Reply to these two posts with at least 3-4 sentences of constructive feedback and new information/ideas each.

The article “The Innovator’s DNA” describes five skills that innovative entrepreneurs have mastered; associating, questioning, observing, experimenting, and networking. The first skill, associating is described through the Medici family and their creativity that became widespread throughout Florence.

Describe what is meant in the article by putting a “Ding in the Universe.” This family brought creativity of all kinds including, sculptors, scientists, poets, philosophers, painters, and architects together through what is called the “Medici effect”.

Questioning can be understood best by looking at Michael Dell as he founded Dell Computer. He states the idea sprang from him asking why a computer costed five times as much as the sum of its parts. He considered why this was and in turn founded his revolutionary business model. After observing his wife’s frustration to keep track of finances and getting a peak at the Apple Lisa before its launch Intuit founder Scott Cook got the idea for Quicken financial software.

Unlike observers who watch the world, experimenters construct interactive experiences to try. The article lists off numerous people including, Michael Lazaridis, Jeff Bezos, and Steve Jobs, all who had some form of active experimentation. The last skill, networking, has innovative entrepreneurs going out of their way to meet people with different ideas and perspectives.

The most significant new skills that I have gained from this course are probably questioning and experimenting. Throughout the course project I have had to ask a lot of questions to get a better understanding of the service I was looking to provide. This also took a lot of experimenting through trial and error. I would change the way I wanted to design my service, then question whether this would be beneficial to my cause.

Post #2:

5 Innovator Skills

The six-year study conducted looked at the habits of 25 innovative entrepreneurs and surveyed 3000 executives and 500 individuals that were responsible for starting innovative companies or that invented new products. This study found 5 skills that were common amongst the most innovative leaders in business – 1) associating, 2) questioning, 3) observing, 4) experimenting, and 5) networking – which make up the Innovator’s DNA.

1. Associating: ability to connect ideas and concepts that would not seem to be related to one another
   • Pierre Omidyar who launched eBay did so after connecting the three specific dots: 1) the want to create more efficient markets, 2) the difficulty his fiancé was having in locating hard to find Pez dispensers, and 3) a realization that local classified ads were not a broad enough avenue to search to find the wanted items.
2. Questioning: the constant action of asking questions that would disrupt conventional thinking; playing devils advocate when ideas are presented – Why are things done this way? Why not do it another way? What if we did it this way instead?
   • Michael Dell who founded Dell computers questioned why it was so expensive to buy a computer when the parts themselves weren’t that expensive individually.
3. Observing: not just listening to what customers, suppliers, or competitors are saying, but instead watching the behaviors they exhibit when using a new product or react to external stimuli that can impact their organization – and then finding new ways to do things based on the observations made.
   • Scott Cook founder of Intuit came up with the idea of Quicken financial software after observing the difficulties his wife ran into when dealing with and trying to track their own finances.
4. Experimenting: actively trying out new ideas by creating prototypes, launching pilots and constructing interactive experiences that provoke unique responses and watching what happens. It also allows for failures to become learning opportunities.
   • Jeff Bezos has consistently experimented with Amazon, which has allowed it to move from being an online book seller to an innovative electronics manufacturer – think Kindle and Echo.
5. Networking: going out of one’s way to meet people with diverse ideas and perspectives, not just to sell yourself or your company – one way to do this is through attending idea conferences.
   • Michael Lazaridis the founder of Research in Motion had the idea for Blackberry while at a conference listening to a speaker discussing an innovation at Coke that allowed vending machines to send alerts out when they needed to be refilled.

(Dyer, Gregersen, & Christensen, 2009)

“Ding in the Universe”

Steve Jobs is the one known for the phrase “Ding in the Universe,” though other successful innovators have similar mantras or theories that describe and provide the same motivation. The idea is to never settle for the status quo. Instead, one should strive to diverge from it and create things that change the way people think about and use the technologies around them. It also means having a willingness to take risks and to fail. Failing is not a problem as it often allows for discovery that enables future success. The key is to learn from the failures and avoid the things that went wrong on future endeavors. (Dyer, Gregersen, & Christensen, 2009)

Realizations

The most important thing I am taking away from this course is the idea of Design Thinking, or Customer-centric Design. This approach is useful not only for the creation of new products, but also for transforming processes and the culture of an organization. Observing what people go through on a daily basis leads to questions as to why they do things the way they do and whether there is a better way to accomplish the goals they are seeking. You can then create ideas to improve the actions and processes they undertake, present those ideas to individuals for feedback, and use that knowledge to refine the product or service you have envisioned. Furthermore, if you continue to observe how the product or service is used once created and you continue to elicit feedback from users, you increase the continued success of what you created by never allowing it to become stagnant or outdated. Essentially you keep your finger on the pulse of what your consumers want and need.

Each of the skills discussed are critical to becoming an innovative thinker; however, I would focus on questioning and networking. Questioning is listed as the most important skill of them all as it allows you to see things from a different angle. I plan to incorporate the idea of taking time to write down questions that challenge the status quo of how things are done at my work as well as around me in my personal life. Networking to me seems to be the next logical skill to focus on, as it allows you to connect with individuals that work in different industries and that have different backgrounds from your own. (Dyer, Gregersen, & Christensen, 2009) To do this, I intend to seek funding through my organization to begin attending idea conferences and to join the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) which brings together proposal writers from many different industries to share best practices and insights. (APMP, n.d.) Developing these skills will make me even more valuable to my organization and will help me continue down the path of being the consummate learner – always out there seeking knowledge to improve myself and the organization for which I work.

Do you need a similar assignment done for you from scratch? We have qualified writers to help you. We assure you an A+ quality paper that is free from plagiarism. Order now for an Amazing Discount!
Use Discount Code "Newclient" for a 15% Discount!

NB: We do not resell papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.