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Overcoming the barriers to effective innovation by Pierre Loewe and Jennifer Dominiquini. 2006.

Synopsis: In this article, Loewe and Dominiquini (2006) offer three basic tips for organisation wishing to be successful in innovation. These are that they do not just treat the symptoms of a innovation problem; they do not act on only one root cause of innovation problem (as there are usual more than one root cause in innovation ineffectiveness); and they do not blindly copy best practices of successful innovative organisations. The authors recommend an organisation to conduct an innovation diagnostic to pinpoint the specific innovation issues and opportunities. Loewe and Dominiquini (2006) outline major obstacles to innovation. These include; short-term focus, lack of time and resources, leadership expects payoff sooner than is realistic, management incentives is not structured towards innovation, lack of a system innovation process, and belief that invocation is inherently risky. Loewe and Dominiquini (2006) argue that many organisations only address the obvious symptoms of an organisations innovation problem. The authors recommend that organisation adopt a systematic approach that addressed all four of the underlying and interrelated root causes of innovation ineffectiveness. The four root causes of innovation ineffectiveness are: leader and the organisation have no alignment of a common definition of innovation, processes and tools are not systematic approaches and supportive tool in order to enable idea generation, there is no mass of people in the organisation with the skills in being proficient in innovation approaches and using innovative tools, and no culture and values that encourage innovation (ie no collaborative, open culture and incentive that reward challenging the status quo). Loewe and Dominiquini (2006) argue that without a systematic attack of all four of these root causes, an organisation innovations effort is likely to fail. Loewe and Dominiquini (2006) conclude this article emphasising the importance for an organisation to proactively improve its innovation effectiveness. The authors state the innovation is the key for an organisation to prosper in both short and long term. Although there is no quick solution for an organisation to become effective innovators, Loewe and Dominiquini (2006)

recommend organisations conduct innovations diagnostic and act on its results. The authors also recommend that the organisation act systematically on the four causes of innovations ineffectiveness. They also state that innovation must involve a deep consideration of all the elements in organisations business model. Loewe and Dominiquini (2006) also claim that if your organisation can innovate on several business models elements simultaneously, this will make it very hard for your competitors to copy your organisation. Critiques: This article gives a very clear overview of how an organisation overcomes the barriers to effective innovations. The authors have written a very concise and clear article and have provided practical examples that support their arguments. One problem with this article is that it depends to rely too much on its survey results and minimum support from the relevant academic research literature in this field of research. However the findings, conclusions and recommendations from Loewe and Dominiquini (2006) are practical, intuitive and based on commonsense (and HRM theory). Although the authors acknowledge that it is difficult for organisations to overcome the barriers to effective innovation, Loewe and Dominiquini (2006) provide a constructive plan of attack for organisational leaders and managers to use to best overcome these barriers. Reflection: I found this article very helpful in my understanding the challenges and barriers that exist in that prevent effective innovation in organisations. This article gives me a deeper understanding of these barriers toward innovation and the root causes of ineffective organisational innovation. It also emphasizes there is no simple solution in solving an organisation innovation problems as they are often complex and have four root causes. However their explanation of the problems and root causes of ineffective organisational innovation and their recommended plan to finding the solution is very practical and grounded in real life work situations. I see these barriers everyday in my workplace. With the help of this article (and knowledge acquired from this course), I am now able to suggest approaches for Senior Management to take to overcome the current barriers to effective innovation in our organisation. Article reviewed

Loewe, P & Dominiquini, J 2006, Overcoming the barriers to effective innovation, Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 24-31.

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