Technology, Innovation, and Change

Technology, Innovation, and Change

Technology and Innovation

Technology is the systematic application of scientific knowledge to a new product, process, or service. Innovation is a positive, useful departure from previous ways of doing things.

Three fundamental types of innovation:

• Product innovation — new goods and services (e.g., foldable phones)
• Process innovation — new ways of producing (e.g., robotic surgery)
• Business model innovation — new ways of creating value (e.g., AI chatbots)

The Technology Life Cycle

Technologies follow a life cycle from emergence to maturity. An innovation spreads quickly when it has a great advantage over predecessors, is compatible with existing systems, has less complexity, can be tested easily, and can be observed and copied.

Disruptive innovation takes root in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then moves up, eventually displacing established competitors.

Technology Leadership vs Followership

Technology leaders are first to adopt innovations — they gain first-mover advantages but face high costs and risk. Technology followers save development expense and learn from leaders' mistakes.

Managing Technology

A technology audit clarifies the key technologies an organisation depends on, categorised as: Emerging, Pacing, Key, and Base technologies.

Key technology roles in organisations:

• Technical innovator — develops or operates the technology
• Product champion — promotes the new technology across the organisation
• Executive champion — supports and protects the product champion

Design thinking is a human-centred approach to problem solving based on nonlinear iterations of inspiration, ideation, and implementation.

Creating and Leading Change

World-class organisations continuously change, have strong core values, are driven by stretch goals, and focus on beating themselves rather than just competitors.

Resistance to change arises from: inertia, timing, surprise, peer pressure, self-interest, misunderstanding, different assessments, and management tactics.

Lewin's change model involves three stages:

1. Unfreezing — realising current practices are no longer appropriate
2. Moving — instituting the change (force-field analysis)
3. Refreezing — reinforcing and supporting the new behaviours

Strategies for enlisting cooperation: education and communication, participation and involvement, facilitation and support, negotiation and rewards.

Two types of change:

• Reactive change — response to pressure; problem-driven
• Proactive change — initiated before a performance gap occurs

The Genius of the And describes how great organisations achieve multiple objectives simultaneously rather than choosing between them (e.g., stability and change; short-term results and long-term investment).