Driving innovation : a systemic approach

There is currently an enthusiasm for supporting innovation in Australia, both within the management of enterprises and within all levels of Government. One view of a national system of innovation sees the individual enterprise at the core (sometimes called "the innovation dynamo" in this view) supported by science and technology infrastructure with a variety of technology transfer activities linking the two. Some innovation researchers see innovation as a people driven process. We see that certain core competencies are required. Others see innovation as a technologoy driven process. We see that access to particular complementary assets is required. Yet others highlight the mismatch in organisation norms between innovation (divergent thinking and disruptive change) and efficiency (convergent thinking and predictable outcomes) with Multiple internal and external factors shape the innovative capacity and practices of enterprises. Our interest is in the workings of innovation within an individual enterprise and we have used a systems engineering modeling approach to both represent these workings and to assess the effectiveness of enterprise innovation. The model developed can be applied equally well to both technological and non-technological innovation, and helps understand the interaction a variety of factors that may support or inhibit innovation. Its application to a case example is presented, along with observations from other cases.