FUTURE SKILLS FUTURE THINKING

Case Study: Innovation and Success

Adapted from Cojocaru and Cojocaru (2014)

Innovation can be defined as all the scientific, technological, organisational, financial, and commercial activities necessary to create, implement, and market new or improved products or processes (OECD, 1997). Innovation does not proceed through logical deduction, but rather is the result of excellent organisational cooperation. Two very different organisations, Sony and Apple Computer , illustrate this well. In 1979, Sony launched a portable Walkman range – the idea for which was sparked by co-founder Masaru Ibuka wanting to listen to operas during trans-Pacific plane trips. The Walkman was a worldwide hit and propelled them to the position of market leader. Sony was considered a top innovative company, though the device was not particularly technologically advanced – portable tape recorders had existed for decades, and the Walkman took features from this, incorporating stereo circuits and a stereo headphone terminal in place of the record function and a speaker. In 2001, Apple decided to launch the iPod, a new portable player. The major innovation of the iPod was its small size, achieved by using a smaller hard drive. About 80% of the iPod technical components (e.g., memory, storage media) were produced by various companies within the Sony group – and Sony had invented the concept of listening to music anytime, anywhere. But the newcomer iPod was easier to use, more fashionable, good looking, and used the Apple iTunes software, allowing consumers to use the music from their own computers.

the essence of entrepreneurship is the ability to break away from routine, to destroy existing structures, to move the system away from the even, circular flow of equilibrium Kirzner, 1973, describing the views of innovation researcher, Schumpeter “

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