Everyday innovation report - Nesta

12
9. West, M.A. and Farr,
J.L. (1990) ‘Innovation
and Creativity at Work:
Psychological and
Organizational Strategies.’
Oxford: John Wiley & Sons.
Part 2: Innovative working and the impact of recession
2.1 Defining innovation
West and Farr 9 emphasised the positive nature
of innovation; “… the intentional introduction
and application within a role, group or
organisation of ideas, processes, products
or procedures, new to the relevant unit of
adoption, designed to significantly benefit
the individual, the group, the organisation or
wider society” (p.9). In this report, we adopt
NESTA’s definition of innovation as “change
associated with the creation and adaptation of
ideas that are new-to-world, new to nation/
region, new-to-industry or new-to-firm”. This is
an intentionally broad definition of innovation,
which goes beyond the traditional view of
innovation often restricted to technological and
product development or R&D environments.
The NESTA definition encompasses all sectors
and includes new services, business models
and processes. Su Maddock, Director of the
Whitehall Innovation Hub, supports the view
that “innovation is about relationships, not
product… the labelling of innovation as
innovation of products is not helpful as it
misses out a whole stream of people”.
Most of our interviewees suggest that the term
‘innovation’ is not helpful as it is interpreted
differently in different organisations. Our
results showed that organisations that clearly
articulate what is meant by ‘innovative
working’ are more likely to be successful
in their attempt to encourage innovative
behaviours. For the purposes of this report,
we refer to innovative working and innovative
behaviours. We acknowledge that innovation
is a process comprising aspects of idea
generation and idea implementation and that
many different people resources are required.
Our literature review examines issues regarding
definitions in more detail.
2.2 Innovative working will be
reinforced in the current economic
climate
History shows that crises often spur innovation.
The propensity to innovate is one of the few
ways an organisation can respond proactively
to a fiercely competitive marketplace. Our
interviews confirm that the majority of
organisations, in all sectors, ranging from
small enterprises through to international
conglomerates are now taking innovation very
seriously. “Now more than ever, there is an
imperative to innovate. The priorities within
innovation have changed, with organisations
showing a greater focus on delivery of returns”
(Jon Bentley, Innovation Leader at IBM Global
Business Services).
This view is supported by our survey results,
where innovation remains a highly valued
imperative for organisations in the UK. The
vast majority of the 850 respondents to our
survey (78 per cent) reported that innovation
was ‘very’ or ‘extremely important’ to their
organisation’s agenda in terms of products,
processes or business models. Over half of
all respondents (58 per cent) indicated that
the importance of innovation had increased
over the past 12 months as a result of the
recession. Results show that respondents
believe the economic situation will promote
innovative working. For example, as shown in
Figure 1, around half of all respondents agreed
or strongly agreed that ‘team members will
become more co-operative’ and ‘individuals
will be given more freedom and opportunities
to innovate’. Furthermore, the majority
agreed or strongly agreed that the ‘focus on
innovation will be reinforced’ (70 per cent).
Given the current economic climate, this is a
surprisingly strong endorsement indicating that