The organisational structure and innovation

When setting up a business you need to carefully think about your organisational structure. A Drucker says "Good organisational structure does not by itself produce good performance. But poor organisational structure makes good performance impossible, no matter how good the individual managers may be. To improve organisational structure... will therefore improve performance." (Drucker,P,F,1989) Drucker is basically saying that without good organisational structure the company will not be able to succeed. This is why it is so important to a business to have the correct organisational structure. The size of the company will affect what organisational structure it has. The span of control in a business can either be wide or narrow this is the ratio of managers to employees if it is a lot of employees to one manager this is a wide span and if it is a small amount of employees to the manager this is called a narrow span. The most common organisational structures are:                                                        Tall Structure:

Tall- "In its simplest form a tall organisation has many levels of management and supervision. There is a “long chain of command” running from the top of the organisation e.g. Chief Executive down to the bottom of the organisation e.g. shop floor worker."(Management2,2012) Using a tall structure means that the span is narrow and the staff can see a clear path to the top of the organisation which will be motivating which is a very big positive in a company. However the tall structure means narrowness which means there are more manager to staff. The staff also do not have many responsibilities which could be demotivating and lead the employees to be less innovative as they feel they have no power. Also the communication in tall structures is poor as there are too many levels to go through before you can get to the top and by the time your question or idea gets to the top of the company it may have been passed through several different people and changed "Chinese whispers" effect.

There is also another type of structure which is called a flat structure "This means that the “Chain of Command” from top to bottom is short and the “span of control is wide”(Management2,2012) advantage to this are that there will be a lot of team spirit as ever one is on the same level however having this style of structure could hinder the company’s chances of expanding. Decision making in a flat structure would be quick as there are not many level this would be good for innovation because all ideas would be heard as more than likely the boss may also be your manager.                                                 Flat structure :

Having a flat structure would work better for a small company so maybe when you first set up in business it would be good to have a flat structure which i believe is better for innovation however what happens when the company expands because i feel the tall structure is suited to the authoritarian way of management which is not what i feel is best for innovation.

The method that i feel is best in a large business is hierarchical "In a hierarchical organisation employees are ranked at various levels within the organisation, each level is one above the other. At each stage in the chain,

one person has a number of workers directly under them, within their span of control."(management2,2012) the hierarchal structure clearly defines each employee’s role which is motivating for the employee. The hierarchical style of structure incorporates both a narrow span at the top of the structure and as it works its way down becomes a wider span. A big advantage to this structure is that responsibilities are clearly defined and there is a clear path way to promotion.
I suppose it depends on your business what organisational structure you pick but it has to be the right one to suit you. No matter what structure is picked there needs to be a clear way of employees being able to give innovative ideas straight to the head of the business. So in a flat structure this would be easy they could have a meeting or just speak in the office. However in a tall structure the staff need to have something like a suggestion box for ideas and then regular feedback on what is happening with their ideas.
Hierarchical structure:



Drucker, P,F (1989). The Practise of management. : Heinemann Professional. p223

Learn management2. (2012). Organisational structures: Introduction. Available: http://www.learnmanagement2.com/organisational%20structures.htm. Last accessed 18th January 2012.

Leadership styles and innovation

"Leaders tend to shape organisational culture by signalling what are the important priorities and values for the organisation"(Amed,P,2010)The leadership styles that a company chooses to follow will affect the innovation in a company. If you look at the difference between autocratic style of management and a laissez-faire style of management they are very different. An autocratic style of leadership "is where the focus of power is with the manager and all interactions within the group move towards the manager."(Mullins,L,2010). If a business follows this style of management it will be very hard for anyone but the manager to be innovative as they have all the power and therefore tend not to see the employees as people who would be able to come up with innovative ideas to improve the company. Whereas laissez-faire style of leadership "is where the manager observes that members of the group are working well on their own. The manager consciously makes a decision to pass the focus of power to members, to allow freedom of action"(Mullins,L,2010). This style of management will allow for more creativity as employees are not always being told what to do. They will see the manager or their leader someone they can go to with an idea that will help them to implement it.

The lassie- faire style of management makes it a lot easier for everyone in the company to be innovative this is the style of management that is adopted in company’s such as Google "Google is also an extremely employee friendly company. There are many initiatives at Google that originate with the employees. Some things Google has instituted are prayer and meditation rooms, companywide volunteer days. They have also invited presidential candidates to their campus to talk about the issues with their employees. Many of these candidates did respond and visited Google's Campus in San Jose, CA. Google has borrowed a lot of the environment that is found in Universities and provides all the things you would find in a PHD or graduate program."(Mance,A,2012) They care about their staff and give them freedom and in turn the staff repay them with loyalty and feel like they can give innovative ideas for the company as they will be listened to because at Google as employees they have power.

Ahmed,P and Shepard,C (2010). Innovation Management. Essex: Pearsons Education Limited. p 314-317.

Mance,A. (2012). What Makes the Number One Innovative Company So Innovative?. Available: http://andymanca.hubpages.com/hub/What-Makes-the-Number-One-Innovative-Company-So-Innovative-. Last accessed 17th January 2012.

Mullins,L (2010). Management and organisational behaviour. 9th ed. Essex: Pearsons Education Limited. 380-381.

Creativity and innovation

Creation is a large part of innovation. It is creativity that leads to innovation for example for a person to invent a whole new product they need to tap into their creative way of thinking. Also if it is not an invention of a product it could be a new way of doing things to improve the company if you were in the service industry. Creativity is all about thinking out side of the box for example look at this picture:
What do you see?

Some people see a young woman however some people see an old hag. This shows that people’s minds work in very different ways depending on how they think. In a business some employees will be able to see problems with products and services that others may not have even noticed like if I had not told you there is two ways to look at the picture you may not necessarily have seen it.
The old approach to creativity in the workplace was that the managers did all the creative thinking and “consultants were hired to help to achieve a breakthrough in products and markets” (Ahmed,P,2010) In my opinion this is a very naive and expensive way of running a business. Not only will it demotivate the employees but everyone has some level of creativity inside of them and in a company it is more than likely that some one knows the answer to your problem as they see it in a different light to you like the picture. There is now a new approach to creativity and this involves listening to staff getting lots of people involved.
Companies need creativity to make them stand out from the crowd “without a creative approach to the challenges facing them, there is a tendency to descend to the average of corporate practise”(Ahmed,P,2010) with no new ideas or ways of doing things differently the company will only be copying what is already out there and this is not what makes a market leader. Creativity’s main role in a business is problem solving coming up with techniques or ideas to solve a problem in the business however it has many other functions it can be used for problem finding so the directors of a company may not know about the problems that are happening on the shop floor there for using suggestion boxes and having meeting brings up these problems and solution that employees may have.
However you can have many creative ideas given by staff but for them to be effective the company need to implement them. This diagram shows the creativity to innovation process:

The ideas are generated by staff and selected so in this is a process of illumination ideas that the head of the company does not believe is relevant then the ideas have to be implemented which can be a very lengthy process. I feel that businesses need to make it a lot easier for change to happen for ideas to be tested. As this is the demotivating factor for employees they do not want to give ideas as when they do they are not implemented and are forgot about so what is the point. This very true as I have experienced this myself I work for McDonalds and I approached a manager and told her that I thought it would be a lot better if I was to give out condiments at window one to improve the times on the drive threw to which she replied no it works fine the way it does. This shows the reluctance to change they could have easily tried it for a day if it didn’t work then they could have changed it back but they would not because they did not want change and probably didn’t like that I am a crew member was suggesting a change as I do not have power.
(Ahmed,P and Shepard,C (2010). Innovation Management. Essex: Pearsons Education Limited. p3-49)

Reebok EasyTone

"Basically the shoes integrate balance or bosu ball “balance pods” into the toe, ball and heel of the shoe. Reebok claims that this increases gluteal or butt muscle activation an average of 28 percent, in addition to stimulating hamstring and calf muscles 11 percent better."(Davis,J,2009) This is a very innovative idea especially in the current climate that we are living in as people live very busy lifestyles and do not have time to go to the gym every day and by selling the idea that by simply wearing there trainers you will be able to improve your legs and your bum a lot of people will try it. However i do query the trainers slightly as i have found out that they only tested the trainers on "A Reebok financed an exercise study involving five people"(Davis,J,2009). It is an innovative idea tapping into this market however do they really work in the long term is yet to be seen so i am not sold on the product yet but they have got to try these things as this is what innovation is all about.

Davis, J. (2009). Is the Reebok EasyTone an easy way to a sculpted butt and legs?. Available: http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/is-the-reebok-easytone-an-easy-way-to-a-sculpted-butt-and-legs. Last accessed 17th January 2012.

Dyson

Dyson is another company known for its innovation. Dyson is owned by James Dyson who has shown that he is able to look at a product see where it could be improved and make it happen .James Dyson has improved many products we all use on a daily basis for example the hand dryer and the hoover. The latest arrival from James Dyson has been the new bladeless fan. James version of a fan has no blades so the safety aspects of a fan have been improved. James has also developed the efficiency of the fan making it 15 times more efficient than a standard fan. However my view on the product is will people be willing to pay £199 for a fan. When the be can get a standard fan for £11.99 from Argos which is a fraction of the price and has an average score of 4 and a half stars from over 225 reviews. This shows that people are happy with a standard fan. The weather in Brittan means that there is not a great deal of demand for the product however it may be that other parts of the world snap up this new invention. I believe that the product is innovative as it is taking a product and transforming it which is exciting however i do not feel it will benefit my life in any way and if i needed a fan i would rather buy a standard one for £11.99 i think the audience for this product is in hot countries.

Charge your phone by walking.

This is a product that really interests me as it is a new invention. What makes this product so exciting is it is finding an alternative source of energy through something that most people do every day. Not only will this invention save people money on their electricity bills but it will also enable people to charge there devices no matter where they are. "Taking a stroll may soon be enough to re-charge your mobile phone, after US researchers developed a way to generate electricity from human motion."(BBC,2011) This product is innovation at its best in my eyes as this could help to save the planet. If one person can charge there phone just by walking then what could a city full of people do. There have been problems with this device due to the bombings and the fact that the shoes are producing electricity they would not be allowed in airports. But every product has its draw backs and a true innovator you have to believe in your product and just keep developing it until it is airport friendly. From this technology in Tokyo they have been able to “On a larger scale, power-generating mats have been installed under the floors at two Tokyo train stations to capture the vibrations of the thousands of commuters. The recovered energy is used to power a number of appliances, including the stations' (BBC ,2011)automatic doors. This shows just how important innovation is as it chaK, 

Moskvitch. (2011). Mobile phones could soon be 'powered by walking'. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14647639. Last accessed 19th Decembernges the way we live.

What made Steve Jobs so innovating and how could I follow his exmaple ?

Steve Jobs is the co-founder of Apple. He is "the classic American entrepreneur starting his company in the spare bedroom of his parents’ house, and pioneering the first personal computer for everyday use"( Gallo, C,2010) . Steve Jobs is hands down one of the best entrepreneurs of all time. He has been an inspiration to many young entrepreneurs including myself. Gallo has laid out what he believes Steve jobs 7 secrets to innovation are.
"Do what you love" if you have a product that you do not have a real desire for then how are you going to sell it to the world. "Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition .They somehow already know what you truly want to become"(Gallo,C,2010) so to innovative follow your heart and what you think is right not what everyone else is telling you could be the right direction as you are not creating a product that is already there you are creating something new something no one else knows about so how could they possibly know the direction you want to go in.
Secret number 2 "put a dent in the universe" Steve jobs said "we are gambling in our vision and we would rather do that than make 'me too' products" (Gallo,C,2010) so this says to me try something different don't just copy what is currently going right in the market find something new and try it.
"Kick start your brain" , "creativity leads to innovative ideas" Always be thinking about the product and take ideas from other industry’s to improve your product. Steve Jobs didn’t see this as stealing but experimenting and always trying to improve the product you have. An example of were Steve Jobs did this is in the layout of all of his shops there is no cashier this was taking from studying the four seasons hotel.
"Sell dreams not products" Steve Jobs once said "some people think you've got to be crazy to buy a mac, but in that craziness is a genius" (Gallo, C,2010) the customers have bought a product to for fill their dreams. When innovating you have to think about your dreams not just about the product otherwise you will end up with a product similar to one on the market.
Secret number 5 "say no to 1,000 things" "innovation comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much"(Gallo,C,2010) This says to me that we need not make our products too complicated as when a product is too complicated people do not want to use it for example look at the i- pad children as young as 2 can use this product yet people as old as 90 still use it as it is simple but genius.
"Create insanely great experiences" It is all about good customer service and making sure the customers are the number one priority. The way Apple have done this through innovating as discussed earlier is that they have no cashier’s in the shop all they have is the experts on the products in store. You need to make sure that the website, calling office enriches the customer’s experience. So make your website interesting and try different things that is what Apple do.
The final secret is number 7 "Master the message" get people excited about your product "for every idea that turns into a successful innovation, there are thousands of ideas that never gain traction because people behind those ideas failed to tell a compelling story" (Gallo, C,2010)  you have to believe in your product and even when told your idea will never work defend it and say it will believe in what you are doing and one day it will happen. When giving presentations about products use photos instead of text as "verbally your audience will remember 10% of the information. Attach pictures and attention goes up to 65 %”
These 7 secrets summed up to me say you need to be have courage and be little bit crazy but just believe in yourself and your product or service and one day it will pay off you will make dreams come true.

(Gallo, C. (2010). The innovation secrets of Steve Jobs. Available: http://www.slideshare.net/cvgallo/7-innovation-secrets-of-steve-jobs. Last accessed 25th November 2011)