The Jazzlink Organisation

It might seem strange to consider that strategic innovation in business is affected by the so called swine flu, but a little lateral thinking may just reveal how business ideas may not get off the ground. Successful business development relies on the free exchange of ideas and concepts that form the basis of new ideas.

Organisations who adopt strategic innovation as a means to improve their business performance rely on an injection into the thought process from consultants who are versed in innovation management, to spark off a cascade of thought that triggers new solutions to their problem.

Whilst innovation case studies are a boon when investigating and understanding a problem, the physical interaction between people brings a level of dynamism into play. Consider now, the prospect of a key employee being stranded in a foreign country. Not an impossible scenario, but becoming more probable by the day. If strategic innovation were to rely on key members of staff, and if also, a simple airport health check were to throw the person into quarantine, then suddenly the organisation has contracted its own dose of the flu.

Especially in innovation technology, innovation is the key to forward movement, on factor that can be affected by widespread swine flu.

New ideas in innovation are difficult to get off the ground as Stephen Wolfram found when trying to raise awareness for new business ideas targeting the web browsing experience.

New ideas may seem easy in the mind of the inventor, but often investors are not as convinced by new ideas if there is no apparent commercial strategic innovation advantage.

There is no doubt that it’s launch today shows innovation technology innovation at the boundaries, because the implementation does not perform exactly to plan. It may by that this isn’t a failure in innovation management, more a strategic to inform the inventor and investor how best to launch into the market.

At The Jazzlink Organisation, we are certain that Wolfram Alpha is destined for greater things, but there are no innovation case studies by which to measure it’s effectiveness in the niche market into which it is being delivered.

There is no doubt that the existing stable of Web Browsers has captured the imagination of the current generation of Internet users, and their view will be severely coloured by what they know now. As this new browsing experience matures, it will be the younger age group, and academic student who will be able to exploit it.

Information technology innovation has helped to provide the business ideas that have propelled the development of the Zero street machine. Batteries have always been a challenge for information technology innovation because their efficiency is challenged by factors such as heat dissipation. New ideas have emerged that have projected information technology innovation towards a better solution and with the Zero street machine it’s one step closer.

By carefully employing innovation case studies to monitor the progress of the development the Zero has enjoyed significant improvements. Innovation management has ensured that the range has ended up a respectable 60 miles between charges at a speed of 50 mph.

This has enabled it to meet the strategic innovation targets that were set for this unique machine but with a charging cycle of 4 hours careful planning is needed to ensure that the rider isn’t caught out.

The price is claimed to be around $10000 , which sets it above the level at which the average motorbike rider will engage, making it more of a niche product. In busy towns and cities the introduction of an electric motorbike with brisk performance and low pollution has got to be a good thing, and while the machine is stationary it doesn’t burn up any energy!

The University of Liverpool, as a member of the Russell group, have conducted innovation case studies on cloud formation as water condenses on a solid surface. Innovation case studies are a valuable way of judging and evaluating the progress of research as it is undertaken, and these new ideas, developed in conjunction with University College London and the Fritz-Haber Institut are the first step in understanding how clouds are formed.

Strategic innovation objectives in this research include understanding how the structures that are formed affect the weather, with an ultimate goal of being able to control how and when weather systems are generated.

Science and business ideas must come together, and in time these institutes will look for partners to deliver these research objectives. Further innovation case studies will follow so that the progress of the technology is continuously assessed.

Controlled by information technology, innovation generated materials could be used to seed clouds to influence rain and cloud density and provide a measure of control over weather patterns.

Using planned scientific effort innovation management and business acumen there is a real prospect of improving the environment through the intelligent use of scientific discovery.

Ever since the foot and mouth crisis in 2001 government business ideas have had some scientific input to support their strategic innovation direction. But business ideas have emanated from no more than a handful of advisers who could not have the extreme breadth of knowledge to generate the new ideas based on scientific fact that are needed to ensure that policy is supported by good science.

Whilst information technology innovation has been around in government circles for some time, innovation management has been lacking, mainly due to the small number of scientists and technologists in the halls of power.

Better business ideas can only be generated from sound science, and although beurocratic systems tend to stifle creative thinking some comfort can be gained from a series of innovation case studies which expand general knowledge. By attracting more technical experts into civil service the frail position that countries find themselves in when led by people from a legal and classical background can be addressed.

Add a pragmatic technical view to the face of government and just perhaps, some of the wackier proposals will be weeded out before billions of GDP are thrown down the pan.

new ideas need innovation management to make them work efficiently, because blue sky innovators lack the ability for strategic innovation. Innovation management provides a framework in which ideas can be incubated and nurtured into real money making business ideas.

Whilst we don’t need innovation case studies to tell us how efficient our car is running, we just don’t know how efficient the rest of our lives run. Despite energy performance certificates in the UK the figures don’t mean a lot to the average house owner. Whilst we can understand a weekly increase in car costs, the energy burn in a house doesn’t make such an impact.

By looking at information technology; innovation online initiatives could be put in place that encouraged the publication of housing efficiency, both within the country and in comparison with others. This would not drive a sea change in attitude in some circumstances, especially where the owner of an historic house is told that it just burns up gas.

Innovation management is the preferred strategy of The Jazzlink Organisation for mediating between these difficult courses of action. Will historic sites be condemned in the quest for leaner fuel burn, or is there a mid path that allows everything to co-exist?

A strategic innovation review is now vital for the newspaper industry to survive in the future. The newspaper industry was naive in its interpretation of the impact of information technology innovation on the Internet. The media pundits believed that established strategic innovation decisions would not be affected by the distribution of free news on the World Wide Web, but they have been proven wrong. The importance of new ideas is often difficult for big business to assess, because they are risk averse and find innovation management almost impossible to implement.

When a business idea starts to emerge, such as online news, commerce believed that it would have little impact and that their mainstream income through paper print would be unaffected. However, with more people turning to the convenience of the web, and the associated advertising revenue value set too low, the strategic innovation plan looks bleak.

Innovation case studies show that the impact of free news sites, such as the BBC, put a few organisations uniquely placed to exploit free news. Attempts by newspaper groups to introduce online subscriptions will be difficult for consumers to swallow when the information proliferates across the world.

New ideas come from the classroom upwards, an Innovation Nation whitepaper suggests, but that process is suppressed by the current education curriculum. New ideas form the basis of strategic innovation if countries are to position themselves as leaders in the exploitation of knowledge. The existing focus on testing in the classroom environment brings with it a generation of young people who have not been allowed the freedom to think independently. It’s this independence of thought that frees their mind to generate new ideas not least through information technology innovation.

In adult life it is believed that business ideas will follow, from which the host country will capitalise on their success. Innovation case studies demonstrate the gulf between regulated contemporary thinking and the creativity needed for success. Innovation management must not stifle this inspiration but understand and encourage it, especially since we are competing against emerging economies.

Governments are pivotal in this success, because unless the environment is provided in which innovation flourishes then their economies are tied to historic money streams. Since those traditional sources of income are more keenly competed for by developing countries there is little opportunity for nation states with high infrastructure and labour costs.

The use of information technology innovation by individuals and the enterprise is not a new concept, but when a government organisation announces a new strategic innovation plan we all start to sit up. By introducing information technology innovation is in danger of being channelled along a very singular road. After all new ideas can come from improved clinical procedures and external business ideas that improve the workplace.

In our last entry The Jazzlink Organisation reported on innovation case studies between businesses and academia, this new scheme seems to be an extension of the idea into the Health Service. Through academia it is supposed that information technology innovation will rescue the NHS by fusing Universities with front line health.

Whilst The Jazzlink Organisation applauds the injection of some £20M into the economy, it does give the proposal an incestuous feel. Shouldn’t there some room for the individual who works at the cutting edge of medicine to give their verdict on the environment they work in? Wouldn’t it be good innovation management to reward the staff for simple ideas that save the NHS money?

Have your say, and comment on this post about whether individual workers should be rewarded for their money saving innovations.

More news is revealed about the innovation vouchers that the UK government have announced. Innovation vouchers were heralded with the usual fanfare that we have come to expect with governments these days, but as the details come to light the deal becomes more clear.

There is no doubt that if you are a Small to medium sized (SME) operation, that you can go through the beurocratic hoops to get some money to help your business, however it appears to be tightly linked to Universities.

There is clearly nothing wrong with using innovation vouchers to tap into some of the finest academic brains in the world, but we at The Jazzlink Organisation wonder how far the voucher will get you.

An Innovation voucher is currently worth £3000, which is a sum worth having, but we do wonder how much of Academia’s effort it will buy?

Whilst The Jazzlink Organisation has no doubt that innovation talent lurks in the corridors of academic life, there has to be some level of circumspection over the practical application that Universities have in your enterprise’ problem.

If the finest minds were being applied then the scheme is no doubt worthwhile, but if academic leaders cut corners by using students, then the quality of the product has to be held in question.