Tibor Dőry

Innovation and excellence

Management methods for innovation transformation

What is an innovator like?

Business leaders would do well to familiarise themselves with the personality traits of true innovators, because they need to be approached differently than traditional employees. Highly effective innovators are curious, creative, courageous, persuasive, persistent and open-minded. In his consultancy work, Gijs van Wulfen (2021) has met thousands of innovators and studied what makes a famous innovator, such as Steve Jobs (Apple), Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Super Mario), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Desmond Tutu (social innovator), Elon Musk (Tesla), Richard Branson (Virgin), James Dyson (Dyson), Larry Page and Sergey Brin (founders of Google), and Ingvar Kamprad (IKEA). These celebrities often mention the following golden rules as factors that determine their success: "Be authentic!"; "Be critical and speak up!"; "Never give up!"; "Settle for perfection only!"; "Say no to 1,000 things!"; "Work 80-100 hours a week!"; "Choose the right team!"; "Don't take yourself too seriously!"; "Listen to your inner voice!"; "Be curious!"; "Use new technology to solve everyday problems!"; "Make a perfect product!"; "Dream big!"; "Step out of your comfort zone!"; "Simplify!"

The above phrases may seem mundane or general, but they are nevertheless repeated as mantras by many successful innovators. In addition, Wulfen (2021) recommends that innovators adopt the following seven habits:

1. Do not accept the status quo

A quote attributed to George Bernard Shaw ties in well with this habit: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." Innovation often starts with something that annoys you and is also important to you. Something you personally want to change because you want to or need to. Innovation begins the moment you want to change the present. This is the WHY of innovation. Be sure to think BIG!

2. Follow your passion

It is very important for both your workplace and yourself to find something in which you can excel. This inner motivation makes you passionate about your innovative work. If you follow your passion and start new things today, you will get closer to your dream.

3. Focus, focus, focus

Seneca, the Roman philosopher, said, "No wind is favourable to those who do not know which port they are sailing to." First and foremost, choose a point on the horizon, find your North Star! Focus your innovation efforts to move in a clear direction and make your efforts more effective.

4. Consider the customer's perspective

If you solve significant customer problems in new ways, you give them a reason to change. Start by uncovering relevant customer dissatisfactions if you want to create innovative products or services. There are many ways to discover these, such as observation, personal visits, focus groups, or other design thinking techniques.

5. Innovate as a team

You can be a lone inventor, but you can't innovate alone. Innovation turns ideas into revenue. How many people does it take to get from idea to market launch? Be sure to involve many people early in the innovation process, as ideas need many fathers and mothers to survive corporate culture.

6. Experiment and learn continuously

Everything looks great on paper, but does it really work? Start small-scale experimentation as early as possible. The best way to learn is to test customers and their needs with a minimum viable product (MVP) and then develop the product or service accordingly.

7. Act quickly

Move forward with your innovation project at high speed, otherwise it will drag on and become tedious. In a corporate environment, innovation dies if progress is not demonstrated quickly enough. As a startup entrepreneur, you can quickly run out of money.

Tartalomjegyzék

Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó

Online megjelenés éve: 2026

ISBN: 978 963 664 182 5

Menedzsment

The aim of the book "Innovation and Excellence" is to inspire and encourage company leaders, managers, and experts to initiate and implement innovation transformations with the help of professional literature and corporate case studies. Another important goal is to help develop the innovation capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises in particular by sharing simple, proven management methods that can be tested in practice.

The first part of the volume reviews the factors of corporate excellence and success, then highlights the possible sources of innovation, with a focus on the role of users and employees. The empirical section presents a detailed description of the supportive role of the workplace environment and creative working conditions based on corporate case studies (AUDI, BOSCH, MELECS). The volume concludes with a description of selected tested practical methods and management techniques that readers can try out in their own businesses.

Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/dory-innovation-and-excellence//

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