Reference no: EM133169336

1. Describe innovation from the process view point. Explain how the innovation process might differ for different actors (a start-up entrepreneur, a new product development team, a public service team or the social entrepreneur).

2. Draw the model of the innovation process. List key questions in each area linked to how we manage innovation.

3. Explain how context affects innovation management. Choose a company or a sector to illustrate on an example.

4. Imagine Nick Smith is a manager of a big company working in the same industry for more than twenty years. How might he approach reviewing and improving the way the innovation process works? How could his organization avoid potential problems associated with working with partial models?

5. Fred Bloggs was a bright young PhD scientist with a patent on a new algorithm for monitoring brainwave activity and predicting the early onset of a stroke. He was convinced of the value of his idea and took it to market having sold his car, borrowed money from family and friends and taken out a large loan. He went bankrupt despite having a demonstration version which doctors he showed it to were impressed by. Why might his failure be linked to having a partial model of how innovation works -and how could he avoid making the same mistake in the future?

6. All organizations have their own particular approach to managing innovation -even those who don't formally try and manage it at all! It's a bit like having a particular personality -even firms in the same sector often approach innovation in very different ways. These represent the results of their own learning processes and the way they manage things accumulates by trial and error. Think about an organization with which you are familiar and try and map its 'innovation personality'-its particular approach -on to our generic framework model. How do they search, select, implement, etc?

7. Is innovation manageable or just a random gambling activity where you sometimes get lucky? If it is manageable, how can firms organize and manage it -what general principles might they use?

8.'Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door!'Will it? What are the limitations of seeing innovation simply as coming up with bright ideas? Illustrate your answer with examples drawn from manufacturing and services