Fluent Essays

Innovation is about big leaps forward, ?eureka? moments and radicalbreakthroughs ?or is it? Using examples from manufacturing and servicesmake a case for the importance of incremental innovationCreativity and Business Wealth Assignment BriefMODULE AIMThis module considers how creativity and innovation lead to sustainable business.Students will develop appreciation of the role of culture, behavioural structures,systems and policies at global, national and organisational level on thedevelopment and sustainability of innovation.The module explores the application of creative problem solving and the processof creativity with a focus on the role of team leadership, and the influence ofcorporate culture.Students will become familiar with tools and processes that will enable them tobecome more creative, innovative and entrepreneurial in their business attitudesand practices.LEARNING OUTCOMES1. Critically evaluate the development of creativity and innovationand its impact on sustainable organisations2. Develop extensive and critical knowledge of the criteria forcreating an innovative organisation3. Critically review the structures needed to create anorganisational environment that facilitates creative workpractices in order to enhance business effectiveness4. Develop an in-depth knowledge of the contribution of otherbusiness functions in enhancing organisational innovation andcreativityMODULE ASSESSMENTThis module has three pieces of assessments, namely;Group casestudywrittenreport - 50\% ofcontinuousassessment(i)Individuallywritten essay ?50\%ofcontinuousassessmentii)?Group Case Study (50\%)Exploring sources of innovation: Aravind Eye Clinics Case StudyIn this assessment students will be split into groups of no more than 5students. The groups will be given the Aravind Case Study (attached) which(is based on topics covered during the main lectures. The assignment group isrequired to analyse the case study by firstly presenting the situation analysisof the case study and then addressing the following 2 questions;1. Discuss the basic forces (push and/or pull) which havebeen the source of innovation at Aravind Eye Clinics inIndia. Your discussion should include examples of otherinnovations in your country which have come about dueto similar forces2. You are a consultant to a small social enterprise in yourcountry which wishes to emulate the success of Aravind.They need advice on an innovation strategy that takeslessons from Aravind Eye Clinics. What would youadvise them?Each group should produce a written analysis of the case study in a form of areport of no more than 2500 words. The content of the report should include? A brief introduction to the case study? A situation analysis highlighting the main issues surroundingAravind the organisation? Answers addressing each of the 2 questions. The answers shouldbe well justified by being based on an in-depth analysis of factsresearched wider than the case study itself. The answer shouldalso demonstrate students understanding of underlying theory.Below is the marking schedule for this report;CriteriaMarksIntroduction10\%Situation analysis covering Aravind?s organisational, industry 20\%and global contextEach question has total of marks of 30\% which are split as 60\%followsPresentation of a well justified answer should have(a) evidence of understanding of underlying theory(topics as mentioned above) (10\%)(b) evidence of having researched wider than the casestudy content (10\%)(c) Giving a well justified answer to the question asked(10\%)Presentation and referencing10\%Total100\%Individual Essay (50\%)Write an essay of no more than 2,000 words answering the followingquestion:Innovation is about big leaps forward, ?eureka? moments and radicalbreakthroughs ?or is it? Using examples from manufacturing and servicesmake a case for the importance of incremental innovationMarking criteriaCriterionWeighting Marks and CommentsAnswerdemonstrates 30critical understanding ofthemainfactorsinfluencingindividualcreativityWell argues points on the 30importanceofthecreative style of anindividual vs. assessmentof absolute creativityEvidenceof 15research/wider readingUse of relevant examples 15Correct referencing5Presentationand 5structureOverall commentTotalAravind Case Study expected answerHere students areexpected to show understanding ofinnovation sources as discussed inTopic 5. In the case of Aravind, as it istypical in the ?bottom of the pyramid?and developing countries? pull is themain source of innovation. In this casethe high prevalence of blindness beingcaused by cataracts and exorbitantlypriced medical services which werenot affordable for the masses.Students might be able to identify?push? factors as being the availabilityof highly trained medical, IT andother professionals which now exist incountries like India. They should beable to identify examples of similarsituations which might have broughtabout innovations in their home1.countries.2. Students can approachthis from different angles, but wewould expect their advice tothesmall social enterprise to showunderstanding of;? factors which have made Aravind as an organizationsuccessful. These factors should include, optimumuse of highly skilled human resources e.g.surgeons, efficient recruitment of supporting staffe.g. nurses, the ability to organise effectiveinstitutions that can attract the volumes of patients(or customer groups being served), a cheaper wayto manufacture some of the basic products andtools in use e.g. the lens in the case of Aravind? challenges or opportunities that their chosen smallfirm might face/take advantage of if they are toemulate Aravind? the innovation sources as discussed in Topic 5 andthe other topics in the core text.Essay question expected answerInnovation is about big leaps forward, ?eureka? moments and radicalbreakthroughs ?or is it? Using examples from manufacturing and servicesmake a case for the importance of incremental innovation.Here students are expected to show understanding of the innovation process.They need to show understanding that most times one of the difficultiesbusinesses face in trying to manage innovation is that they makeassumptions about its nature. For example, there is a focus on the?breakthrough nature? and discount the value of small increments of changewhose impact only appears in cumulative form.Students should show appreciation of the difference between ?invention?which is coming up with a bright idea ? and ?innovation? ?which is thewhole process of taking that idea into successful implementation and use.Students can touch on how often there is an assumption that once abreakthrough has been made innovation stops and imitation begins ?and indoing so businesses might neglect the fact that adoption of something new ina particular context can still have a marked effect, even if the originalinnovation took place decades ago. They should support these argumentswith real-life examples.Students can also touch on how when a new product is launched or a newprocess is introduced the early stages involve a rapid cycle of high frequencyproblem solving activities. The bugs are taken out of the system, theparticular limitations on bottlenecks identified and dealt with, minorimprovements in usability and reliability identified, and so on. This phase isessentially one of sustained incremental innovation but focused on a clearstrategic target --that of getting a new product or process to work effectively.What seems to happen is that for a given set of technological and marketconditions there is a long period of relative stability during which acontinuous stream of variations around a basic innovation theme take place.Essentially this is product/process improvement along the lines of ?doingwhat we do, but better?. Here there are several examples they can touch on,for example, the Bic ballpoint pen was originally developed in 1957 butremains a strong product with daily sales of 14 million units worldwide.Although superficially the same shape closer inspection reveals a host ofincremental changes that have taken place in materials, inks, ball technology,safety features, etc.