Blog 3 - Innovation

Nowadays innovation has acquired high relevance. It is obvious that innovation is not a new concept. Society has evolved due to innovation. At the same time, the economy has also evolved due to innovation. However, it seems that today innovation has increased its importance. As we could read in the article “The New, Faster Face of Innovation”, “technology is transforming innovation at its core”. In other words, technology is advancing rapidly. Consequently, innovation is also advancing really quickly.

In my opinion, a good example of innovation is a social networking website. Maybe, for our generation it is really normal to talk about different kind of social networking websites such us Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. However, when our parents were our age, this idea was unimaginable. Some people think that these social networking websites have negative impacts on society because people use less personal-direct communication. I do not agree. I think that this innovation provide us another kind of communication, the non-direct communication.

I believe that it is an innovative and creative tool because it offers the opportunity to communicate with others when you do not have time to talk personally with them or for example when you are not in the same place. For example, Facebook is really useful for me because I am studying the Fall Semester in Austin but I have the majority of my family and friends in Spain. Then, using Facebook, I can explain them all about my experience in Austin without paying anything. This fact is not the only positive thing. I also think that is really creative because I have the possibility to see photos of my family and friends. For me, it is a way of knowing about their life.

In spite of these positive points, I believe that there is a main problem when talking about social networking websites. If you spend too much time using Facebook, it could be a way of isolation. The lesson that we should learn here is that despite the progresses and innovations, we should take into consideration that we need the personal-direct communication.

After talking about one example of an innovative and creative service, I think that we could talk about how innovation is affecting the world of business. As we notice in the article “The New, Faster Face of Innovation” companies know that the research and development department has increased its importance and consequently, firms should think about innovation continuously. Today, if you do not invest money in innovation, you reduce your opportunities to grow and expand you business. Contrarily, companies that think about innovation in an ongoing basis are more likely to maintain a competitive advantage.

Another interesting idea of the article is that companies are paying lower prices to conduct tests of new ideas. Consequently, companies could be more daring because the lower cost of failure. This new environment of constant innovation will have two main implications. First of all, as we notice in the article, the role of employees will change considerably because they will take part in experiments and new ideas. Secondly, I think that this environment will be very beneficial for customers. If companies innovate constantly, then, the quality of products and services will increase.

As we notice, technology and innovation are playing a main role in our society. Every day, companies invent new product, new services, new ideas…; we do not really know where the end is!