Weekly Review
This site contains Sekyewa's weekly study work for the Innovation and Enterprise Module. It is a demonstration of
the work I am covering in this module and showing my proficiency and ability to analyse, interpret, communicate
and solve a given problem. All the materials on this site is my own university work. It is part of the requirements
for the Innovation and Enterprise Module on BEng Computer Systems and network program.
INNOVATION AND ENTERPRISE
Module leader: James Barnham
Week 1
Introduction to the Module presentation
Innovation
Definition:
Creating and exploiting opportunities for new ways of doing things resulting in better products and services,
systems and ways of managing people and organisations (NCEE).
Innovation is one of the key function of most enterprising organisation, constant pursuing of new ways of how to
do business, improving products and services.
I have watched a video about how to set up a strategic innovative partnership with another business, one of the
efficient ways of saving money while remaining competitive. A youtube video by Talk Talk chief executive talking
about their strategic innovative collaboration with Huawei.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tatcXZX8lDE
I have also watched Abraham Hicks Video about what it means to be innovative.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcMWN9nSVTs
Importance of Innovation to a business
Innovation is one of the core competencies of any organisation operating in today's competitive market place.
Its ability to successfully manage adaptation, change and innovation. In today's competitive market place,
organisations are constantly faced by a need to alter their systems following external developments. and this
change is very essence of business growth (and is) inevitable and unavoidable (Clark, 1994). Organizational
competence to effectively manage the innovation and change of its systems is a skill that does not become
obsolete over time, but instead grows in importance for organizational
success.
Enterprise
Definition:
Enterprise focuses upon the development of the enterprising person and mindset through a demonstration of
enterprising skills, behaviours and attitudes across a diversity of contexts.
It focuses on creating entrepreneurial ways of doing, thinking, feeling, communicating organizing and learning.
Also an enterprising person may be defined as some one who sets up and run a project (Johnson 1983, Caird and
Johnson 1988). This definition indicates the psychological characteristics of entrepreneurs and enterprising people
may be identical, the only difference being the entrepreneur's specific association with the business enterprise.
Entrepreneurship
Focuses upon the application of enterprising skills and the entrepreneurial mindset in setting up a new venture,
developing /growing an existing venture or designing an entrepreneurial organisations.
Much entrepreneurship in the modern world is carried out by employees within the confiÂŽnes of established
corporations or other organizations. Clearly the potential entrepreneur must in some sense be motivated to
establish an enterprise. http://0-web.b.ebscohost.com.lispac.lsbu.ac.uk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=a6fb2491-5955-42c4-b535-b6993d10e8d7%40sessionmgr113&hid=102
Class Tasks:
Can any one name any businesses that are innovative or enterprising?
Answer:
- Apple
- Toyota car maker
- Sum-sung electronics etc.
What makes them so?
Its because they constantly search for new products ideas and services to introduce on the market.
They aspire to be creative, to be the first one to come up with new ideas in the competitive market place.
To find cost efficient ways of doing business.
Why do they do this?
- It is because the want to stand out and out compete rival companies.
- They also do it to find new ways of doing business.
- To discover new products and services to offer their customers.
Does anyone know of any companies/businesses which are not innovative or enterprising?
Answer:
- Some Energy companies
How do you think businesses stay competitive?
Answer:
- By Being creative.
- By Nurturing research and development through which they constantly search for new product ideas.
New products and service can enable a business stay a head of competition.
Why not keep doing the same thing year after year?
The market for these businesses is highly competitive, in order to stand out they must offer quality unique products and services. This can only be achieved through being innovative.
So why am I studying innovation and enterprise?
- The most obvious answer is to learn ways of how business can stay ahead of competition.
- To learn new ways of generating products and service ideas.
- To learn how to nurture creativity.
WEEK 2
Team work and Belbin Group roles
Belbin Team Roles theory is used in organisations to identify people's behavioural strengths and weaknesses. It is aimed at
allocating people tasks within their area of strength.
It is assumed that people are more effective if given tasks within their skill set strength, they deliver to their maximum potential.
Working in groups on a project involves sharing resources and learned values in order to accomplish a given task.
For any group project to succeed, it has to combine these critical factors. Also for a group to be effective, each member has to
respect the differences within the group.Group Dynamics For Teams, 2011, 3rd Edition, Daniel Levi, pg 214-215
PLAN
Team formation and completing Belbin inventory forms
We have created a team of four people and our team name is 3C. Every team member in our group has filled in Belbin inventory forms and we
have identified each individual's skill set.
It is on the basis of each team member's skill set that tasks will be allocated once a project has been agreed. Our project team program is in
the group project section on this site.
Our project approach
In this project we have adapted innowiz four steps approach in order to kick start our creativity process and from this we will
find and select our project
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problem definition (defining the task to be carried out, identifying search areas)
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idea generation (use of different techniques i.e. Brainstorming, Mind Mapping, etc.) This is in week 2 & 3,
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idea selection (Week 4, Selection of an idea from the great pile to focus on).
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idea communication (Group discussion about the decided idea)
Organising Meetings
The physical or virtual setting where meetings takes place can also have a significant impact on collaborations. The setting
should reflect the values of the organisation and the goals of the team, and it should be conducive to effective and balanced
communication. Working In Teams, Moving From High Potential to High Performance, (2015), By Brian A. Griffith and Ethan B. Dunham, p13, available at: https://books.google.co.uk/booksid=IFAXBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Our team has come up with a strategy on how often we should meet in person and through collaboration on drop box.
The group has also agreed on where to hold meetings and the mode of communication.
In addition we have set up a drop box were we aim to exchange idea on a regular basis.
We will also keep minutes of our regular meetings.
Finding overall area for group discussion
Selecting a single idea from all the generated can be complex in most cases and requires the consensus of all team members.
According to Daniel Levi, Group Dynamics For Teams, 2011, 3rd Edition, pg 214-215, "the main problem with creativity
activities such as brainstorming is that they generate many possible options and no easy way of selecting the best one.
One approach to this is multiple voting (Scholtes, 1994).
Our project group has agreed to select an area for discussion In week 4.
Common problems with teams
While teams can have tremendous potential to accomplish a task well beyond the reach of any single individual, they are not
without problems, as a matter of fact, working in teams can be quiet frustrating.
There are five common problems that people experience while working in teams:
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Lack of commitment
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Productivity loses (resulting in poor structure and lack of planning)
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Poor communication
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Interpersonal conflicts
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Poor leadersh
Conditions for Team success
Draskat and Wolf (2001), identified three essential conditions for a team to succeed:
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Trust among members
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A sense of group Identity
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A sense of group efficacy
Working In Teams, Moving From High Potential to High Performance, (2015), By Brian A. Griffith and Ethan B.
Dunham, p6, available at:
Introduction to innowiz.be site
This site contains information about innovation process. Innowiz thinks of innovation as the result of a creative process.
You make reaching innovation and solving your problem more transparent by using easy four-step-method. The Innowiz
method is a cyclic step-by-step procedure you can use to fulfill every challenging project, both for private use and for professional use.
Innowiz combines the four-step-method with a wide range of inspirational techniques. This gives you the opportunity to tackle
any challenges most efficiently. http://innowiz.be
WEEK 3
creativity
Creativity is the process of crating something, developing originality, introducing novelty, using brain power to do something
new. In other words creativity is open to all who are prepared to experiment in thinking, "out of the box" to produce new, novel
or original ideas and solutions (Goodman 1995). http://0-lib.myilibrary.com.lispac.lsbu.ac.uk/Open.aspx?id=485288
Defining problems from the chosen areas
Our Plan
Following the group formation in week 2, our planed approach to the project is to follow the double diamond where each week
is assigned a different task. Below are the break down of the weekly tasks:
week 2 (group formation and starting to search for problem areas)
This week we have formed our group (3C), it consists of four team members. As stated above in week 2, we have all filled in
the Belbin forms to discover each members strength and weaknesses and we will use this to allocate tasks.
This week we have started the creativity process by defining exactly what we aim to do and how to achieve it. The
first step is generating as many problem ideas as possible using various tools such as: Brainstorming, Mind Mapping etc.
week 3 (Widening the search areas, generating more problem ideas)
Following the innowiz methodology, this week we have adapted the yellow process generating as many ideas as possible.http://innowiz.be/method.html These ideas will be looked at in greater depth in week 4.
We have also widen the search areas to try and look at other options which we had not considered first. Our target is to
generate problem ideas in excess of 50 problems. To achieve this we are using a few idea generating tools such as reverse
brainstorming http://innowizonlinetool.blogspot.be/2015/04/2-i-reverse-brainstorming.html, mind Map etc. http://innowizonlinetool.blogspot.be/2015/04/1-i-mindmap.html
week 4 (Assessing the search problems, defining and choosing which problem to focus on)
In this week we have adapted the innowiz blue process, evaluating and screening project ideas, starting to make a selection
narrowing a bit of the diamond aiming to focus on a few and exploring them more in depth.
At this stage the ideas are evaluated and those that do not meet certain criteria are rejected. Our aim is to ensure that all
proposed ideas are considered for portfolio fit. In addition, in order to increase the chances of success, all ideas generated
for projects need to be evaluated on four parameters:
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Linkage with organizational importance
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Feasibility of execution
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Organizational buy-in
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Organizational benefit
Week 5 (Creative search of many ideas to solve the chosen problem)
Following week 4's screening and scaling down of ideas, this week we have focused on evaluating the few left and selecting
the one that meet the project team's criteria. In a real world scenario project proposals are evaluated in relation to the
organization’s critical parameters, ongoing projects and project proposals. Interactions between projects, resource constraints
and balance strategic alignment of the whole portfolio are considered.http://www.isixsigma.com/implementation/project-selection-tracking/select-projects-using-evaluation-and-decision-tools/
Week 6 (Accessing the suggested ideas and choosing the best solution)
Week 7 (Development of the solution and it could be commercialised, preparing, rehersing the presentation)
Week 8 (Presentation)