General Overview
Today more than ever, it’s important for SMEs in all sectors, not just those in high technology, to
meet rapidly-changing market needs quickly and efficiently through the application of new
technology. The capacity to assimilate and apply new knowledge in order to improve productivity
and create new products relies on scientific ingenuity, entrepreneurial flair, and a firm’s ability to
attract and retain the right people.
The challenge is to establish and maintain a “culture of innovation” within an organization, keeping
creative people excited, involved and searching for new ideas. The challenge is to tap the creative
brainpower of all employees, not just those in research and development (R&D;) or marketing who are
expected to be creative.
A focus on human resource development is a distinguishing feature of faster-growing firms. In fact, in
today’s business environment, some consider a human resource strategy to be the innovation strategy
of the firm.
Because it is people, ultimately, who make innovation happen!
What is innovation?
The Conference Board of Canada defines innovation as: “a process through which economic value is
extracted from knowledge through the generation, development and implementation of ideas to
produce new or significantly improved products or processes.”
Innovation is applied creativity — making connections between seemingly dissimilar concepts or
things that normally don’t go together — to come up with ideas for new products, processes,
technologies or services.
The innovation process is multidimensional, and can involve many players and partners —
entrepreneurs, companies, researchers, investors, patent agents and government. Successful innovation
takes place over extended periods of time.
Innovative companies are able to:
- Identify new opportunities and find ways to commercialize research;
- Deal with technical details of developing a product to meet market needs;
- Manage and use advanced computer technologies;
- Manage new product/process development;
- Attract and retain highly-skilled workers;
- Integrate technical, marketing and other expertise in functional teams; and
- Develop partnerships and build alliances to commercialize new technology.
Highly innovative companies have significant and sustained growth rates. Developing an “innovation
capacity” will be increasingly critical to the success of small and medium-sized businesses in Atlantic
Canada.
