"Wal-Mart, McKinsey, and Nordstrom primarily achieved success all the way throughinnovation.An organization, given the importance of innovation, needs to ensure and prioritisesufficient funding for efficient results. The biggest strength of the Google, one of themost innovative search engines, is its financial strength. The financial potency needsto be complimented by a pool of innovative team discovering new solutions to thedilemma of the firm. Innovative team does not only include the engineering andscientist team but overall personnel of an organization. (James B. Rieley, 2008;July)Apple brand is the best example that has a widened approach andconceptualizes new ideas in the existing as well as new products. For example, themost popular iPhone and iPod Touch has been upgraded with a fascinating newideation tool named as Riffer leveraging images and further associates the brain`sinfluence to produce fresh ideas. (Chuck Frey, 2010; July 14)13 Rise of Innovative ConsumerThe notion of traditional innovation has now transformed to what is observed today;consumer creativity. Researchers have found the success rate for firms possessinga high consumer involvement as compared to others. (Nikolaus Franke andChristian Luthje, n.d)Consumer involvement rather contribution is observed indifferent industries varying from sporting equipments to construction objects andscientific devices. As Argued by Eric Von Hippel, majority of innovation is carriedout by consumers irrespective of the type of industry. General Electric (GE) created“Lightspeed VCT” scanner with advanced features of three-dimensional image;Staples, created its shelves with “wordlock” protection using words as a substitute ofnumbers; BMW makers advanced with online provision of services for newgeneration luxurious cars. All these innovations have one similarity, i.e. consumers’involvement. For instance, Bell, an American Helmet maker, produced variousdesigns of helmet for which the ideas were taken from consumers. Electronic Arts(EA), a well known computer gaming firm, modifies its games on the basis of onlinemodification posts by the consumers. It would not be wrong to say that consumer isthe head of various departments like R&D, product development as well. However,the way customers` involvement is conceded and managed makes the difference.For instance, BMW`s marketing innovation management head Joerg Reimann let15 customers out of 1000 to meet the R&D team and successfully reached theprototype stage. Quite often, a group`s idea is not conceived to be the best way.However, BMW offering the cars to niche classes, broadened the consumer- innovation efforts by adopting the group`s view approach and proved to besuccessful. This method also gave its customers a better sense of recognition whichfurther helped in producer-consumer relationship. (The Economist, 2005; March10)14 Innovation EnvironmentDifferent firms call its customers by different terminologies. The healthcare division ofGE has named them as “luminaries”. Staples discovered its luminaries through themode of competition of a new product idea. It is often conferred about the need forrewards to the consumer-led ideas. However, the most augmenting fact about user- led innovation is that the creativity is freely provided by consumers.This has madethe firms contradict the concept of “No Free Lunches”. However, the company has tobear some costs in order to reach the consumer market for creative ideas.Forinstance, internet is the most explorative tool in order to capture consumer insightsand also has a broader reach.The organization should efficiently place the resourcestowards the right direction after all corporations make money and not the ideas orproducts.While crowdsourcing, an organization should critically identify the innovation typethey are seeking for. For instance, the innovation strategy would be different in caseof a product extension than it will be in repositioning the product. By identifying theright problem the probability of commercial success can be increased and a rightdevelopment technique could be adopted. (Tidd et al., 2005)Apple`s smart phoneswere introduced with basic features but was later on added with advanced processesand applications. As proposed by Soren Kaplan (1999), radical cannibalisation, asadopted by Apple and other companies, helps in revolutionising the industry bydelivering better consumer values by replacement of owns traditional technology withmore advanced ones. This is moreover observed in product extensions wherein thisstrategy is adopted. On the other hand, the competitive firms displace thecompetitors’ products in order to create a position in the market. Direct TV by GM,the first digital satellite system was the first rival of the traditional cable operators.Industries should be exploring new technological ways external to its milieu that candeliver better consumer values. (Soren Kaplan, 1999; n.d)Companies are more preoccupied with the demand to generate far-reachingdiscontinuous innovations in order to dominate its competitors in the cut throatcompetitive environment. (Tushman and Anderson, 1986; Christensen, 1997) It issomething consumers have yet experienced. As per Clay Christensen (andothers), it is similar to radical innovation or involving disruptive technologies, which15 "