The need for organisations to innovate is one of the most important functions to undertake in order to stay viable. There are many factors that impact on the organisation, mainly the internal and external environments. However, the external environment is largely the main cause to innovate, with the use of technology helping organisations of all sorts become more efficient and effective in the way that they do business. Also, technology is making it a lot easier to access information from all over the world with a single click of a mouse button. Many organisations also have to deal with their competition, especially the new companies that are setting up in the powerhouses of China and India. What’s more, climate change is a concern that is on everybody’s mind and organisations will have to innovate to become more sustainable. Innovation goes deeper down than just the organisation as a whole, all the departments the make up the organisation all play different roles to help the innovation take place. These tasks will differ depending what role the department plays in the innovation process and what is needed and who will undertake the innovation. Lastly, the leaders of innovation whom will be discussed is a science-based company known as 3M, they have thought of, and innovated thousands of products and we will see what makes 3M so successful.
Firstly, what is innovation? It can be defined as any change to a product or service that will enhance the consumer’s experience of using the product over another product (Johnson, 2001). An example of innovation that has affected almost every child is innovation in the education system. Many schools are now moving from the traditional method of teaching to online learning and interactive learning systems. These new methods of