Discussion On Google Innovation Management & Creativity

Question

Task:
Scope (LOs and ACs) of this assignment:
Learning Outcome 1: Understand the importance of creative and innovative management in organisation.

• AC 1.1: Evaluate current creative and innovative management processes in an organisation.
• AC 1.2: Explain how to lead others to positively embrace innovation and change.

Learning Outcome 2: Be able to support creative and innovative management processes for an organisation.

• AC 2.1: Assess the influence of vision and mission on generation of creative and innovative management processes in an organisation.
• AC 2.2: Use analytical tools to identify potential creative and innovative management ideas.
• AC 2.3: Assess risks and benefits of creative and Innovative management ideas.
• AC 2.4: Use change models to support the implementation of creative and innovative management ideas.

Learning Outcome 3: Be able to influence others to effect change in an organisation.

• AC 3.1: Produce an appropriate rationale to persuade stakeholders of an organisation of the benefits of a creative and innovative management idea.
• AC 3.2: Communicate a creative and innovative management idea to stakeholders of an organisation.
• AC 3.3: Establish key goals and priorities for implementation of a creative and innovative management idea using feedback from stakeholders

Learning Outcome 4: Be able to plan to overcome barriers to implementation of creative and innovative management ideas in an organisation.

• AC 4.1: Assess the barriers to the implementation of a creative and innovative management idea in an organisation.
• AC 4.2: Plan a strategy to overcome identified barriers to the implementation of a creative and innovative management idea in an organisation.
• AC 4.3: Explain how a strategy plan for overcoming barriers will ensure innovative change is achieved.

AC 4.4: Communicate a strategy plan for overcoming barriers to relevant stakeholders in an organisation.

Read the following Scenario, and prepare a report with the guidelines provided.
Scenario: Choose any organisation of your choice, preferably where you are working or familiar with and should be Product oriented / Service oriented / Knowledge oriented. The chosen organisation should have scope for promoting and implementing creative and innovative management ideas. Understand the chosen organisation, its purpose, vision, mission, objectives, goals and its area of business. Also analyze the organisation’s intention to be creative and introduce innovations in its area of business.

Note: The organisation can be a domestic (or) international (or) Multinational (or) Global organisation.

Based on your understanding of the creative and innovative management practices in the chosen organisation, prepare a report by addressing all the questions given below:

The report should include the following:

1. Executive Summary
2. Introduction of the chosen organisation along with overview of CIM activities
3. Understand the current CIM processes in the chosen organisation and evaluate them.
4. Provide a detailed explanation on the steps you would take to lead others in the chosen organisation to positively embrace innovation and change.
5. Explain the Vision and Mission of the chosen organisation and assess the influence of it on CIM processes. You can choose any specific department if it’s a multinational company with different products and services.
6. What are the analytical tools that you would use to identify the potential creative and innovative Management ideas in your chosen organisation? Assess the risk and benefits of CIM ideas.
7. Who are the stakeholders of the chosen organisation? Identify them and produce an appropriate reason and logic to persuade them on the benefits of CIM idea and communicate the CIM idea to them.
8. List few steps you take to collect the feedback from the identified stakeholders and establish key goals and priorities for implementation of CIM ideas which have been decided/finalized.
9. Whenever there is a change process to be implemented in an organisation, involving CIM ideas, it is resisted and barriers may arise. Assess the barriers to the implementation of CIM ideas. What will be the change models that you would like to use to support the implementation of CIM ideas? 
10. Give a strategy plan for smooth implementation of CIM which can overcome the identified barriers that you have assessed, and explain how the decided /finalized plan will ensure that the innovative change is achieved. Also explain how will you communicate a strategy plan for overcoming barriers to identified stakeholders
11. Conclusions and recommendations.
12. References (Adhering to Harvard Referencing Format)

The report shall not exceed 5,000 words and should include relevant examples and illustrations.

Answer

Executive summary
This study on Google innovation management focuses on the implementation of creative and innovation ideas of an organization. For the discussion, famous company Google LLC is selected. In the report, detailed explanation to lead others in the organization is given so that innovation and change can be implemented positively. Further, effective analytical tool is used to identify key innovative ideas in business. Stakeholders are the important part of the organization so; identification of stakeholders and communication plan is also established to stay connected with them. Some of the effective steps to collect feedback from stakeholders are given in this report. At last, an effective strategy plan is provided in the study of Google innovation management so that barriers can be managed in the business while implementing CIM ideas.

Introduction
In any business organization, creativity and innovation is essential to stay competitive in the operating market. Therefore, the study sheds light on the Google innovation management in a detailed manner. Innovation or creativity is the way to achieve growth and success in the future. In current time, employees have opportunities to think and implement their innovative ideas in business to earn more profit. Innovation in business can be defined as implementing new business ideas, effective strategies and tactics, and new ways to make the business successful. This report discusses about innovation and creativity in a selected organization i.e. Google LLC. In case of Google innovation management, this is a well-established company operating with various products in the market. Innovative products of Google include Google TV and mobile, search engine website, video sharing website i.e. YouTube and Google + etc.

Google innovation management and creative processes
Innovation in business can be defined as applying innovative business ideas, effective strategies and tactics, and new ways to make the business successful. Currently, companies are focusing on innovation management in order to operate their businesses and meet the needs and requirements of their potential customers in effective manner. Further, companies are also adopting portfolio management to stay competitive in the market. It includes three components by which innovation can be done and managed in a systematic framework. Those frameworks are incremental, radical and fundamental (Ridley, 2017).

In order to maintain the sustainability of these products, Google innovation management was operating with a structured process of innovation i.e. incremental process in which BCG framework was implemented with innovative ideas. Further, Google implemented 70-20-10 principal to earn highest profit in terms of products.

70-20-10 principal- It is observed by the company that highest profit can be earned with the business of Search engine and Advertisements. So, the company decided to spend 70% of time to bring more innovation in this business. Further, the company also decided to spend 20% time in dealing with technical people so that they can show their creativity in the business by implementing their innovative ideas effectively. 10% of time was set to test some odd ideas which might not give desired results in future.

Currently, the product strategy of Google innovation management is creating strong competition for other players operating in the technology market. It is important for the company to have systematic approach and skilled employees so that the set business goals and objectives can be achieved in an effective manner.

Leading others to positively embrace innovation and change
Leadership can be described as the systematic process by which a person can motivate an individual or group of people to attain the set aims and objectives in business. A leader can have several qualities by which he can influence others to achieve common goals. The qualities are management of operations, contribution to internal values and external actions, openness to contribution in the innovation process and equal opportunities to employees etc (Kiseleva et. al. 2017).

Google leadership
In order to hold innovation and change, there should be some efficient qualities and skills in a leader. In case of Google innovation management, leader must have problem solving skills, motivational approach and strong relationship with employees so that effective changes in the business operations can be implemented. The company has a powerful history and brand value due to its innovative strategies. Currently, the company is operating with 20,000 employees, various business divisions and diverse leadership styles to achieve the objectives.

Based on various theories, there are various leadership styles i.e. directive, autocratic, lassiez faire, consultative, entrepreneurship, transformational and transactional styles. In case of Google innovation management, company is operating with various products so, different leadership styles are required based on management level. For embracing innovation and change in the company, affiliative, authoritative and democratic style would be suitable.

Affiliative Style- In this style, leader is accountable to bring the employees closure so that they can establish strong relationship with each other by open discussion and communication. This style is also helpful for the employees to implement new ideas in the business process. In case of Google innovation management, the company provides opportunity to employees to speak and communicate so that they can share their innovative ideas for achieving growth and success. This style is also helpful in improving the productivity of employees in future.

Authoritative style- This is another style of leadership which is followed by the company. In this style, leaders provide freedom and platform to express their new and innovative ideas. Along with this, leaders are also responsible to vision and goals and motivate the employees to achieve those goals with their skills and capabilities. By giving proper feedbacks, this style enhances the satisfaction level of employees within the organization (Murselovic, Sinanovic, Hasanovic and Kocic, 2016).

Democratic style- Google innovation management has also adopted democratic style of leadership to bring innovation and change in the business. This style is accountable to make the employees collaborated and communicative so that they can discuss their innovative ideas freely.

Leadership style of CEO
The CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai believes in running the business in such way where employees feel free and motivated to implement new and inventive ideas. Rather than planned implementation, CEO of the company is focused on implementing innovative ideas given by the employees with the approach of ‘let other succeed’. In this manner, he ensures that 20% of employees must focus on generating and implementing new ideas so, he leads them and provide chance to communicate effectively. In order to enhance the contribution of employees, regular meetings and conferences are being set by the company. By this activity, employees give their valuable suggestions to the company related to innovation and creative process in business activities (Ghoshal, 2017).

Influence of vision and mission
Vision of a business organization includes various long-term aims and objectives. It is crucial for the organization to achieve those goals for the growth and success in operating market. On the other hand, the mission statement mainly explains the current situation and stages of the business along with plans and strategies to achieve the future vision.

Google’s Vision- Corporate vision of Google is to gives access of crucial information to the world in one click.

Google’s Mission- The vision of organization is to organize world’s important and useful information and make them accessible for people.

Influence- In case of vision, the organization has set this vision after analyzing the current requirement of people for the internet. Google innovation management is focused on making its facilities more effective and useful for the people on one click. Along with this, company is also focused on creating more web options so that people can access useful information easily anywhere with their devices. In order to achieve mission of the business, the organization can provide ‘open’ web benefits for all the users. For this manner, the company is focusing to implement new technologies so that the needs and requirements of the customers can be fulfilled in effective manner. Those technologies can be related to images, maps, advertisement, text and videos etc. As discussed earlier, Google innovation management is operating its business on 70:20:10 principal as the company is using its 20% employees in generating new and innovative business ideas for the growth and success in operating market. For example, Google diversified its business in TV and mobile segment after getting innovative ideas where people are able to access Google online anywhere. This is the most advanced facility given by the Google in which people are able to use Android applications in their Smartphone (Thompson, 2019).

In order to achieve goals under its vision and mission statements, Google innovation management is also focused on implementing some new changes in Smartphone. Developers are asked to develop more applications in android phones so that more effective services can be provided to the customers. By installing Google application in the mobile phones, company is trying to offer easy access to the users on one click. All these activities are beneficial for the organization to fulfill the goals and objectives of mission and vision in effective manner.

Analytical tools
There are various factors in the organization affecting change and innovative management ideas. It is crucial to identify such factors while implementing change and Google innovation management ideas in the business operations. In case of Google innovation management, those factors are team working, shared vision, organizational culture, leadership, creative environment and training and development (Goller and Bessant, 2017). The discussion on these factors is given below:

Organizational structure- In the company, there is hierarchical structure in which employees complete the roles and responsibilities assigned by their managers or leaders. Managers in this structure are responsible to motivate the employees so that they can achieve the set goals and objectives in business.

Shared vision and leadership- Based on shared vision and leadership styles, the organization is able to implement strategies to achieve success in future. Employees need to focus on the future objectives and suggest innovative and new ideas to attain those objectives in significant manner.

Training and development- Both are different activities but they are interrelated with each other. By providing proper training to the employees, they can develop their skills and knowledge to perform their roles and responsibilities in effective manner. Training is helpful to implement new and creative ideas in the business process so that beneficial outputs can be achieved in future.

Creative environment- The success of change and innovative management ideas depends upon the creative environment of the organization. Basically, creative environment involves employees to generate and share new and innovative business ideas to achieve competitive advantage in the market. Along with this, such environment prepares the employees to face challenges and perform better in their job roles.

In order to identify potential creative and Google innovation management ideas, SWOT analysis is used as analytical tool. This tool is helpful in analyzing current stage of Google along with requirements for future. SWOT analysis of Google innovation management is done below:

Risk and benefits
In creative and innovative process, there can be some risks and benefits due to which the company plan and implement some effective strategies to achieve growth and success. In case of Google innovation management, it is important for the company to convert its risks into benefits to stay competitive in the market. There can be some risks in the organization due to lack of ownership, divergence of objectives and unavailability of information and content.

In case of Google innovation management, it is not easy to identify the potential risks in any new idea or technology at the initial level. The company has diversified its business into various segments like search engine and advertisements. Along with this, the company has done partnership with other players like YouTube to show video content to the users. If the content is not appropriate as per the specific country’s culture then it would create the risk of inappropriate content for the company. Along with this, Google has to face political and legal issues in some countries which affect the brand image of the company in market. Further, excess use of internet can also be the cause of copy right or video privacy issue for the company (Goffin and Mitchell, 2016).

Change models to support implementation
Due to various business operations, Google implements various change models to achieve the goals and objectives. In order to support the implementation of creative and Google innovation management ideas, IDEAL model of change is suggested so that CIM ideas can be implemented by Google in proper manner. The model includes some factors like initiation, diagnosis, establishing, acting, and learning.

Initiation- Google innovation management has taken initiatives in business and created Google earth and Google maps by which the users can access the desired location in all over the world. The company has developed this application by doing partnership with CIA. Along with this, the company has also added some more features so that internal floor plans of airports and shopping malls can also be seen. Users having android applications on their phone can be able to see their current location.

Diagnosis- It is explained earlier that the company is spending its 20% of time in developing creative and innovative ideas. Under this approach, CEO of the company is also involved in conducting meetings with the employees so that they can share their innovative ideas for the success and growth of the business. This practice is helpful for the company to identify beneficial products and innovative ideas for business.

Establishing- Google innovation management has focused on establishing various research and development centers in different countries like Canada, India, US, Russia, Europe Japan etc. Research and development department is accountable in distributing work and new projects to stay competitive in the market.

Acting- Company is focused on development of products and services innovatively. For instance, Google started its new application i.e. Google + to give tough competition to Facebook. The application offers a social media platform to users so that they can share their personal and social life with others. Along with this, the company is also focused on the development of android application to make the things easier for the users. Collaboration with other mobile companies is also beneficial for Google to provide effective service to the users.

Learning- Google learning academy is started by the company so that effective training and development sessions can be given to the employees. This learning center helps employees to perform their job roles and responsibilities in effective manner. Along with this, Google has also started its learning program i.e. Google certified teachers to offer educational services (Iftakhar, 2016).

Rationale to persuade stakeholders
In a business organization, stakeholders are people who interest in the profit and growth of the business. Basically, they participate in the decision making process of the business to ensure success in competitive market. Stakeholders of the organization include employees, customers, shareholders and local communities. With variations in power and interests, stakeholders also have important role in decision and innovation process of the business (Zhang, Zhao and Xu, 2016). There are some components by which the Google innovation management can be connected with stakeholders in business.

With new and innovative ideas in the business process, Google innovation management is focused on launching new products so that effective services can be provided the customers. In this manner, Google tablets, Chrome OS, and Google voice are innovative ideas that would be launched for the customers.

Reason and logic
In case of Google innovation management, the company has to manage with strong competition in the market while launching new products. In order to implement new and innovative ideas, CEO of the company sets free to the employees so that they come up with something unique in the business. Along with this, company has also implemented some effective plans for the stakeholders to keep them aware about new business strategies (Ortiz-Villajos and Sotoca, 2018). In case of employees, the company offers perks and benefits to keep them motivated. In the organization, each and every stakeholder has opportunity to get returns on their investments. By continuous meetings and collaborations, the company is able to involve key stakeholders in the decision making process of the business.

Communicate a creative and innovative management idea
It is very important for the company to communicate with the stakeholders to make them aware about big changes in the business operations. Along with this, communication is also crucial to provide accurate information and regular updates to the stakeholders (Lekovi?, Strugar Jela?a and Mari?, 2019). In case of Google innovation management, there are many ways by which the company can establish corporate communications with its key stakeholders. Having various departments, the company is required to communicate with the stakeholders on the regular basis. It is clear that Google has open communication approach with the stakeholders but there is the need to implement some effective strategies to communicate with the stakeholders in effective manner. Those activities are discussed below:

 The objective of Google innovation management is to provide useful content and information to the users on one click. In order to achieve the objectives, the company is focused on providing best solutions to the users. Along with this, policies to solve internet issues, new and innovative technologies, and unique mobile technologies are also implemented by the company. For providing effective services, Google is operating with 60 offices, 180 internet domains and 130 language options. The company is also focused on providing more satisfaction to its employees and customers in business operations.

Establish key goals and priorities
Based on the above discussion, it can be observed that there are some issues with stakeholders which should be managed by the company in effective manner. In the world of technology, main focus of Google innovation management is to give priorities to the employees and sustain lifespan of the product in the market. The company is facing tough competition from other players i.e. Microsoft, Apple, and Yahoo in the market in terms of creativity and innovation. So, it is important for Google to establish priorities and goals to implement creative and innovative ideas by using the feedbacks provided by stakeholders (Dolata, 2017). Some of the key goals on the basis of feedbacks are given below:

• Key goal of the company should be locating the centers at low cost where the consumption of electricity should be low. For instance, there should be the use of hydro power energy at the centers to save electricity. Along with this, company can also generate electricity from the sensible sources like coal produced electric power.
• Main objective of Google innovation management is to maintain huge amount of data on the points of servers to stay competitive in the market. There is the competition in the market to use of high computer technology so the better services can be provided to the customers and users. It is crucial for Google to have its own software to manage enormous data with the ease of use of various servers. It is also important for the company to manage various risks related to data management.
• Further, company should have objective to enhance the satisfaction level of employees so that it can positioned itself as democratic organization in the market. In this manner, company has to focus on the combination of work and innovation. Based on the stakeholder’s feedback, Google has to focus more on the employee centric approach of business (Krapivin, 2018).

Barriers to the implementation
There can be some barriers which affect the execution process of creative and innovative ideas negatively. In case of Google innovation management, it is very vital for the company to apply effective strategies to reduce the negative impacts of barriers. There are two categories of barriers i.e. internal and external barrier.

Internal barrier- These barriers can occur due to mismanagement of internal business operations. Due to internal barriers, there can be various problems related to creativity and innovation in the organization. Some of the internal barriers in the organization like long decision making process, high bureaucratic structure and culture, improper management of employees, overcome retention ratios, less transparency among employees and less willingness to take risks in the business etc.

External barriers- There are some barriers which are out of control for the organization. Some of those factors include political and legal risks, changed needs and requirements of the customers in market and environmental changes on regular basis. Due to these barriers, there can be various issues in the business process such as delays in the decision making process by employees and managers (Laasch and Conaway, 2017).

Barriers and strategies of Google
In case of Google innovation management, there are some barriers affecting the implementation of creative and innovative ideas in business. Those barriers are as follows:

Barrier of high competition- There is high competition in the technology market in terms of new and innovative products. Microsoft and Apple are key players in the market that create competitive environment for Google. This is the cause of barrier for Google while implementing new and innovative ideas to develop new products.

Changes in consumer’s needs- It is well known fact that the needs of consumers change frequently. In case of technology market, high speed lifestyle and high speed internet is required by the users so they want innovations in the products. This decreases the life cycle of products and create barrier for the company to sustain its existing products in the market (Tidd and Bessant, 2018).

There are some strategies like use of technology with research & development, proper management of leadership, and employee satisfaction used by Google to deal with these barriers. These strategies are helpful in managing various activities like data management, personal privacy and internet violation etc (Albors-Garrigos, Igartua and Peiro, 2018).

Strategy to overcome identified barriers
In order to overcome from barriers, Google innovation management needs to implement effective strategies and models. In this manner, change curve theory is a suitable model which can be used by Google to deal with the barriers.

Change curve theory
Internal and external, both types of barriers impact on the business process, vision and objectives in negative manner. There are some stages which must be implemented to deal with the barriers. Those stages are discussed below:

Stage 1- Employees should be prepared for the change process within the business at initial level.

Stage 2- Company should provide proper coaching and training to the employees who are not able to adapt changes. This would be helpful to motivate those employees towards change process.

Stage 3- Proper leadership plan should be implemented to lead the employees.

Stage 4- At this final stage, employees would be ready to adapt new and innovative changes in business. Leaders need to motivate to achieve the set goals of the organization (Hayes, 2018).

What is the role of strategy plan for overcoming barriers of Google innovation management?
There are some keys by which Google can overcome from barriers while implementing innovative changes.

Strategic leadership- By the effective leadership styles, company would be able to lead the employees for implementing effective changes. Based on different operations like IT, R&D, and innovation, leaders need to adopt different leadership style.

Organizational culture- More freedom must be given to the employees so that they can share their view points with management. Employee centric culture needs to be implemented for the implementation of new and innovative ideas.

Management skills- In different departments, people with diverse skills are required to implement the changes in business. Employees are backbone of the company and developing their skills would be beneficial for the business in future (Tippmann, Sharkey Scott and Parker, 2017). 

Communicate a strategy plan
Proposed communication strategy for Google innovation management is given below:

Conclusion
Based on the overall discussion, it is observed that companies are focusing on Google innovation management in order to operate their businesses and meet the needs and requirements of their potential customers in effective manner. Google is also focused on creating more web options so that people can access useful information easily anywhere with their devices. . In the world of technology, main focus of Google is to give importance to the employees and maintain sustainability of the product in the market. In order to achieve the objectives, the company is focused on providing best solutions to the users. Along with this, policies to solve internet issues, new and innovative technologies, and unique mobile technologies are also implemented by the company.

Recommendations on Google innovation management - In order tom implement CIM ideas, the company should think about more activities to engage the employees in the process. The company should focus on the feedbacks given by employees while creating any new product. Further, creative environment should be created for achieve the goals of business. Leaders or coaches should be hired for employees who can encourage, support, and advise them where required.

References
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