emotional experience, and you can train people technically, but you can’t teach them curiosity.
As to conclude, innovation capability depends most of all on economic flexibility. The U.S., with its entrepreneurial culture, relaxed labor markets, and free capital flows, continues to be the most innovative economy in the world.
References:
1) The Entrepreneurial Venture, Second Edition by Howard H. Stevenson, Michael J. Roberts, Amar Bhide, William A. Sahlman
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