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What about Google? The algorithm for the search engine that Larry Page and Sergy Bin wrote literally changed the way we sought information. All that the duo wanted to do was find an easy way to search information over the net and Google was born out of the idea.

There is something with Korean design that catches our attention. Samsung's Design Philosophy (Innovation in Design!) cannot be overlooked while making a point in innovation. Samsung is the only company which has received the IDEA award for best innovative designs for five years in a row. It has left behind Sony and LG (another Korean company) in terms of design. Samsung's product are now viewed as high-end and the best in its league.

When 3M Employee, Art Fred, needed a convenient way to mark individual pages of his hymn-book for quick reference, Post-It Notes were born. A simple problem translated into a potentially money-making product. 3M sold over $ 100 million of the product in 1994. This stems from a simple belief that to be valuable from a business point of view, innovation must provide a deviation from the norm that creates differentiation in the company's offering, which in turn leads to customer preference at the time of a buying decision.

All of the above companies eat, sleep and breathe innovation; or, at the very least, find it fundamental to their success. These organizations tend to take smaller initiatives instead of putting all their innovation eggs into one basket. It is observed that they frequently test new ideas and products and earnestly put the feedback into new and improved systems. They have awards and rewards system in place to foster creativity. Companies like 3M look beyond the traditional rewards system and they have successfully inculcated innovation in their policies. They believe that 30% of their revenue must come from products that are less than four years old.

These companies have a fetish to link innovation to organizational learning and never confine the responsibility for creativity and innovation to just one department - R&D. World-class companies expect and reward innovation from everybody: executives, managers, suppliers, etc. They have certain level of energy, commitment and grit to pursue what they think would be worth the effort!

These types of firms are the ones that others should emulate for they know that to do business, as Peter Drucker suggested in a recent Harvard Business Review article, "Every organization - not just businesses - needs one core competence: Innovation."

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* Contributed by: -
Prof. A. K. Mitra is Faculty at ICFAI Business School, Gurgaon, and also serving as Associate Dean & Coordinator, Strategic Management & Chairman of Information Resource at the institute.
Saikat Dey is currently pursuing MBA from ICFAI Business School, Gurgaon.