Tony Morgan
Associate Professor in Innovation Management Practice at the University of Leeds
https://business.leeds.ac.uk/divisions-management/staff/869/tony-morgan
Location Yorkshire, UK.
Activity
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Tony Morgan made a comment
Welcome to Week 2 everyone. Please do keep adding your thoughts and comments.
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This is an interesting point Phil. Regulation can bring constraints. Equally, sometimes it can be a driver for innovation too. Here's an interesting HBR article on the topic: https://hbr.org/2017/06/innovating-in-a-highly-regulated-industry-like-health-care
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Tony Morgan made a comment
Welcome everyone to the course. We look forward to getting to know you through your introductions, discussions, questions and insights.
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Tony Morgan made a comment
We hope you found Week 1 useful and now would like to welcome you now to Week 2, where we cover very important topics, including one of my own favourites, Design Thinking.
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Hi Anne - From my own experience, some of the best ways of convincing people of the value of innovation so they engage include the following:
Start small - focus on achieving quick wins, so people see the value.
Get people involved throughout the process - so sometimes (or even often) it's their own ideas and innovations which are being progressed, rather... -
Hi Anne - This is an important point. We cover this later under the innovation enablers. These include leadership, people and culture, which are all very relevant to your post.
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Tony Morgan made a comment
Welcome to the course everyone. We love to read the introductions of people from different industries, countries and backkgrounds.
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Tony Morgan replied to Wymanette Castaneda
We're delighted with your engagement and hope you find the ICAF approach useful. Good luck with your business and your innovations!
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Hi Taufik - AI definitely provides opportunities as an enabling technology for disruptove innovation. It will be interesting to see how AI is used to drive disruption in a number of industries and also how disrupted organisations react to this.
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Tony Morgan replied to David Suguku
Hi David - I hope you enjoy the section on Design Thinking. It provides a great set of techniques, which in my experience we can supplement with other innovation and related tools and techniques from our bigger kitbag.
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Hi Mohammad - I think the section on this area will help to address your questions.
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Tony Morgan made a comment
Hi everyone and welcome to this online course. It is great to see your introductions and I look forward to engaging with you during the coming sections and sessions.
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Tony Morgan replied to Willyam Lukas
Thanks Willyam - We hope everyone takes something from the course. I always learn also from the great comments of the learners.
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Tony Morgan replied to Rady Albert Surio
Hi Rady - We're very glad you have benefitted from the course.
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Tony Morgan replied to Reinerio Alido
Hi Reinerio - Thank you. Your feedback is very much appreciated.
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Tony Morgan replied to Willyam Lukas
A very good reflection Willyam. Thank you.
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Tony Morgan replied to Leidy Bonilla Marin
Thank you Leidy.
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Tony Morgan replied to Francisco Bayona Ruiz
This is a really good point. For example, small organisations may not need an innovation team, but having some time to focus on developing and delivering innovation will be really useful.
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Tony Morgan replied to Leidy Bonilla Marin
This is a great reflection.
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Tony Morgan replied to Nigel Smith
Absolutely agree Nigel.
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Tony Morgan replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
Good point Annie!
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Tony Morgan made a comment
Welcome everyone. It's great to see people from so many different industries, countries and backgrounds.
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Hi Paul - Thanks for the comment. The idea here is wider than software development - for example the ability to undertake rapid prototype development, which could be something digital or physical. We'll consider your feedback and perhaps update the wording to clarify the wider meaning.
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Tony Morgan replied to Clement Elliott
Hi Clement - Every innovation and every project is different. Sometimes we may focus on incremental change, while at other times the target will be something much more transformational. Either way, it's very important to identify who the end users are, develop empathy for and understand them, whether they in mainstream categories, or extreme end users.
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Tony Morgan replied to Clement Elliott
Thank you Clement!
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Tony Morgan replied to Meriem Bertouche
Thank you for the feedback.
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Hi Hayat - I think these are excellent insights.
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Tony Morgan made a comment
A big welcome to everyone joining the course.
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Focus first on quick win items rather than large projects.
Once you have initial successes, positively communicate the results and the value to the organisation, including the leadership. -
Hi Ejikeme - It will depend on the organisation and what it is looking to do. Outside in helps if external resources are needed to develop the organisation's innovations. Inside out is valuable if the organisation has created something of value but does not intend to directly take it to market.
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@lihonghan Yes. Kodak is often used as a very good example of an incumbent company impacted by disruptive innovation. They focused on maximising existing revenue streams and did not focus enough on looking ahead and evolving their business model until it was too late.
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Hi John - I understand the challenge you raise. My recommendation would be to understand your strengths and weaknesses and look to systematically find the best ideas and implement them. A small company doesn't need an "innovatom team" or "innovation fund" to do this.
Many small companies are very innovative in nature. Whilst it's likely they will not have... -
Hi Ejikeme - This is a good point. Speed and agility are important, and I'd look for this to be a key consideration for the Leadership, People, Process, Funding and Culture aspects. The Platforms are often desiged too to accelerate innovation.
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Hi Emma - I think this is a great observation. I have seen "good" and "bad" innovation teams. The "bad" ones think they do all the innovation. The "good" ones see themselves as catalysts for everyone in the organisation and beyond, and consider their role to be finding the best ideas and guiding them through the innovation management process to...
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Hi - This is an interesting question. The process of developing innovation - i.e. innovation management - is definitely replicable.
Whether a specific innovation is replicable, depends on your understanding and preferred definition of "innovation". I favour "Innovation is the use of new ideas - or existing ideas in a new context - which results in change... -
Tony Morgan replied to Caitlin Gilfillan
Thank you Caitlin - We're pleased it has been so useful for you.
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Tony Morgan replied to Rainer Rodrigues
Thanks Rainer - We're pleased you have taken some very good learning points from the course.
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Tony Morgan replied to Nurliyah Fatin Nikmah
Thank you for taking part and being so active in the discussions.
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Thanks Prakash - It's always very good to know which items have impact. Enjoy the rest of the course.
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Tony Morgan replied to Julisa Saavedra
Ho Julisa - This sounds like a very promising proposal to kick things off.
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Hi Simone - Many organisations face similar challenges. Perhaps your hotel could start by looking at developing a small number of ideas from the staff and customers initially and taking a few forward to prove the value of innovation. You won't need a dedicated innovation team for this but the key enabler will be leadership - the hotel management will need to...
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Tony Morgan replied to Michelle Mackay
Hi Michelle - It's never too late! Welcome to the course.
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Hi Penelope - I think the answer is mixed. Some very big artists make a lot of money but many smaller less selling artists get less. One impact of this disruption appears to also have been changes to live music too. In the 1970's, artists toured to promote their records but most made little money from playing live. Nowadays, live music drives a relatively...
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Tony Morgan replied to Rainer Rodrigues
Hi Rainer - That is certainly one approach. Sometimes companies create a dedicated business unit or company to explore disruptive new markets and technologies. Google X is quite an interesting example organisation to take a look at.
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Hi Ejikeme - This is a very interesting question. Is Tesla a disruptive company or just a new entrant into the car market? Perhaps, true driverless vehicles and different business models about vehicle ownership and usage will be more disruptive in the longer term?
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Hi Julie - Some interesting examples which show disruptive innovation is not new. The story of Sony and the transistor radios is anoher very interesting example which disrupted the previous valve-based radio manufacturers and created a new market of teenagers listening to portable radios.
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Tony Morgan made a comment
Some great examples below. Please do keep the feedback coming!
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Hi Penelope - I understand your challenge - it will be interesting to see if value is delivered in the longer term. Conversely, it it also interesting to consider what may have happened to the business if such changes hadn't been made?
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Hi Khushboo - A great insight. I very much agree that the pandemic is driving new innovations beyond the core in Education and many other sectors.
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Hi Paul - Hopefully this course will help you move in what sounds to be the very positive direction the organisation is looking to take.
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Hi Hemal - I hope you'll be interested in the Design Thinking section of the course, which is very much focused on driving innovation with the end user (e.g. the customer) at the centre.
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Hi Penelope - I hope you'll be interested in the Design Thinking section of the course, which is very much focused on driving innovation with the end user (e.g. the customer) at the centre.
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Tony Morgan replied to Paul Davies
Hi Paul - Welcome. This is certainly a subject of great interest to us all.
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Hi Rainer - "Don't fix what isn't broken" is an interesting point and a challenge for these organisations, I think. Often organisations which stand still and don't look to change eventually fall behind, and sometimes go out of business if their competition passes them by, or as we'll see later in the course, if their industry is disrupted.
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Hi Othuke - It's not easy but leaders need to put in place the other enablers, such as People and Culture - and ensure there is a "Process" and some funding available to move the best ideas forward.
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Hi Othuke - This is a big challenge. As we'll see, people and culture are two of the key enablers for innovation, which need to be enabled by the leaders.
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Hi Victoria - I agree with your point that sometimes people think innovation = digital. Whilst many innovations at the moment are focused on digital transformation, they're not all and we need to keep people at the heart of our innovation activities. Also, financial challenges are often great motivators for innovation - add this to the creativity you mention...
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Hi Ejikeme - This is an excellent question. There are a number of ways to do this - for example, by showing excellent examples of innovation culture and activities within other organisations - and critically the positive impact this has had. I would target this on areas that matter most to the leaders, and can positively influence their success.
But I am not... -
Hi Cassandra - This is a common challenge. It's definitely an aspect of organisational culture which needs to be addressed if organisations are going to make best use of their resources and opportunities for the future.
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Hi Nurliyah - I agree that there are many different types of innovation an organisation can pursue. I also think it's important for each organisation to work out which are the most valuable areas for them to focus on, rather than try to change everything at once.
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Hi Minas - I am very much in agreement with you on this.
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Tony Morgan replied to Minas Tzanakakis
Hi Minas - This sounds like your organisation's innovation focus is at the Core and Adjacent levels. This is the case for the majority of organisations.
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Tony Morgan replied to Thura Aung
I see what you did there, Thura! Please do feedback as you progress through the course. I'm interested to see how well you think the two words go together.
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Tony Morgan made a comment
A huge welcome to everyone for joining the course. Please do add your commments, thoughts and questions. We're looking forward to interacting with you in the coming days.
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Tony Morgan replied to Samuel Ebenya
@SamuelEbenya Thank you Samuel - we enjoyed seeing your comments and it is always great to get feedback.
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Tony Morgan replied to Phillip Higgins
@PhillipHiggins Hi Phillip - Having created the tool, I agree!
It is just the starting point to get people thinking about where their organisation is, where they need to be and what they need to do to start filling the gap to be able to manage, develop and deliver innovation more successfully and consistently.
From experience, having a leadership team have... -
@GeorgiaBrandi Hi Georgia - Design Thinking fits well with Lean. Also it is often used as a complementary toolset with Agile Development. There are lots of resources on the internet about this, you'd find from a quick search.
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Tony Morgan replied to Samuel Ebenya
@SamuelEbenya Hi Samuel - Have a look at this great short video from Google on the topic. I use this with my students to bring the topic to life. https://youtu.be/JMjozqJS44M
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@CecileLamy Hi Cecile - Another great question here.
It can be difficult to achieve but there are many aspects and approaches to this. You can generate a more positive innovation culture through positive communciations, giving people time for innovation and providing rewards etc.
Even then, in my view you still need the other enablers - leadership to set a... -
@JoRolland Hi Jo - This is a great question.
We cover Design Thinking in Week 2.
One Design Thinking technique is called the "Prioritisation Grid" - it is used to quickly assess and compare ideas in terms of their value and feasibility. You'll find details and examples from a quick search of the internet. -
@JoannaMoss Hi Joana - This is a great question. One of the things we often speak about is push and pull type innovation.
Push can be for example when an organisation has a new technology and now needs to find problems or opportunities to apply it to.
Pull is much more common - focusing innovation on existing problems, challenges and opportunities to come... -
Tony Morgan replied to Samuel Ebenya
It really comes down to what the organisation is looking to achieve through innovation. For some organisations this could be organic growth or creating new markets through disruption. For other organisations the goal may be simply survival, as standing still is not an option.
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Hi Samuel - I'd be interested to see what the other participants on the course think about this.
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@LynetteLackey Hi Lynette - some great advice there. It's great to hear the positive experiences, as well as the challenges, from everyone on the course. Thank you.
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Tony Morgan replied to tim hughes
Hi Tim - "innovation can be part of all our jobs" - this is such a powerful comment. I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts as the course progresses.
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Hi Juha - Thanks for this very interesting comment. IBM has changed (innovated) its business model over the last two decades to focus exclusively on business customers and no longer end user consumers - e.g. it sold its PC and printer businesses to Lenovo. The rationale has been at least partially that consumer businesses become commodity type business and so...
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Hi Daniel - You're asking good questions. I think all the enablers listed are important but each organisation is at a different level.
My view on the budget / funding element is this. You need to have some funding (or at least people time) for the early stages of innovation - creating ideas, developing them (as little as possible) to the point you (or...
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Hi Daniel - I agree. Communication is critical for innovation success.
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Hi Georgia - To me Design Thinking is a very useful set of tools and techniques, with some key concepts behind them - have empathy for the end user, properly understand the problem etc.
But they're not the only tools we can use. I always think good innovation managers and the like have a big toolkit bag and select the right tools and techniques depending...
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Tony Morgan made a comment
Welcome everyone to the course. It's great to see a wide spread of backgrounds, industries, geographies and areas of interest. We're looking forward to hearing your views and collaborating with you.
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It's an approach developed at the University of Leeds. For more details, please follow up with Prof Pandza and/or myself.
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Tony Morgan replied to Vijay Luthra
Design Thinking offers a set of tools and techniques. In my experience they can be very effective, but they're not the only approaches we should use. Innovation Managers etc should have a large kit bag and apply the approaches which fit best with circumstances. The key to any approach is good facilitation and gaining the buy-in from participants.
Also I can... -
@yuchenyang - For the first questions usually the leaders set the vision and priorities - and most innovation often focuses on these areas, so they are usually setting the agenda. But the other enablers are all about getting the most from the wider organistion and beyond. On the second funding - how much is enough = question. This is very much an "it depends"...
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@NancyIngham - That's a great point - culture is a key enabler for successful innovation - and people can quickly become disengaged if worss are not backed up by positive actions.
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Perhaps the first steps will be get buy-in for innovation from the leadership - and then focus on developing a more innovatiive culture, in line with the enablers above.
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An interesting comment on Design Thinking. My own view is that a good innovation manager has a large kit bag of tools and techniques, and applies different depending on the context. Design Thinking (as we'll see in Week 2) offers some great tools and techniques, and ensures we focus on the end user, but it is not the only set of tools we should use.
I hope... -
@RuolanDeng Defining what we mean by "innovation" is important in the context of the activity and/or organisation(s) we're working with. I have two favoured definitions.
1. Innovation is defined as how my client defines it, so I align with that.
AND
2. Innovation is the use of new ideas, or existing ideas in a new context, resulting in change which delivers... -
Tony Morgan made a comment
It's great to see such a range of backgrounds, areas of interest and industries covered. Innovation is a huge topic and critically important across all industries, and from start-ups to multi-nationals.
Please keep the conversation going, and feel free to ask any specific questions as you progress througn the course. -
Tony Morgan made a comment
Please add a few comments here and/or on the next page to introduce yourself and let us know which aspects you're most keen to learn more about.
