Innovation Definition Essay Example for Free

Innovation Definition Essay Innovation is about bringing ideas into life. Innovation is linked to performance and growth through improvements in efficiency, productivity, quality, competitive positioning and market share. Innovation takes place at different levels from modest improvements on an existing product or process to dramatic and even historically significant breakthroughs in how we relate to the world. In all cases, the capacity to innovate will be a function of our commitments, what we want to accomplish and our relationship with the circumstances we perceive we are in. If we are resisting or coping, we see no innovation and whatever change we generate will be as a reaction to the circumstances and part of the process by which those circumstances persist. When we are responding or choosing we are in a position to innovate and will do so naturally and consistently as a function of what we observe to be possible or what we observe is missing in our perspective of the world.Change based on this view is likely to be an improvement on what already exists. INNOVATION AND PERFORMANCE A successful organisation that turns its focus to innovation is looking for achievements. Innovation shows up in the quality and quantity of ideas and the efficiency and effectiveness of implementation of those ideas. These two parameters are independent, however, when combined they form the definition of innovation performance. IMPORTANCE Innovation is not only about technology, but is also about understanding and exploring untapped user needs that require to be addressed in an efficient manner. It must occur at every stage of a product or solution development and release cycle. Thus, managing innovation is fast becoming priority in a global business environment. Firms which innovate tends to survive and grow to a greater extent. The most successful individuals, managers and team leaders in latest business world are the ones who are not only innovative in their own work, but who encourage and assist others to be innovative in every aspect of their work. Some of the key innovation areas are: product development and improvement; manufacturing processes; creating entirely new set of products; etc. In area of supply chain management, innovations help in making the supply chain more responsive, flexible and efficient. Supply chain innovation can be used to reduce costs, offer better assortment of customer centric products, decreasing time to market and driving growth. INNOVATION SYSTEM The concept of the innovation system stresses that the flow of technology and information among people, enterprises and institutions is key to an innovative process. It contains the interaction between the actors who are needed in order to turn an idea into a process, product or service on the market. Systems of Innovation are frameworks for understanding innovation which have become popular particularly among policy makers and innovation researchers first in Europe, but now anywhere in the world as in the 90s the World Bank and other UN affiliated institutions accepted. BENEFITS OF INNOVATION Technology has a vital role to play in any modern workplace and can make a huge difference to the way your business operates, and how well your staff carry out their tasks. These days, an online presence is also expected by customers and therefore is an essential component for businesses. In order to understand whether a new technology could help your business, you should review the technology you are presently using and assess how well existing systems work with your current and future business requirements. INNOVATION TYPES A number of frameworks have been used to look at types of innovation. Generally these approaches for categorizing innovation consider the sources of innovation from past successes or attempt to identify where to look for new innovation in the future. The variety of innovation types demonstrates that the benefits of innovation are not limited to new product development. Categorization also helps in the measurement of innovation, allowing for performance comparison and evidence based choices that can guide where improvements or advances might generate the most return for a given investment. This is sometimes referred to as the Return On Innovation. The ‘4Ps’ model developed by John Bessant and Joe Tidd provide a powerful tool for such analysis. It builds on the hypothesis that successful innovation is essentially about positive change, and puts forward four broad categories where such change can take place. Product innovation’ – changes in the things (products/services) which an organisation offers. Process innovation’ – changes in the ways in which products and services are created or delivered Position innovation’ – changes in the context in which the products/services are framed and communicated Paradigm innovation’ – changes in the underlying mental models which shape what the organisation does.

Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number Essay -- Essays Papers

Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number During the last thirty years, there has been an increase in violent crimes committed by minors. In many of these cases, the minors are faced with harsher charges than what the law declares, such as being charged as adults. The majority of the United States justifies the age 18 as when an individual is no longer considered a minor. Yet, in the past ten years, the United States has seen the age of individuals being charged as adults drop. For example, in 1993, Nathan Dunlap a seventeen year-old from my hometown Aurora, Colorado was sentenced to the death penalty and eight years later, twelve year-old Lionel Tate of Fort Lauderdale, Florida was charged with life in prison. Currently the United States government has established age requirements for a minor to be charged as an adult because it is a â€Å"quick and ready pragmatic definition† (Overton 109). However, a simple age limit is not the proper method in determining charges against an individual. Since each American has a different mindset due to their experiences, upbringings, and morals, our laws should reflect that diversity. The court system of the United States should replace the method of using the chronological age of a minor to their mental age when determining the charges against an individual, because it is the state of one’s mentality that leads them to commit a crime. During the late eighteen-hundreds, the U.S. added a branch of law that specifically focused on juveniles. The location of the nation’s first juvenile court for children under the age of 16 opened in 1899 in Chicago, Illinois. The purpose of the juvenile court was to rehabilitate criminals instead of prosecuting them as adults. The social reformers that propos... ...rd ed. New York: Arnold Publishers, 1999. 16-53. - â€Å"History of Intelligence Testing†. IQTest. Google. 4 Feb. 2005 . - â€Å"Interview with Deborah Yurgelum-Todd†. Frontline: Inside the Teenage Brain. 2002. PBS.org. 6 Feb. 2005 . - â€Å"Interview with Jay Giedd, M.D.†. Frontline: Inside the Teenage Brain. 2002. PBS.org. 6 Feb 2005 . - McKibben, Ginny. â€Å"Court Files Hold Details of Slayings Accounts of Dunlap’s ‘Confession’.† The Denver Post. 1 Jan. 1996. ProQuest. 28 Jan. 2005 . - Overton, Willis F. â€Å"Chapter 3: Developmental Psychology: Philosophy, Concepts, and Methodology†. Handbook of Children Psychology. 5th ed. Ed. William Damon. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998. 109. Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number Essay -- Essays Papers Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number During the last thirty years, there has been an increase in violent crimes committed by minors. In many of these cases, the minors are faced with harsher charges than what the law declares, such as being charged as adults. The majority of the United States justifies the age 18 as when an individual is no longer considered a minor. Yet, in the past ten years, the United States has seen the age of individuals being charged as adults drop. For example, in 1993, Nathan Dunlap a seventeen year-old from my hometown Aurora, Colorado was sentenced to the death penalty and eight years later, twelve year-old Lionel Tate of Fort Lauderdale, Florida was charged with life in prison. Currently the United States government has established age requirements for a minor to be charged as an adult because it is a â€Å"quick and ready pragmatic definition† (Overton 109). However, a simple age limit is not the proper method in determining charges against an individual. Since each American has a different mindset due to their experiences, upbringings, and morals, our laws should reflect that diversity. The court system of the United States should replace the method of using the chronological age of a minor to their mental age when determining the charges against an individual, because it is the state of one’s mentality that leads them to commit a crime. During the late eighteen-hundreds, the U.S. added a branch of law that specifically focused on juveniles. The location of the nation’s first juvenile court for children under the age of 16 opened in 1899 in Chicago, Illinois. The purpose of the juvenile court was to rehabilitate criminals instead of prosecuting them as adults. The social reformers that propos... ...rd ed. New York: Arnold Publishers, 1999. 16-53. - â€Å"History of Intelligence Testing†. IQTest. Google. 4 Feb. 2005 . - â€Å"Interview with Deborah Yurgelum-Todd†. Frontline: Inside the Teenage Brain. 2002. PBS.org. 6 Feb. 2005 . - â€Å"Interview with Jay Giedd, M.D.†. Frontline: Inside the Teenage Brain. 2002. PBS.org. 6 Feb 2005 . - McKibben, Ginny. â€Å"Court Files Hold Details of Slayings Accounts of Dunlap’s ‘Confession’.† The Denver Post. 1 Jan. 1996. ProQuest. 28 Jan. 2005 . - Overton, Willis F. â€Å"Chapter 3: Developmental Psychology: Philosophy, Concepts, and Methodology†. Handbook of Children Psychology. 5th ed. Ed. William Damon. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998. 109.

Corporate Business World: Ethics and Morality Essay

Ethics and morals are a requirement in the corporate business world. Each day employees are faced with moral and ethical issues; and because they have their own individual set of morals, they behave differently. Many have formed a good understanding of the basics of ethics, leadership, morality and social responsibility; but most do not really understand the true meaning of values, ethics and morality. The roots of ethics in America teach us â€Å"Ten Universal Values,† namely, honesty, integrity, promise-keeping, fidelity, fairness, caring, respect for others, responsible citizenship, pursuit of excellence, and accountability. However, recent history teaches us 12 ethical principles that include two additional values, namely leadership, and reputation and morals to the list that I will discuss in this essay. I will also discuss the differences between ethical and moral issues. In business, ethics and character count. Therefore, I will also discuss some organizations that have been destroyed or damaged due to their unethical and immoral behavior in business. Let’s begin with Merriam Webster’s Dictionary definition of ethics. According to this dictionary, ethics is defined as: an area of study that deals with ideas about what is good and bad behavior; a branch of philosophy dealing with what is morally right or wrong (Merriam-Webster). According to our text, ethics is defined in two ways. First, it states that ethics are the principles of conduct that governs an individual or group. An example would be the rules by which an individual lives his or her personal life (Text pg 8). A great example would be when a child makes the decision to  break the rules of a game, he is creating conflict between himself and his playmates. Then again, the child who chooses to play by the rules ultimately enjoys friendship and closeness with his playmates, which is a benefit to himself. Our text defines ethics from the dictionary as â€Å"the study of morality.† Ethics may deal with morality, but it is not the same as morality (Text p g ­ 8). Our text states that ethics is a kind of investigation [that] includes both the activity of investigating as well as the results of that investigation. Whereas, morality is the subject matter that ethics investigates (Text pg 8). This brings us to the dictionary definition of morality which defines it as: beliefs about what is right behavior and what is wrong behavior, or the degree to which something is right and good; the moral goodness or badness of something (Merriam-Webster). Two good examples are correcting a financial error in your favor when you know that it would never be discovered and a co-worker stealing food out of the freezer. These are crimes, the moral issue is do you report them or not? There are guidelines and standards in which employees are expected to follow if an employee decides to stay employed. Ethical principles serve as a guide to making decisions and they also serve to establish the criteria by which your decisions will be judged by others. In the business world, it is critical how people judge your character because it is the basis of trust and credibility. Your reputation is what people perceive of your actions. Are they honorable and ethical? Whereas your character is defined by your actions and if they are they honorable and ethical according to the following 12 ethical principles: 1. Honesty – Be honest in all communications and actions. 2. Integrity – Maintain personal integrity. 3. Promise-keeping – Keep promises and fulfill commitments. 4. Loyalty – Be loyal within the framework of other ethical principles. 5. Fairness – Strive to be fair and just in all dealings. 6. Caring – Demonstrate compassion and a genuine concern for the well-being of others. 7. Respect for others – Treat everyone with respect. 8. Law Abiding – Obey the law. 9. Commitment to excellence – Pursue excellence all the time in all things. 10. Leadership – Exemplify honor and ethics. 11. Reputation and Morale – Build and protect and build the company’s good reputation and the moral of its employees. 12. Accountability – Be accountable. Both character and reputation should be a concern for successful executives because both can be destroyed by their actions that are perceived to be unethical (http://josephsoninstitute.  Ethics are an integral learned part of the success or failure of a business. Several large organizations such as Enron and WorldCom have been destroyed and some organizations such as AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac have been seriously damaged due to unethical practices of their top executives. Most notable is the Ponzi scheme by Bernie Madoff and other executives of Enron Corporation who convinced thousands of investors to fork over their savings by falsely promising consistent profits in return and falsely inflated the company’s revenues, through their accounting practices that made them become the seventh largest company in the world. When the scheme was uncovered, the company fell unraveled and, consequently, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, 2001. Seven years later, Madoff wa s caught and charged with 11 counts of fraud, money laundering, perjury, and theft after conning his investors out of $65 billion and went undetected for many years. He was sentenced to 150 years in prison (S. Yang 2014). More locally, my daughter previously worked for the Finance Department of the Marion Housing Authority and was terminated by Executive Director, Frederick Hunt, for not participating in practicing that ethically and morally wrong. After a three-year investigation, Hunt was arrested and preliminarily charged with two counts of forgery, one count of corrupt business influence and four counts of theft for misusing more than $20,000 in Marion Housing Authority funds. According to the Grant County Prosecutor, checks were written to a sub-contractor, Hunt forged the payee’s name and deposited the funds into his own personal account; charged over $12,000 on a company credit card and made several in his hometown of North Carolina (C. Franks 2014). According to our textbook, traditionally the view of an individual’s  responsibility for corporate acts have claimed that when an organized group of members (i.e. corporation) act together, then their act should be attributed to the corporate group and not the individuals of whom the group is made; and they must be held responsible for the act. Meaning that each and every person who knowingly and freely cooperates to produce a corporate act is morally responsible for that act. The law, however, attributes the acts of a corporation’s managers to the corporation as a whole and not to the managers as individuals. (Text pg. 62) While a majority of companies choose to make law-abiding decisions, there are still some companies that will try to â€Å"beat the system.† This is where the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 comes in. This Act discourages the â€Å"crooks† of the corporate world from being noncompliant with security violations due to the Act’s criminal and civil penalty provisions; and it encourages independent auditing by certified external auditors. This Act requires elevated levels of corporate disclosure in the areas of executive salaries, financial reports, and insider trading. Although the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is considered a burden by some companies, it gives the investing world a greater level of confidence in their investment activities by complying with its provisions. In conclusion, ethics is the branch of philosophy that theoretically, rationally, and logically determines right from wrong, moral from immoral, and good from bad conducts and behaviors. Simply put by some as â€Å"walking the talk.† With regard to basic values, morals guide people toward permissible behavior; they are judgments, standards and rules of good conduct in society. Hopefully, one day all executives and managers will come to realize the old saying that â€Å"honesty is the best policy.† References 12 Ethical Principles for Business Executives by Michael Josephson. (2010, December 17). Retrieved January 6, 2015, from http://josephsoninstitute.org/business/blog/2010/12/12-ethical-principles-for-business-executives/ Ethic. (n.d.). Retrieved January 6, 2015, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethic Franks, C. (2014, July 14). Former Housing Head Arrested. Chronicle-Tribune. Retrieved January 8, 2015. Morality. (n.d.). Retrieved January 6, 2015, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/morality Understanding ethics and morality in business – Smart Business Magazine. (n.d.). Retrieved January 6, 2015, from http://www.sbnonline.com/article/understanding-ethics-and-morality-in-business-there-are-distinct-differences-between-ethics-and-morality/ Velasquez, M. (2012). Business ethics Concepts and cases (7th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Yang, S. (2014, July 1). 5 Years Ago Bernie Madoff Was Sentenced to 150 Years In Prison – Here’s How His Scheme Worked. Retrieved January 6, 2015, from http://www.businessinsider.com/how-bernie-madoffs-ponzi-scheme-worked-2014-7 BA 3200 ESSAYexist.

Access / Equity / Financial Aid - 789 Words

Access/Equity/Financial Aid One important aspect of education in Argentina is that University level tuition is free and open to anyone. Although it is not required to pay any kind of fee at universities, hidden costs of education, like transportation and materials, are often neglected and a lack of a well-developed and widespread scholarship system makes it hard for students from low-income families to enroll in public universities. For each eight students from the 20% upper-income class, there is only one student from the 20% lower-income class able to pursue higher education. In contrast, post-graduate education requires some form of funding and it is generally not free. (Guadagni 2005) With open admission then there is open access. While access to higher education is available to anyone with a high school degree (Garcia de Fanelli, 2007, p 577), doesn’t mean they have the ability to go. Access doesn’t mean equitable. The idea for tuition free public universities is meant for all students to have access to higher education (Rozada Menendez, 2002). Enrollment is open in Argentina for public universities, only requiring a high school degree while private universities vary and can be open admission or have an application process (Rozada Menendez, 2002). As Rozada and Menendez (2002) explain, it’s accessible but not equitable, since family s socioeconomic background is a major factor influencing a student’s ability to go to college or not. There is hardly equal accessShow MoreRelatedFinancial Aid In Higher Education Aims To Make Tuition1616 Words   |  7 PagesFinancial aid in higher education aims to make tuition fees affordable. 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