Entrepreneurial Organizations, Essay Example

One reason entrepreneurial organizations pursue innovation is that they understand how essential it is to keep up to date with current trends in technology, which go to promoting the business and facilitating all operations. Technology is increasingly shaping the ways in which all organizations function, and the innovative approach here provides the advantages of the awareness of this, when a willingness to adopt the technologies is practiced.  More specifically, the company that incorporates a variety of new technologies enhances itself by the greater opportunity to merge these assets and discover innovative means of enhancing the organization (Morris, Kuratko, & Covin, 2010,  p. 202). The very nature of technology as an evolving presence goes to discovering ways to further each component of it, and this may be done through an innovative focus on how best to tailor available technologies to the organization’s needs.

Another powerful incentive for organizations to seek innovation lies, not unexpectedly, in the inherent nature of entrepreneurship itself. The business or individual with the entrepreneurial motivation is intrinsically drawn to, if not risk, the unknown. Entrepreneurship translates to maintaining an eye on what is not yet accepted practice, with a view as to the potentials of it.  In this sense, in fact, entrepreneurship and innovation are synonymous; the activity of the former is invariably fueled by a commitment to the latter.

Then, well-run organizations realize that the actual introduction of innovation, in virtually any facet of the concern, serves as a barometer of management strength. The organization marked by sluggish and unresponsive management is revealed as such when it cannot adapt to new policies and technologies, so innovation opportunities essentially inform a company as to the general health and capabilities of its management teams. In promoting innovation, an organization better maintains management that is active, engaged, and committed to furthering its interests.

No small advantage to innovation, and one related to the management issue, is how it provides opportunities for employees to reveal undiscovered abilities, and consequently grow within the organization in ways which would otherwise be untapped. Innovation equates to change of some kind, and change, in the employee arena as in that of management, requires the development of skills and perceptions in an exponential way. New ways of operating often inspire employees to perform beyond their known capacities, because the innovative opportunity for the organization is an opportunity for them as well. In seeking innovation, the entrepreneurial organization adds the enormous asset of a consistent means of encouraging employee development and growth.

It is ironic, but the entrepreneurship that pursues innovation also gains through the very failures that may emerge from the changes, and organizations today actually acknowledge this as an asset. Failures, of course, may often result from poor business practices, mistakes in management, and bad choices in organizational strategies. Changes created by innovation, however, provide valuable lessons when failure occurs  (Drucker,  2006,  p. 46). When the failure occurs, the organization is then given the opportunity to assess all the relevant factors, and consequently gain a more thorough understanding of both its essential characteristics and how the innovation may have been badly implemented, or unsuitable to its purposes. Entrepreneurial organizations realize that failure is a possibility in innovation, as well as stagnation, but the former kind of failure may be turned to great advantage. Viewed correctly, it may assist the organization in adopting more effective strategies to innovate in the future.

References

Drucker, P. F.  (2006).  Innovation and Entrepreneurship.  New York: HarperCollins.

Morris, M. H., Kuratko, D. F., & Covin, H. G.  (2010).   Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation.  Belmont: Cengage Learning.