Innovation Assignment: Sustainable Creative Strategies Of GKN Aerospace
Question
Task:
You are required to produce an innovation assignment which explores both the macro, general area of creative enterprise and innovation within the business landscape, and also a micro look at a real-live case study.
Your report should outline the following points:
- An outline of the main theories and areas for consideration in ‘what and why’ organisations should foster a sustainable creative and innovative strategy to sustain competitive advantage, using relevant examples.
- An account of the management and leadership skills required to drive an organisational culture of enterprise and innovation;
- A reflection of the characteristics required to develop an individual entrepreneurial/intrapreneurial creative/innovative mindset;
- An account of your chosen organisation/entrepreneur including information about the company, their purpose and industry area;
- An outline of the key points from the interview you had with the organisation/entrepreneur and the key critical areas that impacted creative enterprise and innovation that were uncovered and then further researched by your group (positive and negative points);
- To provide recommendations and rationales to the organisation/entrepreneur around harnessing an enterprise and innovation culture to ensure continued success.
Answer
‘What and why’ organizations should foster a sustainable creative and innovative strategy to sustain competitive advantage
The current innovation assignment is based on the creativity and innovation that are considered as an integral part of any company or organization. The prevalence of appropriate creativity and innovation will help an organization to reach heights of productivity and success. Nowadays, the environment of the market is highly competitive. Creativity and innovation not only helps an organization or a company to sustain but also plays a vital role in achieving higher productivity. Innovation is a process of using different ideas and converting these ideas into useful products or services. Creativity helps an organization in order to develop new ideas or concepts. In a successful company or an organization, Creativity and innovation always go hand in hand. An organization must value the process of creativity and innovation in order to achieve regular growth and sustain competitive advantages (Castañer, 2017). This assignment is about the creativity and innovation strategies of an organization called GKN Aerospace. GKN Aerospace is an aerospace innovator organization. It deals in providing solutions and supports for various aircraft technologies (GKN, 2021). There are different theories that reflect the strategies of this organization to sustain competitive advantage.
Disruptive innovation theory presents the situation wherein a market big companies markets gets disrupted or disturbed by a comparatively smaller company. This theory states that sometimes small companies innovate certain ideas which appeal to more end users. These small companies develop the same quality of services as the big companies but they introduce their products or service at a competitive price to attract users. According to market research, a new start-up or an organization adapts the process of disruptive innovation. This helps to create a revolutionary environment in the market (Gupta, 2018). Aggressive pricing of the goods and service helps an organization to come into the limelight. For example, Xiaomi introduces their mobile phones with the same or sometimes higher specification as compared to other big companies like Samsung and apple. The quality of the product might not be as same as of Samsung or Apple but the prices introduced by them attract the consumer base which is looking for more features at low prices. Disruptive Innovation always doesn’t mean creating low-quality products but it also aims to create an identification and consumer base in the market. Often the aim of these new or small companies is not to give competition but to encash the consumer base which is not touched or served by big companies (Mauro et al., 2020). GKN Aerospace deals in different aircraft engine technologies and parts; with their innovative and creative process they keep on exploring methods to make lightweight aircraft parts.
The Innovation theory of profit was developed by Joseph A. Schumpeter. This theory states that by introducing various successful innovations an entrepreneur can earn economic profits. As the name itself suggest, the Innovation theory of profit reflects that the primary duty of an entrepreneur is to introduce and apply new innovations to the business. The profit gained by the organization is the reward for the performance given by the entrepreneur. Schumpeter considers innovation as a new policy for the business which helps a business to cut down on the cost of production or increase the demand for its product or services offered. This theory is further divided into two different categories. The first category includes all the business practices which reduce the cost of production of a product or services. An organization can do cost deduction by introducing new techniques of production, new machinery system for the production of goods etc. The second category of the theory speaks about the activities which result in increasing demand for the product or services offered by an organization. Increasing demand for a product helps an organization to make profit and grow rapidly. For example, many companies introduce new and unique products, attractive discounts and offer etc. In the scenario of GKN Aerospace, the organization focuses on introducing intelligent and efficient technologies like, lightweight aerostructures, smart engine systems, landing gears, etc. All these modern techniques made GKN Aerospace a tier-one supplier of aircraft parts and aftermarket services (GKN, 2021). With the help of Schumpeter’s theory of profit an organization or an entrepreneur not only increase the product but also establish the name and reputation of the company (Bhattacharya, 2016).
The Four C model of creativity is one of the prominent theories of creativity. In this model, four different levels of creativity have been identified by Dr James C Kaufman and Dr Ronald Baghetto. The four C model of creativity includes four different levels of creativity namely Mini C level of creativity, little C level of creativity, Pro-C level of creativity and Big-C level of creativity. The Mini C level of creativity states that creativity is inherent in nature. If an employee of an organization or company is doing any task, the involvement of creativity will be always there. On this level, creativity might not be on a large scale or revolutionary but the prevalence is there. Creativity at this level can generate ideas and bring something new and innovative for the organization (Khalili, 2016).
Little C level of creativity is a step ahead of Mini C- level creativity, the idea which came into Mini C level goes ahead with feedbacks, improvements and modifications in the particular idea and innovation to make it useful for the organization. The Pro C level of creativity represents that now with profound experience and intelligence an employee has the ability to be creative at a professional level. The ideas will be more progressive and mature as compared to the little C level. The Big C level of creativity includes the people who will be in history. Their contribution to the organization or company will always be remembered. The employees at the Big C level have achieved success and growth for themselves and for the organization. They are great contributors to the organization. Not only this, they are like the inspiration for the other employees of the company for example, Scientist (Satchell, 2018). GKN Aerospace has a very structured and supportive approach towards the employees, they believe in motivating their employees to use their skills and innovative capabilities to develop new solution and trends.
These theories reflect that for an Organization Innovation and Creativity works as the most valuable assets. The success of any company or organization depends on how much value is given to the new innovative and creative ideas. Innovation and creativity also help a business to develop itself with changing trends.
Skills required to drive an organizational culture/mindset of enterprise and innovation
In an organizational culture of enterprise and innovation, the role of a leader is very significant. Leaders have great and long-term visions for the organization. They also influence other employees to bring new ideas and use their creativity while working. As the market keeps on changing, there are new trends and environment which gets introduced time to time. A leader should have competitive skills to face all these challenges and maintain the culture of the organization. Various skills help to drive an organizational culture of enterprise and innovation (Standing et al., 2016).
- Management of Risk
Each and every organization faces the risks regularly. The introduction of new ideas and innovation not only brings the hope of growth but also brings in various risk. A leader should understand the new innovations properly and determine the risk involved in the process. Sometimes organization introduces new policies which might have higher chances of growth and also involves certain risk. In this scenario, an innovation leader should tackle the innovation and minimize the risk (Custódio et al., 2019)
- Identifying Opportunity
As the market is full of opportunities, innovation leader of an organization constantly seeking out the new opportunities which help their organization to grow.
- Ideas generation
A leader in an entrepreneurial culture keeps on generating new ideas or techniques. A good innovation leader also influences other employees to be innovative and creative. This process helps an organization to develop new ideas and introduce new innovations. An innovative leader always encourages employees to think for improvement of their products and services. The leader takes the idea generation process to a whole new level with collaboration and team efforts. This process always motivate the employee and they always feel like part of the organization (Meissner and Shmatko, 2019)
- Strategic perspective
Strong strategies in organizational culture are very important. An innovation leader always keeps business strategy strong. This skill helps a leader to involve the strategies in the process of innovation. Innovation leader must create strategies to achieve the desired goals. These strategies need to flexible in nature so that according to trend and market they can change to achieve success and growth of the organization.
- Executing the action
All these skills need proper action. A leader should always be action-oriented. The leader should access innovation and tell the importance and role of that innovation to the team. A leader should tell the team what is expected from them and how they can achieve it. As innovation cannot come from a single mind or a person, The leader should be open to all the doubts and feedbacks (Doran et al., 2020)
Therefore, all these skills and qualities are needed in an innovation leader to maintain the innovation process of an organization. GKN Aerospace has a global team of skilful employees. They believe that there is power in individuals but the great power is in the team (GKN, 2021).
Following are the few general skills that are needed to drive an entrepreneurial organizational culture.
- Leadership
Leadership is the first and the most important soft skill of an organization. The leader must lead the team or other employees in a way that benefits the organization. A leader should be encouraging and inspiring towards other employees. When in an organization a good leader leads a team, employee’s performance will be good, productivity will also go higher and the organization will be able to reach heights of success (Asbari et al., 2020)
- Teamwork
Teamwork is also a very important aspect of an organization. An organization consists of various departments and teams. The job and duties of these team members might be different but their main aim should always be towards the organization (Proctor, 2018)
- Communication
Communication is one of the most important soft skills for an organization. It is not only an organizational skill but also an essential life skill. Clear and proper communication among the team members and leaders is very important. An organization consists of employees at various hierarchy levels. So a chain of strong and smooth communication is always needed to maintain a good connection among the employees.
All these management and leadership skills and qualities play a vital role in sustaining the competitive advantage of an enterprising and innovative organization.
References
Asbari, M., Purwanto, A., Ong, F., Mustikasiwi, A., Maesaroh, S., Mustofa, M., Hutagalung, D. and Andriyani, Y., 2020. Impact of Hard Skills, Soft Skills and Organizational Culture:
Lecturer Innovation Competencies As Mediating. EduPsyCouns: Journal of Education, Psychology and Counseling, 2(1), pp.101-121.
Bhattacharya, A., 2016. Reinterpreting Innovation and Innovation Measurement-A Theoretical Framework for Innovation in Organisations. Journal of Organisation and Human Behaviour, 5(4), p.47.
Castañer, X., 2017. Redefining creativity and innovation in organisations: suggestions for redirecting research. In The Role of Creativity in the Management of Innovation: State of the Art and Future Research Outlook (pp. 49-71).
Custódio, C., Ferreira, M.A. and Matos, P., 2019. Do general managerial skills spur innovation?. Management Science, 65(2), pp.459-476.
Doran, J., Ryan, G., Bourke, J. and Crowley, F., 2020. In-house or outsourcing skills: how best to manage for innovation?. International Journal of Innovation Management, 24(01), p.2050010.
GKN. 2021. About GKN Aerospace | GKN Aerospace. [online] Available at:
GKN. 2021. GKN Aerospace | Making Things Fly. [online] Available at:
Gupta, M., 2018. The innovation process from an idea to a final product: a review of the literature. International Journal of Comparative Management, 1(4), pp.400-421.
Khalili, A., 2016. Linking transformational leadership, creativity, innovation, and innovation-supportive climate. Management Decision.
Mauro, T.G. and Borges-Andrade, J.E., 2020. Human resource system as innovation for organisations. Innovation & Management Review.
Meissner, D. and Shmatko, N., 2019. Integrating professional and academic knowledge: the link between researchers skills and innovation culture. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 44(4), pp.1273-1289.
Proctor, T., 2018. Creative problem solving for managers: developing skills for decision making and innovation. Routledge.
Satchell, P., 2018. Innovation and automation. Routledge.
Standing, C., Jackson, D., Larsen, A.C., Suseno, Y., Fulford, R. and Gengatharen, D., 2016. Enhancing individual innovation in organisations: A review of the literature. International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 19(1), pp.44-62.
