Most Important Lessons Learned

Business and Marketing: Most Important Lesson Name: Institutional Business and Marketing: Most Important Lesson Innovation is a subject of much focus with several definitions. It is the change resulting from commercial benefit and is based on new implementations of present knowledge in novel means (Tidd & Bessant, 2013). ‘No firm is an island’ is a phrase that has been coined and generously used by Tidd &Bessant (2013). The ways in which relations and behaviors within inter-organizational relations are managed are innovative outcomes that make a key component in an organization. Knowledge is the heart of innovation and it particularly combines the wide range of knowledge components to create something new. These components may comprise science and technology, manufacturing capabilities, market needs, regulatory issues, competitor behavior and many more contents, which when taken into consideration, an innovative process has a high probability of succeeding. This essay seeks to examine the lessons that can be learnt about the innovative process and its relation to competitive edge for companies. As businesses struggle internally to supply the knowledge and skills needed in the modern technologies, emphasis has moved towards businesses external relations as ways of accessing and acquiring novelty so as to stay in the competition and in tune with the advances in technology; firms are now taking up more cooperative approach (Tidd & Bessant, 2013). For instance, supply chains and networks have wide evidence to support the fact that collaboration stand for practical alternatives to the past’s aggressive models albeit such a design and implementation remains troubled with difficulties. Collaboration and competition is still important for these networks. Most times, the co-presence represented by the two dimensions support the innovative process. These models can be widespread and not just confined to such countries as in the Western Europe, but spread around the world, and in certain conditions they are extremely effective. For instance, one town called Salkot in Pakistan plays a vital role in the global market for expert stainless steel surgical instruments. 300 small firms made the central group, supported by even smaller suppliers of 1500 where 90% of the production in the year 1996 was exported, making up 20% of the global market’s share that came second only to Germany (Bessant & Phillips, 2013). In this case, the gains are as a result of collaboration and a cooperative network. Liker (2004), states that there are 14 management principles, which made Toyota the world’s greatest car manufacturer. One of such principles is the need for a company to “Become a Learning Organization.” Many firms have tried to be learning organizations, but all come second to Toyota. According to Liker (2004), the firm has three basic elements. The first is to identify the main causes of problems and find countermeasures. Toyota does this easily by primarily using a modest method they call the ‘five why’s’. Simply put, the firm asks ‘why?’ as often as possible to find the basic causes for the problems it faces. Toyota also uses hansei that is; self-reflection, responsibility, and organizational learning (Liker, 2004). This co...