What are the advantages of innovation companies?

Innovation is the act of introducing something new or doing something in a different way. Innovation in business differs from creativity in that the latter is generally associated with the generation of new ideas. In contrast, innovation refers to taking those new ideas and actually implementing them in the marketplace. Thus, creativity is simply one element of the innovation process through which new ideas lead to new products, procedures, or services. Business scholars often attribute company success to innovation.  Innovation usually results from trial-and-error experimentation and sometimes occurs incidentally where researchers produce something other than what they intended

Innovation companies are those that often lead the way with new technological advances that continue to advance the existing consumer market and drive economic growth. Companies like Apple and Google continually redefine the technology and information worlds in such a way that their influence is, at times, overwhelming. Companies that make innovation their primary focus can position themselves to stand out in the crowd and profit enormously. Small businesses that take the lead in developing innovations, just as Apple did in few years back can position themselves for future growth and industry leadership

Innovation companies generally employ a large number of creative and competent individuals who can not only introduce a new product, but also see it through to completion. Innovation companies often employ large numbers of people who oversee all stages of product development and ensure the product's success in the market through a process of conceptualization, design and implementation that results in a finished product that is highly desirable to consumers. For small businesses that wish to stand out in the crowd, finding and hiring the most creative talent possible is essential for success.

The creativity exhibited by innovation companies often puts them in positions of leadership within their respective industries. Apple, for example, regularly makes the news for its latest innovations which generally set the bar for other similar products that are later developed by other companies trying to piggyback off of their success. By the time these companies finally manage to catch up, Apple and other companies taking a leadership role have generally created another innovative product to once again lead the way. Although small businesses are not generally in a position to take this type of leadership role from the outset, they can develop their reputation and do so over the course of time, one product at a time. 

Innovation companies also have the advantage of experience on their side. They typically get the process of product development down to an exact science that can repeat over and over again. Their ability to repeat this process with efficiency generally sets them apart from other companies that try to create new products for the first time. For small businesses this generally involves a considerable amount of trial and error.

Because they are leaders within their respective industries, innovation companies generally do not need to do an excess amount of advertising or branding to capture their target market. Instead, their name alone carries considerable weight in their industry and people await their products to hit the market. Their name recognition generally sets them apart from other companies in the market, which means that they need to do very little to promote their products. This is probably one of the more difficult things for small businesses to establish. However, with just one truly innovative product, these companies can also begin to carve their niche in the market and gain that same type recognition.

Briefly explain the concept of hedonism

The term “hedonism,” from the Greek words mean pleasure, refers to several related theories about what is good for us, how we should behave, and what motivates us to behave in the way that we do. All hedonistic theories identify pleasure and pain as the only important elements of whatever phenomena they are designed to describe.  If hedonistic theories identified pleasure and pain as merely two important elements, instead of the only important elements of what they are describing, then they would not be nearly as unpopular as they all are. However, the claim that pleasure and pain are the only things of ultimate importance is what makes hedonism distinctive and philosophically interesting.

Philosophical hedonists tend to focus on hedonistic theories of value, and especially of well-being (the good life for the one living it). As a theory of value, hedonism states that all and only pleasure is intrinsically valuable and all and only pain is intrinsically not valuable. Hedonists usually define pleasure and pain broadly, such that both physical and mental phenomena are included. Thus, a gentle massage and recalling a fond memory are both considered to cause pleasure and stubbing a toe and hearing about the death of a loved one are both considered to cause pain. With pleasure and pain so defined, hedonism as a theory about what is valuable for us is intuitively appealing. Indeed, its appeal is evidenced by the fact that nearly all historical and contemporary treatments of well-being allocate at least some space for discussion of hedonism.  Unfortunately for hedonism, the discussions rarely endorse it and some even deplore its focus on pleasure.

Hedonism is a philosophical system which holds that people are motivated primarily by the production of pleasure and happiness and the avoidance of pain. A person chooses his or her actions on the basis of how much pleasure and pain the actions will foreseeably cause. Pleasure and pain refer, respectively, to all pleasurable or unpleasant feelings, experiences, states, things, properties, and events.

There are a few different types of hedonism. Motivational hedonism asserts that only pleasure and pain motivate people to do or to not do things. Normative hedonism, however, asserts that only pleasure and all types of pleasure have worth, while only pain and all types of pain have no worth. Egoistic hedonists believe that the happiness of the individual is paramount, while altruistic hedonists feel the happiness of all people is the most important. 

Various philosophers, such as Plato, Aristotle, Austin, Bain, Spencer, Bentham, Moore, Sidgwick, Mill, Broad, and Ross have made contributions to the philosophy of hedonism, but the most influential were Aristippus and Epicurus. Hedonism originated with Aristippus of Cyrene, who believed that pleasure, which included physical pleasure, love, mental pleasure, moral happiness, and friendship, was the most important motivation for behavior. Aristippus also believed that long-term pleasures were more valuable than short-term pleasures. Aristippus was followed by Epicurus, who believed that mental and social pleasures were more important than physical pleasures. Epicurus also believed that pain and self-restraint had value by virtue of sometimes being necessary to health and also by providing even more pleasure through moderation.

Utilitarianism is similar to hedonism because it asserts that a person should choose his or her actions according to what is best for all people. In other words, a person should try to cause the most possible happiness for the most people possible. Most modern hedonists try to bring about pleasure, and they generally feel that the best way to do this is to make people more equal by providing more personal freedoms.

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Give the definition of ethics and why ethics considered oxymoron?

               

The ethics term is come from the Greek word ethos which means custom, habit, character or disposition. Generally, ethics concerns with discovering a system one may use to determine who or what is good, or with evaluating systems that others have proposed. Philosophical ethics also can be called the study of what is good and bad. Ethics is a system of moral principles and it affects how people make decisions and lead their lives.

                Ethics is a requirement for human life. It is our means of deciding a course of action. Without it, our actions would be random and vain. There would be no way to work towards a goal because there would be no way to pick between a limitless numbers of goals. Even with an ethical standard, we may be unable to pursue our goals with the possibility of success. We are able to correctly organize our goals and actions to accomplish our most important values. Any flaw in our ethics will reduce our ability to be successful in our effort.

                At some point ethics considered oxymoron which is bringing together of two apparently contradictory concepts like cheerful pessimist or deafening silence. Oxymoron is also parallel of contradictory words or concepts. That is what we have with the term "Business Ethics". The very contradiction that is exist in this latter phrase is an indication of the challenge that individuals who work for organizations face as we all approach the resource limits of this planet.

One of the necessities of being ethical is telling the truth. However, when we look at how businesses, services and products are often promoted, the truth is stretched rather thin. One example, of course is the mobile communications or cell phone industry. Each carrier runs ads trying to convince us how superior they are. However, since there are no legal requirements even for using terminology such as "4G," and each carrier handles their lines differently, there is often quite a bit of variation. However, as good as it is, it is certainly not as quick as wired or WI-FI service. Every other service has its proponents, as well as its attackers. The issue is not which service is the best, but rather how the services promote themselves. While effective advertising is self-promotional by definition, misleading ads are certainly not terribly ethical.

Secondly, have you ever gone into a store and purchased something, and the store quickly asks you if you'd like to purchase an Extended Warranty. While there is nothing wrong with offering this, nor with the stores making additional revenues doing so, have you ever been given a clear cut explanation of what is and is not covered, and the limitations? Remember, we are discussing ethics here!

The global concept of business is fundamentally based on the principle of competition for limited resources. That is the practice of maximizing one's gains at the expense of others. This ultimately has the effect of creating a hierarchy of those who have and those who have not. This is really paramount to other human beings.

In other words business is about engaging in activities that essentially go against our core human values. Now this may come as a surprise to some because most consider business as normal a human activity as breathing. It is this exist contradiction that has led to the spate of business executives coming under the ethical spotlight in recent years. In a sense this outcome was inevitable and the trend will continue unless we begin to redefine the principles on which business is carried out

There are so many situations in business where there is the opportunity for a business, product, or representative to prioritize ethical behaviour, or to merely do what might be expedient and in the store (or business, product,) best interest, rather than the customer (or buyer). Therefore, one must wonder if business ethics is another one of those oxymorons, such as military intelligence, moral politician and etc.

Define corporate governance

The system of rules, practices and processes by which a company is directed and controlled. Corporate governance essentially involves balancing the interests of the many stakeholders in a company; these include its shareholders, management, customers, suppliers, financiers, government and the community. Since corporate governance also provides the framework for attaining a company's objectives, it includes practically every types of management, from action plans and internal controls to performance measurement and corporate disclosure.

While the conventional definition of corporate governance and acknowledges the existence and importance of 'other stakeholders' they still focus on the traditional debate on the relationship between disconnected owners (shareholders) and often self-serving managers. Indeed it has been said, rather ponderously, that corporate governance consists of two elements:

•        The long term relationship which has to deal with checks and balances, incentives for manager and communications between management and investors.

•        The transactional relationship which involves dealing with disclosure and authority.

This implies an adversarial relationship between management and investors, and an attitude of mutual suspicion. This was the basis for much of the rationale of the Cadbury Report, and is one of the reasons why it prescribed in some detail the way in which the board should conduct itself consistency and transparency towards shareholders are its watchwords.

From the definition, corporate governance mainly focuses on the process used to direct and manage the business and affairs of the company with the objectives of striking a balance on:

•        The attainment of the company's objectives.

•        The alignment of corporate behaviour to meet the expectations of shareholders.

•        Accountability and good stewardship, taking into consideration the interests of shareholders, stakeholders, corporate participants and society at large.

Corporate Governance ensures transparency which ensures strong and balanced economic development. This also ensures that the interests of all shareholders (majority as well as minority shareholders) are safeguarded. It ensures that all shareholders fully exercise their rights and that the organization fully recognizes their rights. Corporate Governance has a broad scope. It includes both social and institutional aspects. Corporate Governance encourages a trustworthy, moral, as well as ethical environment.

Explain Genovasi.

                Genovasi, a combination of Generasi and Inovasi or Innovation Generation, is the innovation organisation to propagate innovation and design thinking skills, creating services and solutions that improve the economy and quality of life. Genovasi recognises the importance of young people to the future of the country and how their skills as creative innovators will be instrumental to solving social, economic and environmental issues.

                Genovasi was announced by the Malaysian Prime Minister, YAB Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak on August 1st, 2012. This "first of its kind" initiative in ASEAN will be spearheaded by Unit Inovasi Khas (UNIK) under the Prime Minister's Office. Genovasi will produce Innovation Ambassadors who will be catalysts for change to spread the concepts, best practices and applications of innovation. They will actively apply the innovation skills and methodologies they have learnt through Genovasi to real situations where innovation can bring about progress, a better quality of life as well as solutions for the nation.

Genovasi Innovation mission be expected to bring positive changes to three core areas:

-  Improvement of public service delivery within Government departments, ministries as well as   town councils

-  Improvement of the quality of life at villages and local communities

-  Creation of new economic wealth through entrepreneurship or industry game-changing efforts

                Design Thinking is a human-centred approach to innovation. It is rooted in an innovative and creative culture that seeks to combine empathy towards people with enthusiasm and curiosity for current and future technologies as well as with an entrepreneurial spirit to create new business concepts and to turn ideas into reality. It involves methods and tools from the fields of design and ethnography as well as practical skills from the fields of engineering and analytical and strategic skills of business.

Above all, Design Thinking is a mind-set for solving complex problems. Design Thinking involves not only designers but also people from other disciplines. In an iterative process a diverse and heterogeneous team identifies unmet, hidden and unarticulated user needs and desires, and creates solutions that are technologically feasible and economically viable. Design Thinking includes a methodological approach consisting of some phases that are run through in an iterative process.

The process begins with the framing of a design challenge in the form of a question that outlines the problem statement and possible search space for solutions. The design challenge is developed together with the Outreach Partner. Thereafter, multidisciplinary teams from Genovasi will go through iterative process from understanding to prototyping and testing of innovative problem solutions.

Why Malaysia has to be innovative?

Innovation is the process of translating an idea or invention into goods or services that creates value or for which customers will pay. To be called an innovation, an idea must be replicable at an economical cost and must satisfy a specific need. Innovation involves application of information, imagination and initiative in deriving greater or different values from resources, and includes all processes by which new ideas are generated and converted into useful products. In business, innovation often results when ideas are applied by the company in order to further satisfy the needs and expectations of the customers.

Has Malaysia move forward in its path to become a high-income, knowledge based country? Generally everybody agrees that Malaysia has stuck in the middle. There have been hefty pronouncements by politician and the government that we need to buckle up. It won’t be easy, changing the mind-set and culture of the nation to be an innovative driven society but this is one transformation that must be done. We’re eight years away from 2020, the deadline we placed upon Malaysia to become a self-sufficient industrialised country. Eight years is certainly a short period of time, and we have a lot of work to do to achieve the goals enshrined in Vision 2020.

Malaysia needs to change the way we have been doing things in business, government, academic and society itself because we must look at new key ingredients to take us to the next level. This is why the government has made Innovation and Transformation as the key thrusts in our way forward. Through bodies such as Malaysian Innovation Agency, the government is revamping the necessary elements of innovation to ensure that all groups in society, including academic, industry, the society and government itself, collaborate and move in the same direction.

Innovation will be the next driver the Malaysian economy because innovation-driven economy will enable the nation to further develop its science and technology sector. This needs to happen if the country aspires to surge ahead of countries already famous for their science and technology prowess, like South Korea and Japan. A fledgling innovation economy in the country would open up opportunities for local talents, thus reducing the brain-drain problem. However, the minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili said, he and his ministry is also reaching out to talented Malaysian overseas to encourage them to share their knowledge and expertise with their counterparts in the science and technology sector at home. Certain research areas, such as aerospace, cyber security and nuclear power, could do with contributions from our talented scientists residing overseas. As an added measure to encourage innovative thinking among Malaysians, the ministry will be rolling out the National Innovation Foundation soon, and has declared 2010 as the year of creativity and innovation.

               

The Malaysian government has implemented initiatives to support and encourage innovation, such as the establishment of the National Innovation Centre and Technology Acquisition Fund.  Recognizing that enhancing research and development (R&D) is essential to driving innovation, there seems to be a growing understanding that the commercial applicability of R&D products is equally paramount. A host of challenges contribute to the low levels of innovation in Malaysia, top of which seem to be the lack of public and private spending on R&D activities, a fledgling venture capital market, and low levels of small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) participation in research and innovative activity

Malaysia does seem poised to foster innovation and increase productivity in the economy. However, even the best plans have no value when implementation is poor. Let’s hope that we will see these initiatives through so that Malaysia can reach its full competitive and economic potential. Only when the spirit of change, transformation and innovation is alive in the masses would we have a chance at achieving our dreams of becoming an Innovation Nation by 2020