International and Cross-Sector Collaborations in Innovation Management

It has been a common issue when people confuse 'Creativity' with 'Innovation' as there is a fine line between them. This quote by Mr Theodore clearly elucidates that creativity is just an engine behind innovation, whereas innovation happens when creative ideation and practicality are combined. Considering this, the concept of Innovation Management has been quite an active technique amongst corporates and organizations, especially during and post-pandemic.

Innovation management is described as managing new ideas from conception to action and then fabricating them into reality. Leading IT company Accenture's study stated that over 90% of executives believe innovation is key to a successful business. Managing innovation involves decentralizing several executive levels in the organization and pooling ideation to bring a more sustainable and creative approach to services and products. Figures have enlightened the expected growth of USD 1 billion in 2021� to USD 1.7 billion by 2026 for the global innovation management market at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.2% during the interval. Increasing adoption of innovation management techniques has also given rise to support services, including- consultancy, system integration, maintenance, etc. No doubt, big giants like- Google, General Electric (GE), Procter & Gamble (P&G), etc., have carved their productivity around skills of innovations and ideations, which are carefully practised by every member of the organization. From making employees dedicate 5-10% of their work time towards developing innovations to setting up research and development laboratories operating for the future growth of the company, applications and advancements like- Google Adsense, Gmail, Sustainable Energy, Aviation facilities, etc., have been outputs of these behemoths.

Being a healthy practice that aims to upgrade business operations, enhance the products and services, and most importantly, solidify the business model for future times, innovation management can be incorporated through efforts and basic practices. These involve- inclusivity which makes sure crowdsourcing of innovative ideas; pulling in stakeholders by expressing the importance their ideas carry; collocating awareness campaigns to generate interest in the network; transparency for social collaboration, where members engage, think, and set a base for innovations; and finally, rewards & recognitions for acknowledgement and morale of people working on innovations.

In today's scenario, to create and sustain their leadership in this dynamic field, businesses expand through inventive approaches, notably interdisciplinary collaborations in both core and non-core sectors of the industry, internationally to reach a global competency. Through joint innovation research, promising results have been incorporated into their production, enabling more sustainable & newfangled convergence at both the business and sectoral levels. Examples like- Collaborative Currency Exchanges, Intelligent use of Energy consumption data, Collaboration to improve driving experiences, & many more show how greatly unconventional or clearly-levelled fields of business come together to innovate for the better. As a result, the global innovation markets are expanding rapidly for good.

To know more about the topic, stay tuned for Global Talk Series on August 31, 2022.