Importance of innovation, example of Altech

Résumé du document

Innovation is sometimes, used glibly as a buzzword that loosely translates into introducing some novelty. Technically, 'innovation' is defined merely as 'introducing something new'. There are no qualifiers of how ground-breaking or world-shattering that something needs to be; only that it needs to be better than what was there before (Brianna Sylver, 2008). West and Farr (1990) advanced a more apt definition for innovation as, the intentional introduction and application within an organization of ideas, processes, products or procedures, new to the unit of adoption, designed to significantly benefit the organization or wider society. This definition proposes moving into valuable action and it encompasses the idea, which is somewhat intangible, and suggests that innovation is more than a simple creativity of an idea. The definition suggests that real, valuable innovation creates a valuable outcome. That outcome could be a new program, a new product, a new business model, a new service, or a new initiative. Firms are invariably involved in either generating and/or selling products or services, and for them to continue doing it profitably, there is always a need to find new and better ways of conducting business. This assignment looks at Altech, a very well established technology company that is a subsidiary of Altron, a renowned South African family business. It will assess the current status of innovation in the company and how it relates to its corporate culture and strategy, as well as make recommendations on further deepening the integration of innovation into the corporate culture. The frameworks applied in the assessment will be based on the innovation value chain and management innovation as proposed by Hansen & Birkinshaw (2007) and Hamel (2006) respectively.

Extraits

[...] 7th ed. Prentice-hall, Englehood Cliffs, New Jersey. o West and Farr. (1990). Innovation and creativity at work. Chichester Explanatory Notes: o The ideas put forward by individuals or groups are subjected to thorough open-minded evaluation. o Products and/or services are derived and developed further. o Such products/services are deployed in the relevant units of the company. o This gives rise to innovative change. [...]

[...] Innovation is a key component to financial success and sustainability in today's global economy. Innovation drives profitability and performance by allowing companies to differentiate themselves and to create a competitive advantage. It applies to all areas of a business for generating revenue and profit, ranging from performance improvements, new product, manufacturing, operations, services and the design of organizational structures (Redinius & Land; 2006). In order to understand why it is important to innovate, we can take the example of the success of Dell. [...]

[...] The definition suggests that real, valuable innovation creates a valuable outcome. That outcome could be a new program, a new product, a new business model, a new service, or a new initiative. Firms are invariably involved in either generating and/or selling products or services and for them to continue doing it profitably, there is always a need to find new and better ways of conducting business. This assignment looks at Altech, a very well established technology company that is a subsidiary of Altron, a renowned South African family business. [...]

[...] It is committed to transformation relating to skills development, skills attraction and retention, and remuneration of staff. Skills Transformation Altech recognises the importance of internal skills development programmes in helping to develop key skills and strengthen the efforts of external recruitment in meeting the skills shortage challenge. Its internal skills development interventions include bursary programmes, management trainee schemes, experiential trainee programmes, apprenticeships, education assistance and learnerships. At ACS staff members in the production and repair centre took part in Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) programmes 2008. [...]

[...] For innovation purposes, customers and employees are they focus. Altech Autopage Cellular's existing channels to market have been supplemented by third-party call centres and distributors for data products. Mobile number portability generated a steady migration of 4172 customers for Altech. The company is committed to its focus on becoming a broad-based communications company, providing unique and creative solutions for users of connectivity (www.altech.co.za). In order to achieve this aim, Altech is capitalising particularly on the convergence of voice, data and video, the major telecommunications trend of this decade. [...]