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.
& 2002). Global
innovation. [Books24x7 version] Retrieved from
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