Innovation Architecture in Silicon Valley

Every individual aspires to work in an organization that is dynamic and provides room and opportunity for career growth. Apple, Google, and Facebook have been on the lead on all matters technology and employee improvement. The three companies have focused on transforming the norm that Silicon Valley and global technology market operate. The companies strive to hire expertise, motivate innovation, and to stay top of the competitive market at any cost. The companies have elevated their levels of innovation through empowering their employees. Furthermore, they invest in getting the best employees and tap their innovation ideas while ensuring the group of staff is relatively smaller. The organizations have built a platform that allows employees and people to be brought together in authentic ways aimed at innovation. Therefore, it is adequate to analyse the organisation culture, processes, and management that work towards encouraging innovation architecture.

Google

Innovation has granted Google to be the “Holy Grail” of productivity and creativity. The innovation architecture of an organization much depends on its culture, processes, management systems and styles that operate harmoniously. Google has grasped the advantages of innovation because of encouraging the art of accepting that reform comes from every corner of the world (Savoia & Copeland, 2011). Google has embraced the mantra that innovation can be sourced from areas least expected. Google focuses on the user where the products are more customer-oriented as opposed to profit-based. Google centers on developing platforms and products that are consumer-friendly in operation. Anything that improves the customer’s life is a guarantee of stimulating profits and generates the organization’s sales while reducing the advertising costs.

The company drives towards improving an existing product and service to operate ten times better. Google focuses on radical and practical solutions instead of incremental, improvement, and development. The company operates under evidence that the innovation presents in catering the customer’s needs. Google focuses on improving the invention because it never means perfection. As the technology evolves, the novelty evolves too; thus, it is essential to gather the customer’s feedback concerning a product to redeploy and enhance the products quality (Baregheh, Rowley, & Sambrook, 2009). The employees are empowered through giving them an open door policy whereby they can present their ideas without any barriers. Google operates with data by engaging their employees in collecting numbers on how a product or service is performing analyzing its progress and where a change or improvement is required.

Facebook

Facebook has developed into the most extensive social networking services in the world. The growth has been accelerated by the innovative culture integrated into the organization. The employees are encouraged to embrace new ideas and fresh perspectives. Facebook motivates its employees to focus on developing a product or services that is aggressively ambitious and challenges their usual scope (Guo et al., 2017). The establishment implements innovation and the new transformation without seeking its consumers’ prior approval. The aggressive approach presented by Facebook has acted as the key towards its success. Not seeking prior approval of users has managed to accelerate Facebook innovation pace.

Mark Zuckerberg encourages employees to take risks and not shy away from failures or mistakes. Facebook strives to employ engineers who are entrepreneurial thinkers. An innovative culture is fostered such that employees can present ideas to be explored (Gatautis, Vitkauskaite, & de Reuver, 2017). The information technology department invests efforts that encourage employees to be more productive. Facebook hires smart, ambitious individuals, and provides them with the liberty to run their experiments on various users.

Apple

Apple’s success is structured in its organizational structure. The company has integrated its employees into a structure that enhances rapid innovation. Apple’s culture as desired by Steve Jobs was to maintain products and services simple and elegant. Apple dedication towards innovation is cultural than profit-driven. Apple invests heavily in ensuring their products maintain a competitive advantage in the market (Kodama, Yasuda, & Hirasawa, 2017). Apple has harnessed creativity through promoting an innovative system that provides people with a platform where they can stimulate new ideas and launch successful innovations.

The company is always at the forefront of employing exceptional workers. Steve Jobs was famous for being ready to fire any employee who did not deliver as expected. Under Tim Cooks, the culture has lived on. Excellence is of importance to the company because it influences the critical success of its product design and development. Apple’s employees are hired because of their honed skills, creativity, knowledge, and aptitudes (Pisano, 2015). The organization culture is based on creativity and execution. The creativity culture has enabled the company to maintain its lead when it comes to satisfying customer needs.

The company encourages innovation by motivating employees to engage in innovative programs and contributing ideas that will ensure the firm’s productive development procedures. Innovation is considered the heart of Apple’s businesses. Apple insists on confidentiality to minimize the theft of proprietary information or intellectual property. Apple’s employees are always briefed about the culture of secrecy during hiring, and this can be reflected in the employment contracts and policies. The secrecy culture protects the company and employees from being poached.

Furthermore, the company integrates a combative approach whereby employees are challenged from occasionally to determine if they are equipped enough to work for Apple. However, Tim Cook is transforming the environment into one that is accommodative and sociable. However, Apple still maintains a certain degree of combativeness. Apple has proven that with healthy organizational culture, a company can embrace innovation, the business can rise from the verge of bankruptcy to infinite heights of success in a few years.

Ability to Capitalize on Innovation

Apple, Facebook, and Google are among the big companies that have embraced innovation and intrapreneurship. The employees are granted the opportunity of engaging in innovative ideas that are different from their usual scope of work. The companies have provided employees with the liberty of comprehending that it is allowed to spend some of their days experimenting with new ideas. The companies assure workers that they will not be punished and it is acceptable to make mistakes or to fail (Guo et al., 2017). The investment ability in innovation is sourced from their capability of hiring employees with an entrepreneurship mind and are not afraid of executing risks. These organizations tend to focus on satisfying customer needs and revenue growth in the next decade as opposed to subsequent quarterly profits.

The companies focus on rewarding and investing in excellent ideas both aggressively and appropriately offering support. The employees are appreciated because of their creativity and freedom in challenging the products while finding ways of improving the innovations. Most companies tend to thwart innovation instead of promoting it because of being cost-cautious and avoid risks. Some companies tend to discourage experimentations of products and growth of employees (Pisano, 2015). However, Facebook, Google, and Apple combat innovations and encourage employees to indulge in ideas that are beyond human-comprehension. The companies understand that to maintain their competitive advantage, revolutions can arise from anywhere and should not be ignored.

The companies have invested in exceptional employees that having facilitating innovation is just smooth. Facebook, Google, and Apple have vast resources required to enhance and encourage innovation among employees. The strong organizational structures and styles have ensured the employees possess the liberty of expanding and exploring their ideas in the company (Baregheh, Rowley, & Sambrook, 2009). The companies have proven sustainability with success; thus, aggravating their innovation capacity despite the austere economics. The organizations have resources and structures that can be leveraged to support innovations.

Furthermore, employees have experience with the communities, and thus they seek ways to solve impactful issues. Employees work towards bringing knowledge of social concerns and expertise around past successes and failures. The companies tend to maximize their learning from the past and building something sustainable for the future (Miller & Wedell-Wedellborg, 2015). The organizations have developed and executed innovation as a method to achieve their mission. While some start-ups and tech organizations are reluctant towards embracing novelty; Google, Facebook, and Apple have committed their investment into innovation realizing the importance of continual progress until the customers’ needs are satisfied.

Processes and Systems Might Actually Stifle Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Creativity and innovation cannot be compelled from employees; they are sourced from a working environment that is secure and motivating for workers to engage. Most employees are inhibited from exploring their potential in innovation because of having their ideas overlooked and trashed. Often, some superiors might feel threatened by the creativity of an employee; thus, discouraging their concepts by neglecting them future (Miller & Wedell-Wedellborg, 2015). Some organizations demand that before execution of any notion, the employee should go through management for approval. The protocols bound employee’s liberty of implementing their ideas because of much scrutiny and delays from the administration.

Some employers always engage in dynamic combat where they freely criticise their employees without a room from praises. The employees are made aware of the company’s disposal ability if their skills do not satisfy their objectives. The styles discourage and demotivate employees from being social and free with the leadership; thus, condensing their creativity and freedom. Some companies maintain control over everything and gauging what the employees can indulge and execute. The employees are held accountable for their failures and mistakes; thus, they are always subjected to discouragement during their shortcomings.

Ideal Structures to Foster an Innovative Culture

As an innovation architecture, any new concepts should not be disregarded and disapproved. It is crucial for employees to be granted an opportunity to evaluate new ideas despite the results. People’s opinions should not be criticised without articulating and assessing their impacts. Furthermore, the decision-making process should be flexible and accommodate to ascertain that every idea is analyzed before being disposed or executed (Pisano, 2015). Moreover, it is important to praise and reward individuals when they have presented their concepts to encourage more opportunities and foster a safe and secure environment.

Moreover, motivate employers after failures and mistakes to catalyze their creative thinking and problem-solving skills. Finally, communication should involve the organization and leaders should execute the open-door policy. The open-door policy encourages any employee despite their level to have the liberty to discuss their ideas and problems with the superiors. Therefore, in a world where innovation rules the world, it is essential to be an innovative architecture who embraces concepts from anywhere and evaluates them.

References

Baregheh, A., Rowley, J., & Sambrook, S. (2009). Towards a multidisciplinary definition of innovation. Management decision, 47(8), 1323-1339.

Gatautis, R., Vitkauskaitė, E., & de Reuver, M. (2017). Use of Facebook and Google Platforms for SMEs Business Model Innovation.

Guo, W., Katila, R., Maggitti, P. G., & Tesluk, P. E. (2017, January). Innovation at The Top: Proactive CEO, Top Executive Attention Focus, and Product Innovation. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2017, No. 1, p. 14562). Academy of Management.

Kodama, M., Yasuda, T., & Hirasawa, K. (2017). Ma Thinking and Innovation in Global High Tech Companies: The Lessons of Business Model Innovation in Apple and Cisco Systems. In Ma Theory and the Creative Management of Innovation (pp. 43-80). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Miller, P., & Wedell-Wedellsborg, T. (2013). Innovation as usual: How to help your people bring great ideas to life. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.

Pisano, G. P. (2015). You need an innovation strategy. Harvard Business Review, 93(6), 44-54.

Savoia, A., & Copeland, P. (2011). Entrepreneurial innovation at Google. Computer, 44(4), 56-61.