Global Innovation... whose in the driving seat?


The book, Global Innovations (Hamson & Holder, 2002) discusses the social, geo-political and economic demands of meeting the requirements for doing business globally.  The authors, Ned Hamson and Robert Holder provide an outstanding analysis of the challenges for companies, individuals and organizations in facilitating innovative ways to apply new applications of old concepts.  In the opening chapter, Hamson and Holder put the concerns of the innovative process into context, covering the “Global Impact” which is a set of nine universal principles which identifies good practices, and a value based platform for organizations to promote institutional learning as they innovate in the global market. 
    The authors discuss the “Global Impact” principle, which includes corporate responsibilities of doing business globally, while focusing on the protection of human rights and the development of environmentally friendly technology.  The first chapter is one of the best summaries available for providing an analysis of the issues associated with sustaining effective and efficient processes in global innovation.
   The chapter is followed by “Discontinuous Innovation which the authors define as “denying existing conditions, changing the existing order of values or systems - or reinventing a market, product or significant aspect of the customer transaction” (Hamson & Holder, 2002, p. 13).  The authors discuss discontinuous innovation as the re-conceptualizing of products and services which combine several tasks into one operation, while reducing costs and speeding up processes without compromising quality.  This chapter pays special attention to the greatest challenges of global innovation – changing prevailing attitudes and behavior and the implications of constraints and limits of new concepts at the individual and organizational level.   
    The authors provide an excellent example in the case of Standard Life – one of the leading mutual finance service companies in the world and based in Edinburgh, Scotland.   During the fiscal year from 1997-1998, Standard Life sold more than 529,000 policies with a total premium income of over one billion British pounds.  In their efforts to move away from a paper reporting system, and to reduce costs along with operate with greater financial and operational integrity, Standard Life was able to achieve a paperless environment with more efficient and improved applications of data and electronic storage.  Standard Life was able to accomplish this task by utilizing electronic data interchange (EDI) which enabled the company to process data electronically and to exchange data with other companies.  With the introduction of EDI, the company was able to improve their ability to conduct audits with guaranteed data receipts.  In the remainder of the book, the authors illustrate and cite examples of how advances in social, political, technical and scientific innovations have been the real drivers of global innovation.   
    In summary, the authors have helped to explain the principles of global innovation for people who are economists and lay readers alike with straightforward examples and definitions, while avoiding complex explanations of doing business globally.  One critical aspect of the book is the authors fail to provide adequate discussion of the connection between research in neuroscience, in which they state “the only way to make real profit is to attract the emotional rather than the rational consumer” (Hamson and Holder, 2002, p. 110).  This statement fails to explain the point for their readers.  The book is one of the best for anyone who reads or is concerned about global technical innovations, and whether human beings have the ability to meet the changing demands of technology and be able to respond in kind.  The authors have produced a well written book which may be a valuable resource and applicable to a number of organizations in their respective fields.   

Hamson, N., & Holder, R. (2002). Global innovation. [Books24x7 version]   Retrieved from  


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