Jacklin Altman

I agree with the idea. Although it is possible to create a culture of innovation and creativity, it is flawed logic to assume that an organization can plan on disrupting markets on call. What can be done is to cultivate the employees mindsets and approaches and provide them with the resources and empowerment necessary to create new things. Those creations, even if they take place, aren’t guaranteed to be monetized. In plain terms, you can only lead a horse to the water.

I agree with Mohamed that some companies will be more innovative than others, and that directly depends on their culture. However, even though Steve Jobs didn’t intend to redefine the music industry, that’s because it’s really difficult to determine if a product is going to be successful when the general public doesn’t even know they need it. He knew the iPod’s design, bundling package (software with hardware), music store and business model were unique and extremely innovative, but other than making predictions based on some preliminary research, you will never know a products’ success until you launch it. I don’t think that disruptive innovation is a sustainable business model because that would require predicting the future. However, I think you can strive for sustaining extreme innovation, which will most likely disrupt a market eventually if it is successful in creating that culture.

I agree with the author’s three-point structure for status reports. All status reports should include the overall project health so that others can get a sense of whether the project is going well or not, right away. Major accomplishments should be tracked to assure stakeholders that the work is being done in a timely fashion and can be very encouraging. Issues should definitely be communicated because if the issues are unknown to others, there is no way they will know if there is something that they can help with.

A good status report should definitely use the green, yellow, red approach to illustrate the health of the project so that it draws attention to what needs to be focused on and less attention to what doesn’t. A good status report should also be written concisely. After taking MIS 3535, I’ve gotten better at writing status reports. I am briefer in the details of what is happening throughout the various phases of the project and am elaborating on details that may be unclear.

Innovation and creativity do not necessarily need to go hand and hand. Businesses should definitely make sure that they find their proper balance of innovation and creativity because both are needed in order to be successful. However, every business has to make sure that they set themselves apart by focusing on its strengths in comparison to its competitors. Some businesses are better at being innovative than others, while some businesses are better with creativity. If a business is not great at being innovative and its competitors are and they have the same level of emphasis on innovation, the business that is not as innovative will sink. The same is true for creativity.

Creativity can definitely exist without innovation and vice versa. New ideas can be generated everyday but it does not necessarily mean that the business is going to implement it. A company can implement something new that its competitors already have implemented before them, which lacks creativity. In my experience, management focuses more on implementation than creativity because management seems to favor some people’s ideas more than others. However, management does focus on tweaking existing processes to find ways to do things better for everyone, which is the innovation piece.

I believe that creativity and innovation are two separate entities. Creativity is more of an art approach to something. It uses design to catch the eye of a consumer. Creativity makes a product beautiful or more attractive. Innovation is more developing a new method of doing something that no one has thought of yet. When I think of innovation it is simple, yet extremely useful.

Both creativity and innovation go hand in hand. Although able to stand alone, both are best used when put together. With a mix of the two, the creation of a new product or idea can far surpass any standard that already exists. For example, when designing a new car. If the engine is a new innovative idea, a consumer may not see the innovation without a creative outside design. Creativity and innovation should be intricately intertwined to create outstanding ideas.

Using the article’s definition of creativity and innovation I would say creativity can exist without innovation but innovation needs creativity. Someone can come up with many creative ideas but without action they remain that, ideas. Also, not every creative idea is innovative. I usually think of innovative ideas as not just implemented, but somewhat successful. I don’t believe people would call an idea that caused a business to go out of business innovative, but it could have been creative.

I think an issue with being innovative businesses have is trying to force it as he discusses. When you sit a group of people in a room and say, ok innovate, you get people so focused on coming up with a new, innovative solution that they do not come up with any innovations at all. I agree with Shawn Hunter that brainstorming sessions are not always the best strategy to trying to employ when trying to think of a solution. I sat in many brainstorming sessions as an intern where the person running the session did not employ the best practices we discusses in class and all they led to was awkward silence and no solutions. When you put so much pressure on people to be creative or innovative they will self edit before they say anything.

In my experience management looks for innovation because they want actionable ideas. The next question after ‘we could do ____’ is always ‘how would we do that’. They also tend to dismiss the idea if you don’t at least have a starting point.