Troops united

Failures and their success

Authors: Mitzi Lagerweij, Maikel Knippels, Bob van Wezenbeek

Foreword
This report is written for the course Knowledge ring at the Avans in s-Hertogenbosch by fourth year students of the minor innovation and creativity. The context of this conducted research is based on innovation. The goal of this rapport is to look into how to create an innovation culture. This report is written for the people who are interested in innovation, creating the culture, manage innovation and failures. We want to refer to chapter 2 when it comes to general information about the denition of an innovation culture. Chapter 3 en 4 describes the innovation as a success and a failure. In chapter 5 you can nd the management of innovation and nally you can nd how failures changes the world. We want to show thanks to Kees van Kaam for being a great help in structuring the research. s-Hertogenbosch, 18 December 2013 M. Knippels M. Lagerweij B.A.J. van Wezenbeek

Summary
The research is conducted because nowadays innovation is an indispensable factor within society. Creating an innovation culture within a company is necisary to stay up to date. We have noticed that people easily give up on innovating because the concept turned out a to be a failure or the struggles that comes with it. To look on the positive side our research looked into in which way the failures changes into success. Should failures be accepted within an organisation to create the culture of innovation? To nd out if a failure should be excepted in an innovation culture we conducted research in all possible ways. We started of with desk research and also conducted a little eld research. After formulating the main question we looked into the sub questions to make sure that they would lead us to the right answer. During the following weeks we noticed that we had to make little changes to certain chapters because the formulated sub question would not give us the answer that we wanted to have. While writing what a successful innovation is we noticed that while answering that answer we already answered the question : how to manage an innovation. Therefore we decided to look into what a company or a person should have to be innovative. The answer to the main question is as followed: Engage your failures has to do with all the other 4 things of the innovation culture circle. That is why failures should be accepted to create a culture of innovation. Innovation brings a lot of failures within an organisation. To make innovation as your identity you should accept these failures because else you are not innovating at all. While accepting failures within your organisation, you actually encouraging innovation by embrace the mistakes which are made. Besides failures are the result of experimenting and invest in ideas and it is a way to discover what is not working within you idea. So nally failures let you think of new perspectives and possibilities of problems, ideas and solutions and that creates the culture of innovation within an organisation.

II

Table of content
Foreword Summary Introduction Chapter 1 1.1 The concept of the innovation culture Dening innovation culture 1.1.1 What is innovation? 1.1.2 What is a culture? 1.1.3 What is an innovation culture? What is mandatory for creating an innovation culture 3 Conclusion Innovation as a failure Dening failure? The key values that leads innovation to a failure? The Importance of failures Respond against failures Conclusion Innovation as a success Dening succes The key values that leads innovation to a succes Conclusion Manage innovation Innovation leadership How to manage innovation? Conclusion The fall over Case study The key values that leads failures to a success Conclusion I II V 1 2 2 2 2 4 5 6 6 6 7 7 8 9 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 19

1.2 1.3 Chapter 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Chapter 3 3.1 3.2 3.3 Chapter 4 4.1 4.2 4.3 Chapter 5 5.1 5.2 5.3

10

III

Table of content
Chapter 6 Literature Extra pages Conclusion 20 23 25

IV

Introduction
For the course knowledge ring we got the assignment to look into creating an innovation culture. The research is conducted because nowadays innovation is an indispensable factor within the society. Creating an innovation culture within a company is very useful to stay up to date. We have noticed that people easily give up on innovating because the concept turned out a to be a failure or the struggles that comes with it. To look on the positive side our research looked into in which way the failures changes into success. The main scope of the research is related to the failures and their successes. We believe if you accept and learn from your mistakes you can create the culture of innovation! The main question which is elaborated reads as follows: Should failures be accepted within an organisation to create the culture of innovation? The main purpose of this research is to create a new perspective according to failures within creating an innovation culture. This study will position innovation failures as a positive benchmark of an innovation culture. By answering the main question we show

The only real failure is the failure to try, and the measure of success is how we cope with disappointment.

1.

What is an innovation culture?

Chapter 1

1.1 What is the denition of an innovation culture?

1.1.1 What is innovation? Nowadays there are a lot of dierent denition and interpretations about innovation. Some denitions are dened in the following sentence. According to (Business.gov.au) refers innovation to renewing, changing or creating more eective processes, products or ways of doing things. Encompass is dening innovation as doing something new, dierent, smarter or better that will make a positive dierence. (Encompass, 2013) The two examples are showing the dierence between denitions of innovation within the same sector. By gathering the knowledge about innovation there is dened a clear denition for innovation. Innovation is a new idea, process, product or service that is successfully generated, accepted and implemented and has followed all the steps of the innovation circle. 1.1.2 What is a culture? Dening culture is more dicult then dening the concept of innovation. Culture is a feeling or a behaviour where people can live and act in a certain area. The concept of a culture has, like innovation, a lot of dierent meanings. Edward B. Tylor denes culture as the full range of learned human behaviour patterns. (O'neill, 2006) while a more trendy conception describes culture as the characteristics of a particular group of people, dened by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. (Zimmermann, 2012). The point that stand out is the fact that a culture is based on a group of people that creates a community with specic characteristics. The concept of innovation and culture can be combined and that denes the innovation culture. 1.1.3 What is an innovation culture? The innovation culture is based on a working space where employees can be innovative and creative. Combining the two previous meanings we can create a denition of an innovation culture: An innovation culture is an atmosphere where employees can be open , innovative and creative within the organisation without being blocked in their way of thinking. It is a culture where employees can share and take care of their idea. It is a culture where every attempt for innovation is embraced and accepted.

1.2 What is mandatory for creating an innovation culture?

Research shows the most interesting concepts where companies can build their innovation culture on. Figure 1 shows a visual summary of the 5 mandatory pieces to create a culture of innovation.
Identity

rage cou En

Engage

Ex p

Figure 1

Circkel of the innovation culture

Creating an innovation culture dently needs 5 concepts: Innovation as an identity: In most of the companies innovation is a huge underestimated concept. Innovation should be your number one drive if you want to create an innovation culture. Accepting innovation as an identity creates a personal environment where innovation can develop within in your way of thinking. Encourage innovation: There is no way that innovation is done by one person. Innovation is a process where people has to brainstorm, come up with new ideas and be encouraged by the management team. For external and internal innovation, employees are able to innovate if this is encouraged within a company. By placing an idea box for example and encourage their ideas you create a culture of innovation. Experiment with ideas: Innovation needs time to be accepted and inltrated heir outcomes. Invest in ideas: As we look more to the management departments, there should be an reward system that invest in the ideas that are submitted. You create condence, you show that you listen and appreciate the eort of the employees. Engage failures: The most common problem in innovative companies is the acceptance of failures. Engaging failures is the most important feature of creating the culture of innovation. Failures are the best way to improve and learn from your ideas.

ent im er

Inve st

Innovation doesnt just happen. It requires a culture that fosters an open exchange of ideas among employees, management, customers and other stakeholders. The build network

1.3 Conclusion
Innovation is mostly an underestimated subject within an organisation. To create an innovation culture there is dened the denition of innovation and culture. If you combine these you have the denition of an innovation culture. According to paragraph 1.1 is an innovation a culture in an atmosphere where employees can be open , innovative and creative within the organisation without being blocked in their way of thinking. It is a culture where employees can share and take care of their idea. It is a culture where every attempt for innovation is embraced and accepted. The most important thing is accept and learn from your failures. In the following chapters you can nd information about what exactly triggers an innovation to fail? When is an innovation a success? How to manage innovation and what exactly brings a failure to a success?

I didnt fail 1,000 times! It was an invention with 1,000 steps.

- Thomas Edison

2.

Innovation as a failure

2.1 What is a failure?

Lets start with the denition of failure failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective. To consider something a failure is a matter of perspective and context of use. What is to believe a failure might be a success to someone else. Also the degree of a failure dier per observer or participant. It may be impossible to guarantee that something is a complete failure. To make this slightly easier there should be done serious thinking of useful and eective criteria in order to judge the success of failure. (Wikipedie, the free encyclopedia, 2013)

I can accept failure, everyone fails at something, but I cant accept not trying -Michael Jordan

2.2 What are the keys that leads innovation to a failure?

A great deal can be learned from things going unexpectedly. Success in science comes from keeping blunders small, manageable, constant and track able Kevin Kelly, editor of Wired Magazine. Keep pushing systems to a limit, break them to learn about it. Dont create a culture, think of the current school system, that punishes failure. This will impede the creative process and people are being taught to keep important failures to themselves instead of communicating them to learn of it.

If you want to succeed, double your failure rate Thomas J. Watson

2.3 Why are failures important?

Defeat isnt rewarded by society and its hard to nd failures documented. Exceptions are the failures that become steppingstones to later success. A good example is the invention of the light bulb by Thomas Edison. He failed a thousand times before developing a successful prototype.
I didnt fail 1,000 times! It was an invention with 1,000 steps. - Thomas Edison

Almost everyone tries to avoid failure. The focus is on not failing, instead of aiming for success. This makes us selectively editing out miscalculations or mistakes. Everyone will remember this phrase: Failure is not an option, by NASA ight controller Jerry C. Bostick of the Apollo 13 crew. (Estrem)

2.4 How you should not react to failures

A common reaction to failures goes along with fairs. People are afraid to fail. The reason for this is that most people dont know the dynamics involved in success and failure. To be insanely creative fair must be banned from your thoughts. Failing is not scary. It simply means that you havent found the correct method yet. After a failure you should not give up. Why not start studying the reasons for the failure? Never accept your defeat in innovation, because you have failed until you accept your defeat. (Koray, 2013) You should not react to failures: By allowing the fear of failure into your mind; By giving up and allowing your defeat.

Every failure, every adversity and every headache, carries with it the seed of an equivalent or a great benet - Napoleon Hill

2.5 Conclusion

An innovation is a failure when the outcome of a research is dierent as expected. Failure however, is good for innovation. Each failure means there is new knowledge of how things should not been done and this gives opportunity to proceed on great innovations. Dont be afraid of failure, without failures we would not have been such a developed society as we are nowadays.

3.

Innovation as a success

3.1 Dening succes

According to denition of chapter 1, innovation is dened as followed. An innovation is a new idea, process, product or service that is successfully generated, accepted and implemented. An innovation always completes all the steps in this process. The question of what a successful innovation is, is one of enormous complexity. Needless to say, there are many ways to dene success but in this research an innovation is successful when it completed all the steps in the innovation process. As companies tend to innovate faster than their customers needs evolve, most organizations eventually end up producing products or services that are actually too sophisticated, too expensive, and too complicated for many customers in their market. Companies pursue these sustaining innovations at the higher tiers of their markets because this is what has historically helped them succeed: by charging the highest prices to their most demanding and sophisticated customers at the top of the market, companies will achieve the greatest protability. However companies unwittingly open the door to disruptive innovations at the bottom of the market. An innovation that is disruptive allows a whole new population of consumers at the bottom of a market access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill. Characteristics of disruptive businesses, at least in their initial stages, can include: lower gross margins, smaller target markets, and simpler products and services that may not appear as attractive as existing solutions when compared against traditional performance metrics. Because these lower tiers of the market oer lower gross margins, they are unattractive to other rms moving upward in the market, creating space at the bottom of the market for new disruptive competitors to emerge. It transforms a product that historically was so expensive and complicates that only a few people were able to buy it. Disruptive makes it more aordable and accessible that a much larger scale of people have excess to it. At the beginning the st manifestation of digital was a mainframe computer, which costed millions of dollars to buy, and it took years to operate these things so larges companies only had one. They took the problem to the centre where experts changed it into mini desktop, laptop and now a smartphone that has democratized into something that everyone has excess to. The dilemma is in every company, every day that people come up with new products for the same target audience. A disruptive innovation provides a company with new products for people who are not your customers. The product you want to sell them is so much more aordable and simple that your current customers cant buy it. The choices that you have to make is that: should we make better products, better quality, better prots which we can sell to our best customers or maybe we have to make worse products that may ruin our margins. Its the dilemma that many companies face nowadays.

It basically comes down to a way of thinking. If you as a major company want to stay above the competition you have to come up with a disruptive innovations. Unfortunately no one will tell you how it works because data is only available about the past however what we do know is that the only way you can look into the future is by using a good theory. (More, 2011)

3.2 What leads innovation to a success? 3.2.1 Learning from failures

According to research a lot of innovations fail because it does not meet the customers needs. The wrong pricing and time to market are one of the most important reasons why innovations fail. Might this also be the key to a successful innovation? The importance of innovation grew enormously in the last few years during the crisis. We have to do the same things, care about the same stu but have to aord it with less money. Apples IPhone 5s feels, looks operate like an iPhone 5S, it does give you the real IPhone experience however this IPhone is more aordable which would be a great example for a disruptive innovation. The need of innovations is clear but having only an innovative concept is not enough. You have to successfully implement it on the market; research shows that this is also a reason why some innovations fail. Firstly we already know that 34% of the innovations fail because that the innovation does not meet the customers demand, secondly 35% of innovations fails because the pricing is wrong. You might think that it is easier to solve since these two are based on customer perception. Just communicate with your customer!
The product or service is priced incorrectly Failed to meet customer needs The product or service is late to market We encountered supply chain issues Customers find no new/unique value proposition We forecasted incorrectly We encountered regulatory or quality issues Our product or service cost was too high Poor trade promotion execution Other
Figure 2 Why innovation fails

35% 34% 33% 27% 27% 27% 26% 24% 11% 3%

10

3.2.2

The keys to succes

Accenture is known for their awards of innovations therefore we are going to use their top three winners and see why their innovation won this awards, what is so innovative about them and why do they think that this innovation is going to be successful? 1.LUXeXel (LXL) created a 3d-print method based on uent dynamics. This method can guarantee you that every object will become a smooth surface that does not need any post-processing. Therefore the process can print LED lenses for LED lighting. Recently LUCeXel printed worlds rst glasses frame as well as glasses. 2.Wingssprayer produces and markets eective vegetation protection which saves time and money for agriculture without entrust the human or environment with poison. The Wingssprayer has a technique that reduces 99% of the chemical elements to air. This has been the best environment saving technique of the world. 3.Taalvoutjes uses humour to teach the Dutch language. Everyone makes spelling- or commu nication mistakes with sometimes hilarious outcomes. By using a Facebook page and a website they are helping people to get more awareness about common spelling mistakes and expand the awareness of the Dutch language. (Accenture, 2012) After reading these case studies there are a few things that caught our attention: 1. Person behind the innovation: most of the times it is someone who would like to change the world in even the smallest ways. 2. Most innovations are driven by something that is bothering one single person, a group of people or a company. 3. The goal should be clear, why do you want to innovate? 4. The initiators have passionate and devoted personalities. 5. Research is an interesting matter; some innovations are mainly driven on conducted research like the LUCeXel and Taalvoutjes are driven by a persons believe. These are innovative concepts that give us insight in how an innovation concept starts but as mentioned before you might have a great concept but when it is not successfully implemented, it is still not a successful innovation. Unfortunately no one can tell you how it works because data is only available about the past. However what we do know is that the only way you can look into the future is by using a great guidelines:

11

1. Strong vision: create a strong vision, what do you want to innovate, what are your goals and how do you want to be innovative? 2. Commitment: to be successful you have to show full commitment, everyone who is joining the innovation should be on-board for this journey. Committing to making an innovation is the key element of your daily business. 3. Create momentum and still a sense of urgency. This journey is all about change. If you do what you always did, you will get what you always got. You have to embrace the change, you need to keep the momentum going and once you got it, still keep up the speed of change. 4. Go for a full innovation upgrade: The great majority of companies have cut out the investment in innovation during the nancial crisis, but as mentioned earlier Innovation might be the answer to get out of your nancial crisis. Companies need to upgrade their innovation mind-set and skills across the board. Keep developing, keep researching and nd the gap. Do not only see the top management as the key to your innovation but start from bottom up. Innovation trainings for everyone are more important than ever. 5. People rst, process next, than ideas: You need to nd a way to combine a strong portfolio selection and management processes for project while still developing the people pool. When you focus too much on ideas and projects downplaying the role of identifying and developing the right people for the right projects on the right time. You need to nd a proper balance but put people rst. 6. Communication: Developing an innovation culture is very much about perception. If you think that your company is innovative you will build further on this. Get insights from people insight and outside the company. Find the pockets of strong innovation eorts within the organization, (values) share this with everyone and build an even stronger foundation based on this values continuously create strong stories to develop the perception that you are innovative. 7. Be open, experiment and learn from your failures. As mentioned in chapter 2 embrace failures. The future of innovation is open and global. Share what you believe in, be prepared to experiment and change how you thought of innovation. Embrace failures and learn from them to make sure that you do not continue to repeat them. (Lindegaard, 2013)

3.3 Conclusion
To answer the question what is a successful innovation and how do you create one I would like to look back at the denition of innovation: An innovation is a new idea, process, product or service that is successfully generated, accepted and implemented. An innovation always completes all the steps in this process. It shows that innovation is a process, which diers for every company. The bottom line might be that there is no set recipe to a successful innovation but there theories! You have to make sure that you as a person or an organisation are open, willing to increase your knowledge and be determined to make it work.

12

4.

Manage innovation

13

After nding out what an innovation is and how you can create an innovation, the questions we asked ourselves are, Can everyone be innovative? And if you are? What is the best way to manage this? In chapter ve we would like to show you what it takes to be or become a true innovator and how you could mange the innovation.

4.1 Innovation leadership

When are you innovative as a person? When is a company innovative? And if you are not, how can you become innovative? In the previous chapter we explained the importance of innovation, in this chapter we will explain what do you have to do to become innovative? Dont worry The good news is, if you are not born with it, you can cultivate it! If you put innovative entrepreneurs under the microscope, examining when and how they came up with the ideas on which their businesses were built. How do they dier from other entrepreneurs? Research surveyed more than 3000 executives and 500 individuals who had started innovative companies or invented new products. How do they do it? Research identied ve skills: Associating, questioning, observing, experimenting and networking. Innovative entrepreneurs have something called creative intelligence, which enables discovery yet diers from other types of intelligence. It is more than being right-brained. Innovators engage both sides of the brain as they leverage the ve skills to create new ideas 1. Associating the ability to successfully connect seemingly unrelated questions, problems or ideas from elds is the centre of the innovators DNA. 2. Questioning - the important and dicult job is never to nd the right answers, it is to nd the right question. Question the unquestionable! Do not ask yourself why, why not and what if but for example: when we cut the size in half, how would that change the value proposition it oers? You need the capacity to hold two diametrically opposing ideas in your head. Embrace constrains, dont impose constrains on our thinking when forced to deal with real-world limitations. Creativity loves constraint! 3. Observing in particularly the behaviour of potential consumers. Innovators carefully, intentionally and consistently look out for small behavioural details from every possible customer like customers, suppliers and other companies- in order to gain insights about new way of doing things. 4. Experimenting this can be exploration, physical tinkering or engagement in new surrounding (bring your product to a dierent country) 5. Discovery devoting time and energy to nding and testing ideas through a network of diverse individuals gives you a dierent perspective. Innovators go out of their way to meet people with dierent kinds of ideas and perspectives to extend their knowledge. Innovators must consistently act dierent to think dierent. (Jerey H. Dyer, 2009)

14

4.2 How do you manage innovation?

As mentioned in chapter four there is not recipe to an innovation it is often a good strategy, to only thing you can do is learn from your mistakes and follow the guidelines or theories. It is all about making the right choices, having an innovative mind-set, not only you but everyone in your company. In order to explain how to mange an innovation, as far as you can, we use seven functions to explain you how. The concept innovation system will help you to guide to understand the innovation process. We call this a system because it consists of dierent elements, which are all linked to one another. The goal of the innovation system is that this system will generate well-functioned, successful innovations. In order to nd your personal functioning innovation system there are 7 functions you have to do. Function 1: Entrepreneurial Activities The initiator of the concept of an innovation is of great importance. Without these entrepreneurs innovations would not take place and an innovation system would not even exist. The role of this entrepreneur is to create a new business opportunity by turning the potential of new knowledge, development, network and markets into action. Function 2: Knowledge Development (learning) The second function is to gain as much information and insight as you possibly can. Its not only learning by searching but also learning by doing. Function 3: Knowledge Diusion through networks In this step it is important that policy decisions (e.g. targets) should be align with the latest technological insights and at the same time R&D agendas should be aected by changing norms and values. In this phase you learn by interacting. Function 4: Guidance of the search The activities within the innovation system can have a positive eect by the visibility and clearity of the whole research including failures! Expectations are also included so that every member of the team knows what they are doing and make sure that the project that they are working on are of good use. Function 5: Market Formation A new product may require a new market. Therefore it is of great importance to created protected spaces for new products. You have to make sure that people will see the same advantage in your innovation in order to achieve an actual market. Remember, creativity loves constraint!

15

Function 6: Resource Mobilisation Resources, both nancial and human capital, are necessary as a basic input to all the activities within the Innovation System. Function 7: Creation of legitimacy / counteract resistance to change In order to develop well, a new product needs to settle in the consumers and competitors minds. Parties with vested interest will oppose, when they do so be prepared! (Ossebaard, 2012)

4.3 Conclusion
Innovations do not come with a manual, you try as much as you can and at some point you will have an successful innovation. This chapter showed us that you could learn how to become innovative by teaching yourself ve skills associating, questioning, observing, experimenting and networking. Furthermore it turns our that there are no set ways how to manage an innovation but there are seven functions to look out for!

16

5.

Failure to success

17

How is it possible that failures become a success? and what are the key values that let this happen? In this chapter we describe some case studies and describe the most important values that makes the fall over from a failure to a success.

5.1 Case studies about failures and their success

The light bulb Such is the case with Thomas Edison, whose most memorable invention was the light bulb, which purportedly took him 1,000 tries before he developed a successful prototype. How did it feel to fail 1,000 times? a reporter asked. I didnt fail 1,000 times, Edison responded. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps. (Estrem, 2013) Coca Colas new recipe Coca Cola thought it would be a good idea to reformulate their recipe for Coca Cola, named New Coke. Or also known as, The New Taste of Coca Cola. The company almost went bankrupt because of this change, because the publics reaction to the change was very negative. This is a major marketing failure. But! Without this major failure, Coca Cola wouldnt have been so successful as it is nowadays. They launched shortly after the new taste a new marketing campaign where they promoted the Coca Cola Classic. They sold the same product as in the beginning, but because of the bad reception of the new recipe, the old recipe (the Classic taste) has never been more popular. (Wikipedia, 2013) Smokeless cigarettes In 1988, the anti-smoking lobbyist claimed that the majority of the public opinion was behind them. The was mainly because research showed that the smoked was now known as serious danger to humans health. This is also known as passive smoking. The company behind Camel, Winston, Salem en Doral cigarettes; RJ Reynolds, invested $325 million on smokeless cigarettes. They thought to make a move towards the majority of the consumers. Oer an healthy substitute. There was only one thing they forgot to test; everything. The chief executive of RJ Reynolds says it tasted like shit, it was impossible to normally inhale or lit the cigarette with a match. On top of that, it tasted horrible. This whole innovation failed in 1988. But it was the rst big research for healthier cigarettes ever. Many more millions were spend by other parties to develop the smokeless or healthy cigarette which we nowadays. So for the human health this was a great success. It opened doors to new research, which no one ever tried to do before this major failure. (Brand Failures, 2013) As Manuel-Dickens notes, Even if your innovation process doesnt spit out 1,000 new products, thats okay: You are developing a new muscle, and every time you do the ideation, the processes that come after it, and nally develop the idea, youre building that muscle for the time when you really need it. (The Build Network, 2013)

18

5.2 What are the key values of a failure that leads to success?
There are some main values that can leads a failure to a success. The following values are the most common ones while doing the research: Accept Embrace Serendipity Accept & Embrace failures as a way of success. Accepting a failure is a way of looking in another direction of your innovation. With a failure you discovered something what is not working at all. Reframe your vision upon the innovation let you rethink of the idea or the process. Serendipity is a not common concept within the innovation subject. Lets take a closer look to the concept of serendipity. The denition according to (Rouse, 2006) is: Serendipity is the act of nding something valuable or delightful when you are not looking for it. In information technology, serendipity often plays a part in the recognition of a new product need or in solving a design problem. For example web surng can be an occasion for serendipity since you sometimes come across a valuable or interesting site when you are looking for something else. So what serendipity actually means is that you nd your result when you are not searching for it. The concept aligns with accepting and embracing your failures. If you are not able to accept your failures and embrace them you will never nd the solution behind it. Serendipity is an unexpected concept which comes up when you accept your failures as a solution to your success. We take Sir Alexander Fleming as an example of serendipity. He was doing research with the inuenza virus. After he came back of his two week holiday he found out by surprise that uy white mass had an eect against gram-positive bacteria. He discovered Penicillin by total surprise, he was trying to nd more information about inuenza and discovered one of the most used medicine nowadays. The conclusion will give the last insight in the most important value of success stories within innovation. (Endocrine Today, 2013)

5.3 Conclusion
The main value for changing failures into success stories are a few small things. Its easy to remember. When something doesnt go as expected there can be done two things. Accept the failure and embrace that u discovered a way which doesnt work. Those who accept their failure will never be innovative. Those who dont accept the failure and proceed trying will be innovative. They will make the failure into a success. And if it leads to no real innovation, research at least gave insight of what didnt work for future research which are both success stories. Finally the concept of serendipity is needed for the fall over of failures. With other words, you need a little luck to discover an innovation.

19

6.

Conclusion

20

The conclusion answer the main question and provides new insights into the concept of failures. The main question is as followed: Should failures be accepted within an organisation to create the culture of innovation? To answer the question we elaborated some conclusions of each chapter. To give an easy summary of the small conclusions we wrote down the most important information that is needed to answer the main question. Chapter 1: Innovation is mostly an underestimated subject within an organisation. According to paragraph 1.1 an innovation a culture is dened as an atmosphere where employees can be open , innovative and creative within the organisation without being blocked in their way of thinking. It is a culture where employees can share and take care of their idea. It is a culture where every attempt for innovation is embraced and accepted. The most important thing is accept and learn from your failures. To create the culture of innovation you need denitely need the 5 mandatory concepts within the circle of the innovation culture. Chapter 2: A innovation is a failure when the outcome of a research is dierent as expected. Failure however, is good for innovation. Each failure means there is new knowledge of how things should not been done and this gives opportunity to proceed on great innovations. Dont be afraid of failure, without failures we would not have been such a developed society as we are nowadays. Chapter 3: An innovation is a new idea, process, product or service that is successfully generated, accepted and implemented. An innovation always completes all the steps in this process. It shows that innovation is a process, which diers for every company. The bottom line might be that there is no set recipe to a successful innovation but there theories! You have to make sure that you as a person or an organisation are open, willing to increase your knowledge and be determined to make it work. Chapter 4: Innovations do not come with a manual, you try as much as you can and at some point you will have an successful innovation. This chapter showed us that you could learn how to become innovative by teaching yourself ve skills associating, questioning, observing, experimenting and networking. Furthermore it turns our that there are no set ways how to manage an innovation but there are seven functions to look out for!

21

Chapter 5: The main value for changing failures into success stories are a few small things. Its easy to remember. When something doesnt go as expected just accept the failure and embrace that u discovered a way which doesnt work. Those who accept their failure will never be innovative. Those who dont accept the failure and proceed trying will be innovative. They will make the failure into a success. And if it leads to no real innovation, research at least gave insight of what didnt work for future research which are both success stories. Finally the concept of serendipity is needed for the fall over of failures. In other words, you need a little luck to discover an innovation. The answer to the main question is yes, failures should be accepted within an organisation to create the culture of innovation. To create the culture of innovation you need the 5 things of the circle to create an innovation culture. ( chapter 1 ) The 5 concepts are: Innovation as an identity Encourage innovation Experiment with ideas Invest in ideas Engage failures

Engage your failures has to do with all the other 4 things of the innovation culture circle. That is why failures should be accepted to create a culture of innovation. Innovation brings a lot of failures within an organisation. To make innovation as your identity you should accept these failures because else you are not innovating at all. While accepting failures within your organisation, you actually encouraging innovation by embrace the mistakes which are made. Besides failures are the result of experimenting and invest in ideas and it is a way to discover what is not working within you idea. So nally failures let you think of new perspectives and possibilities of problems, ideas and solutions and that creates the culture of innovation within an organisation.

The truth is, there is a very ne line between failure and inspiration. When you have the ability to look at a situation from a dierent perspective, ask a dierent question there is no telling what sort of amazing discoveries you might make! (Mckinney, 2013) - Phil Mckinney

22

Literature
Accenture. (2013). Accenture innovation. Opgeroepen op december 2013, van http://www.accenture.com/Microsites/innovationawards/Pages/index.aspx Brand Failures. (2013, December 16). Brand Idea Failures: RJ Reynolds smokeless cigarettes. Opgehaald van blogspot.nl: http://brandfailures.blogspot.nl/2006/11/brand-idea-failures-rj-reynolds.html Business.gov.au. (sd). What is innovation? . Opgeroepen op November 25, 2013, van http://www.business.gov.au/BusinessTopics/Innovation/Pages/Whatisinnovation.aspx Encompass. (2013). What does innovation mean? Opgeroepen op November 25, 2013, van http://www.encompass-scotland.co.uk/innovation-in-your-business/innovation.html Endocrine Today. (2013, December 16). Penicillin: An accidental discovery changed the course of medicine. Opgehaald van healio.com: http://www.healio.com/endocrinology/news/print/endocrine-today/%7B15afd2a1-2084-4ca6-a4e6-7185f5c4cfb0%7D/penicillin-an-accidental-discovery-changed-t he-course-of-medicine Estrem, P. (sd). Why Failure Is Good for Success. Opgeroepen op November 26, 2013, van success.com: http://www.success.com/article/why-failure-is-good-for-success Iriss. (2012, May). Creating the culture of innovation. Opgeroepen op November 29, 2013, van http://www.iriss.org.uk/sites/default/les/creating_a_culture_of_innovation_report_nal.pdf Jerey H. Dyer, H. B. (2009, december). The innovaters DNA. Opgeroepen op December 2013, van HBR: http://hbr.org/2009/12/the-innovators-dna Koray, D. (2013, 10 July). Why Failure is Good For You. Opgehaald van slideshare.net: http://www.slideshare.net/denniskoray/road-to-success-why-failure-is-good-for-you Lindegaard, S. (2013, September). 7 Steps for Building a Top 100 Innovation Company. Opgeroepen op December 2013, van http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2013/09/07/7-steps-for-building-a-top-100-innovation-company/#sthash.6dFvlPj0. dpuf Management, Y. S. (2009). How do you build a culture of innovation. Opgeroepen op december 8, 2013, van http://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/how-do-you-build-culture-innovation Mckinney, P. (2013, October). Unintended Consequences: 5 Innovation Failures That Changed the World. Opgeroepen op December 2013, van http://philmckinney.com/archives/2013/10/unintended-consequences-5-innovation-failures-that-changed-the-world.html More, R. (2011, August). What is succes in innovation? Opgeroepen op December 2013, van http://iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/innovation/what-is-success-in-innovation#.UpUFo6XsDgJ

23

Literature
Network, T. B. (2013, October 11). Driving a Culture of Innovation. Opgeroepen op 12 8, 2013, van http://thebuildnetwork.com/leadership/innovation-culture/ O'neill, D. (2006, May). What is a culture? Opgeroepen op November 29, 2013, van http://anthro.palomar.edu/culture/culture_1.htm Ossebaard, M. H. (2012). De innovatiemotor. Koninklijke van Gorcum, Assen. Rapp, S. (sd). Why Success Always Starts With Failure. Opgeroepen op 12 11, 2013, van http://99u.com/articles/7072/why-success-always-starts-with-failure Rouse, M. (2006, December). Denition serendipity. Opgeroepen op December 2013, van http://whatis.techtarget.com/denition/serendipity Talha, S. (2010, March). Importance Of Innovation Management in Organizations. Opgeroepen op December 2013, van http://www.scribd.com/doc/27711762/Importance-Of-Innovation-Management-in-Organizations Wiki, the free encyclopedia. (2013, September 18). Failure. Opgeroepen op November 26, 2013, van wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure Wikipedia. (2013, December 16). New Coke. Opgehaald van wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Coke Wojcicki, S. (2011, July). 8 pillars of innovation. Opgeroepen op December 8, 2013, van http://www.google.com/think/articles/8-pillars-of-innovation.html Zimmermann, K. A. (2012, July 9). Denition of culture. Opgeroepen op November 29, 2013, van http://www.livescience.com/21478-what-is-culture-denition-of-culture.html

24

Extra pages
Research plan description
Introduction The Avans university in S-Hertogenbosch challenged us to brainstorm about creating an innovation culture. After a lot of brainstorms our main focus was to see how an innovation culture can be created in a company? But how do you actually start an innovation? Can everyone be innovative? And what actually is an innovation? And why are there only a few? We conducted a little research into the innovations in the market and noticed that most companies fail a lot of innovation concepts and that only a few make it to a successful one. Therefor our main question is: Should failures be accepted within an innovation culture? Nowadays innovations are necessary to even excist, in this open and globalized world. In this study we want to embrace the fast pace of innovation and see when an innovation is a failure and what can you do to learn from them? The main purpose of this research is to get a better, wider and detailed view of an innovation culture. Structure of the Sub questions Chapter 1. Concept of the innovation culture 1.1. Denition of an innovation culture 1.2. What is a culture? 1.3. Conclusion Chapter 2. Innovation as a failure 2.1 Denition of a failure 2.2. The key values that lead to a failure of innovation 2.3. The importance of failures 2.4. Responds to failures 2.5. Conclusion Chapter 3. An successful innovation 3.1. Dening a success 3.2. The key values that lead to a successful innovation 3.3 Conclusion Chapter 4. Manage an innovation 4.1. Innovation DNA 4.2. Chapter 5. The fall over 5.1. Case studies 5.2. The key values that lead failures to a success Chapter 6. Conclusion

25

6.3. Method To nd out if a failure should be excepted in an innovation culture we conducted research in all possible ways. We started of with desk research and also conducted a little eld research. After formulating the main question we looked into the sub questions to make sure that they would lead us to the right answer. During the following weeks we noticed that we had to make little changes to certain chapters because the formulated sub question would not give us the answer that we wanted to have. While writing what a successful innovation is we noticed that while answering that answer we already answered the question : how to manage an innovation. Therefore we decided to look into what a company or a person should have to be innovative. We also noticed that there are a lot of denitions of innovations out there, it is a really broad topic therefore a lot of important people made suggestions for denition. Due to the fact that we has a course in innovation we used the denition An innovation is a new idea, process, product or service that is successfully generated, accepted and implemented. An innovation always completes all the steps in this process. However, as you might have noticed, we also took other insights in mind to come to the right conclusion. After answering the sub questions we noticed we came to a successful conclusion, however we did noticed that we could add some extra information in how to have a successful innovation and decided to look more into case studies, successful and the not so successful ones. It turns out that there is a lot of information about successful innovations but not so much about failures. Never the less we had a bulk of information, new insights and experiences which we eventually scooped down to the most relevant. The structure helped us to make sure that we looked at it from all possible angles to conclude the main question: Should a failure be accepted in an innovation culture? Results Most probably you have already nd all the results but just to be sure we summed them up. The most relevant results are: What an innovation culture is. How can you create an innovation culture. The core of a failure. What you can do to prevent failures When an innovation successful is What are the guidelines to a successful innovation What do you have to do to be or become innovative

26

27