Innovation for Competitive Advantage in International Market

Innovation for Competitive Advantage in International Market INTRODUCTION Organizations must run fast to keep up with changes taking place all around them. They must modify themselves all the time. Change, rather than stability, is the norm today. Every business is affected by a number of powerful environmental forces such as; technological advances, environmental changes, evolving society and customer desires, and maturation of market, which drive the need to change in todays globalized economy. All of these enviromental forces have created opportunities and threats. Every organization strives to take advantage of opportunities and manage the threats which have arisen during the change process (Daft, 2001). Organizations, to be considered innovative, need to implement technologically new products and processes, or need to make significant technological improvements in existing products and processes. Organizations generate and apply the appropriate knowledge required for producing something new and improving the existing product or process, simply known as â€Å"knowledge creation† (Atmaca, 2006). The rate of innovation and technical change is important to an economys rate of growth. Differences in knowledge creation, diffusion, and use have implications for international competiveness, standards of living, and quality of life (Feldman and Massard, 2002). To remain competitive, established firms must continually seek out opportunities for growth and new methods for strategically renewing their performance. Changes in customer needs, new technologies, and shifts in the competitive landscape require that companies continually innovate and initiate corporate ventures in order to compete effectively (Dess, Lumpkin and Eisner, 2008). The discussion begins with defining the innovation concept focusing on different literatures from professional writers. Innovations can take many forms, including radical breakthrough innovations as well as incremantal innovative improvements, and todays researchers are strongly emphasizing that innovation is one of the most valuable differentiator for sustainable competitive advantage. The concept of innovation is compared to the concept of invention and creativity as they are confused and interchangeably used. Later, the discussion concentrates on the importance of innovation in identifying opportunities and threats coming with change; which are followed by suggestions how to become successful innovators to overcome these threats. The discussion continues by identifying the four types of changes an organization undergoes to achieve advantage in the international environment. These changes can be used to update the products or the services, the technology, the existing strategy and structure, and culture in the organization. Then, focus will be on how organizations can build innovation by applying key elements that create a truly innovative and entrepreneurial one. The next chapter identifies some successful global innovators that have delivered novel benefits to their customers. This thesis reviews the innovation concept and the forms it takes to achieve competitive edge in the market. It identifies the benefits driving from innovation, explains why people and organizations resist change and identifies the appropriate steps to overcome barriers resisting it. It explains the role management has during innovation and the key elements to create an innovative organization. It concludes by explaining why healthcare sector is different and identifies the best practiced innovations in healthcare sector. The later chapter concentrates on how innovation evolves in the service sector. The biggest industries for RD spending for 2009 are identified. The important features of services sector; the concept of service innovation and its four dimensions are compared to the service product concept. To conclude, some suggestions how management in service companies can achieve effective innovation are given. The last chapter concentrates on the healthcare sector. It focuses on the main and best practised innovations in the healthare sector, as healthcare is a part of the service sector. The reasons that make the healthcare sector different from others are underlined. Big structure, complex size, and different government policies are some of the reasons. To sum up, best practised processes and services which are applied by present healthcare service providers are identified. CHAPTER I LITERATURE REVIEW IN INNOVATION 1.1 Defining Innovation According to King (2009) innovation is doing things in new ways in order to achieve significant results and make a huge difference in performance compared to others. Innovations goal is to have a positive change, to make someone or something better. Testing and evaluation of ideas is critical in achieving this goal. The ideas that do not work are identified through testing. Failure is an integral part of the innovation process. Failing means collecting data and evidence about the changes that organizations want to undergo. This view is supported by Mulgan and Albury (2003) who define innovation as new ideas that work and a successful innovation can be achieved through the creation and implementation of new processes, products, services and methods of delivery which will result in significant improvements in the profitability and enhance the growth of an enterprise. Innovation is a special case of planned change and learning that either transforms current products, services, and markets, or creates an entirely new market by introducing a radically new product or service. An organization is considered innovative if it stirs up the marketplace, by creating competitive pressures and new opportunities. It has been recognized that innovation success in an established organization requires balancing the stabilized efficiency of the current market offerings and building new capabilities to create and develop offerings for unknown markets (Bloisi, Cook and Hunsaker, 2003). The changes used to adapt the environment can be evaluated according to the scope and to the extent to which changes are incremental or radical for the organization. Incremental changes maintain the general equilibrium of the organization through a series of continual progressions and affect only one part in organization. On the contrast, radical changes, transform the entire organization. Incremental changes include technology improvements, such as the introduction of computer-integrated manufacturing or product improvements in the established structure and management processes. In radical changes, the technology is likely to be breakthrough, and new products created will establish new markets (Daft, 2001). Importance of innovation seems to be the most talked management issue these days. Knowledge plays a crucial role in the economic processes because within the knowledge-based economy, innovation plays a central role and stands at the heart of economic change. Firms innovate to defend their competitive position as well as to achieve competitive advantage. Organizations possessing more knowledge outperform those with less. It was believed that an enterprise can maintain competitive advantage through quality and price. While todays different researches have revealed that innovation is one of the most valuable differentiator for sustainable competitive advantage (Tyagi, 2008). 1.1.1 Invention Tyagi (2008) has made a distinction between invention and innovation. Invention is discovering of things never existed before while innovation is discovering how to introduce and commercialize new products, processes and new ways of adding customer value through innovative business models and management systems. This point of view is supported by King (2009) who defines invention as the generation of new ideas which have the potential to make someone or something better. New ideas can drawn from scanning other industries, by having conversations and meetings, or accessing information which is not usual in your business. All innovations starting point is invention of creative ideas. The distinction between them is; invention is having an idea about a service, product, technology or device, while innovation is the successfull application of those ideas. Another author who has discussed about the difference existing among invention and creativity is Sloane (2010). Invention is the creation of a product, device or method that has never been made and existed before. So, every invention is an innovation. But every innovation is not an invention. When a company first publishes its website this is a major innovation for the company even though many other websites may already exist. 1.1.2 Creativity Creativity is defined as the process of thinking and generating new things, new concepts, and new ideas. Converting these thoughts into tangible things, bringing these ideas to life is innovation. Creativity is like dreaming up new things and innovation is making those dreams come true. Expressed in other words, creativity is the capability of conceiving something unusual or original while innovation is the implementation of those unusual or original things (Difference Between, n.d.). 1.2 Benefits and Barriers of Innovation In the last years change has occured incrementally and infrequently. A globalized economy is creating both opportunities and hazards to everyone. Firms are forced to make dramatic improvements not only to compete and prosper but also to survive. People who have been through difficult, and not successful change efforts end up drawing pesimistic and angry conclusions. They become suspicious of the motives of those pushing for transformation (Kotter, 1996). This section will focus on the discussion of benefits and barriers that come with innovation. The advantages supporting a strong leadership and the factors causing resistance toward change will be identified. In addition, this section will also explain some methods that managers can use to implement change successfully within the organization. 1.2.1 Benefits of Innovation Bhatt (2007) states the reasons that make companies innovate, those are listed below: To advance in technology. To change the environment. The evolving of the society. The evolving of the customer desires. Competitors improve their products and services. Customers stop buying your old products so you need to replace them and add new products. Innovation opportunities can arise due to environmental changes in technology, science, and data analysis. Environmental changes may result in creation of new customer needs or may enable the organization to develop better solutions to current customer needs. Service or product innovations have to fulfill four benefit aspects listed below: Unique. The target group should perceive the new benefits generated from the new service or product as unique. Important. The customers should perceive the new benefits as important. Sustainable. The new benefits should be protected against followers by measures such as patents, time to market and brand management. Marketable. The organization should have the resources, capabilities and competencies to market the product which also includes an effective and ready to market version of the product (Anon., 2008). Stark (n.d.) has identified the benefits of good innovation, those are listed below: First to market. Premium prices. Best customers. Large market share. Increased shareholder return. Increased employee motivation and morale. 1.2.2 Barriers to Innovation Beer and Nohria (2000) state that one research team concluded that ‘The brutal fact is that about 70 per cent of all change initiatives fail. These researchers conclude that there are two primary reasons why organizations undergo change: one is based on ‘hard economic value (e.g. financial return to shareholders); the other is based ‘soft organizational capabilities. The organizational approach develops corporate culture, human capabilities, feedback, measurements and reflections on evolutionary progress. Both people and organizations frequently resist change, even if it is in their best interests, especially in large and established organizations. Bloisi, Cook and Hunsaker (2003) suggest five main reasons why individuals resist change: Selective perception. People sometimes perceive the same thing differently. When changes are initiated, individuals tend to focus on how they will be personally affected rather than seeing the big picture for the entire organization. Lack of information.People will resist change if they are not informed about what is expected from them or what benefits change will bring. If the reasons for change are not clearly presented, people tend to fill in the missing pieces with speculation, which often assumes the worst in terms of initiator intentions and personal impact. In addition, if people do not have enough information about how to change, they may fear making mistakes, so they will not try. Fear of the unknown. Individuals resist change when they are uncertain about how it will affect their well-being. They fear downsizing, uncertainties about not knowing how to change, not being able to perform as well as before the change, losing position, income, and status or power. Habit. Many people prefer familiar actions and events, even if they are not optimal. Breaking a habit is difficult because it takes hard work and involves giving up perceived benefits from the habit, even if the new behavior has more desirable consequences. Resentment toward the initiator.If a change seems arbitrary or unreasonable, resentment and anger are directed towards those initiating the change. People resent being controlled and losing autonomy over their works and lives, when their thoughts and feelings are not considered by change initiators. Finally, without trust in the initiators inventions, people may resist the change out of resentment or fear of possible unknown consequences. Bloisi, Cook and Hunsaker (2003) state that organizations resist change for many of the same reasons individuals do. There are also many forces inside an organization that create resistance to changes initiated by environmental conditions. Some of the main ones are summarized below: Power Maintenance. Changes in decision-making authority and control of resource allocations threaten the balance of power in organizations. Units benefiting from the change will welcome it, but those losing power will resist it. Structural stability. Organizations create hierarchies, subgroups, rules and procedures to promote order, consistent and predicable behaviors. People who ‘fit these desired behavioral criteria are hired and shaped to confirm further through the socialization process and organizational conditioning. Functional sub-optimization.Differences in functional orientation, goals and resource dependencies can cause changes that are seen as beneficial to one functional unit and as threatening to another. Functional units usually think of themselves first when evaluating potential changes and support those that enhance their own welfare, but resist the one that reduce it. Organizational culture. Organizational culture promotes predicable ways of thinking and behaving. Organizational members will resist changes that force them to abandon established assumptions and approved ways of doing things. Group norms. Groups develop their own norms to promote desirable behaviors. Many members conform these norms. Consequently, any change that disrupts group norms, tasks or role relationships will probably be resisted. Strategos conducted a survey of innovation practices of more than 550 large companies, where majority of respondents in every industry rated innovation as critical and said that the importance of innovation would grow in the future. According to Loewe and Dominiquini (2006) the top six obstacles to innovation identified by respondents across industries are: Short-term focus. Lack of time, resources or staff. Leadership expects payoff sooner than is realistic. Management incentives do not reward innovation. Lack of a systematic innovation process. Belief that innovation is inherently risky. Below is a list of suggestions how to become successful innovators about overcoming the barriers to innovation: Have a vision for change. Innovation has to have a purpose, a statement which defines the direction for the business and which people will readily understand and remember. Your team needs to know the direction they are headed in order to be innovative. Illustrate the goals and explain to people how their role is decisive in meeting the goals to fulfill the organizational vision. Fight the fear of change. Innovative leaders constantly explain the need for change. They must paint a picture that shows an attractive future that is worth taking risks to achieve. Have a dynamic suggestions scheme. Great suggestion schemes are focused and open to all. Leaders do not need to offer huge rewards. Sometimes, recognition and response are generally more important. Break the rules. To achieve radical innovation leaders need to challenge all the assumptions related to how things should look in your environment. Business is like Art, with no well-defined rules and referees. Innovation is filled with opportunities for people who can take advantage in creating new ways to provide the goods and services that customers want. Give everyone two jobs. Ask your people to run their current jobs in the most effective way possible and at the same time to find completely new ways to do the job. Encourage them to identify the purpose of their role, the outcomes delivered through this role and if there is a better way to deliver that purpose. Collaborate. CEOs must see collaboration as key to their success during innovation. Success can not only be achieved by using internal resources, but also by looking outside of the organization for people to partner with. Welcome failure. The innovative leader encourages a culture where people feel free to innovate and experiment. Innovative leaders tell people that each unsuccessful attempt is a step along the road to success. When innovative leaders welcome innovation and create a culture of experimentation, means that they except failure and welcome it. Build prototypes. Innovative leaders are suggested to try the new ideas at low cost by building prototypes and see what the customer reaction is. You will learn more in the real world than you will in the test laboratories. Be passionate. Leaders must concentrate on the things they want to change, on the challenges they want to face and be passionate about overcoming them. Organizations need passionate supporters, who are inspired to innovate and change the way they do things to come up with extraordinary results. Be passionate about what you believe, communicate that passion every time you speak and explain why reaching the destination is really worthwhile (ArticleSnatch, n.d.). 1.3 Types of Innovation There exist four types of changes to achieve strategic edge within an organization. Managers can use these four types of changes to achieve competitive advantage in the international environment. Each company can have maximum impact upon the chosen market through its own unique configuration of technology, product and services, strategy and structure, and culture as explained below (Daft, 2001). 1.3.1 Technological Innovation Technological innovations refer to changes in an organizations production process to enable distinctive competence. Changes in an organizations production process, including its knowledge and skills base, are designed to produce greater in volume or to have a more efficient production. Changes in technology involve the work methods, equipment, and work flow techniques for making products or services. For example, in a university, technology changes are about changes in methods for teaching the courses. Tyagi (2008) suggests that traditionally innovation has been associated with the use of technological knowledge, and research and development activities. A technological innovation is any innovation due to an industrial application of scientific knowledge. Dess, Lumpkin and Eisner (2008) suggest that innovation involves the usage of new knowledge to transform organizational processes or create commercially viable products and services. The latest technology, results of experiments, creative insights, or competitive information may be the sources of new knowledge. However it comes about, innovation occurs when new combinations of ideas and information bring about positive change. Among the most important sources of new ideas is new technology. Technology creates new possibilities and provides the raw material that firms use to make innovative new products and services. But technology is not the only source of innovation. There can be innovations in human resources, firm infrastructure, marketing, service, or in many other value-adding areas that have little to do with anything â€Å"high-tech.† 1.3.2 Product and Service Innovation Product and service innovations refer to the product or service outputs of an organization. New products may be in the form of entirely new product lines or small adaptions of existing products. New products are designed to develop new markets, or customers, or to increase the market share. Tyagi (2008) states that product innovation is about the introduction of new goods and services which have improvements in terms of design excellence, core characteristics, technical specifications etc. and are derived from customer or industry insight, or strategic alignment of the organization. Godin (2005) suggests that the old rule was to create safe and ordinary products that were combined with great marketing. The new rule is to create remarkable products and figure out a great theory by looking at whats working in the real world and what the various successes have in common. Identify what the successful companies have in common and do something to be remarkable. Roberts (2002) has made a distinction when discussing if innovation is between product/service innovation and process innovation. Product/Service innovation refers to efforts to develop new products or services for end users. Product/Service innovations tend to be more radical and are more common during the earlier stages of an industrys life cycle. As an industry matures, there are fewer opportunities for newness, so the innovations tend to be more incremental. Process innovation, by contrast, is associated with improving the efficiency of an organizational process, especially manufacturing systems and operations. Process innovations occur in the later stages of an industrys life cycle as companies seek ways to remain viable in markets where demand has flattened out and competition is more intensive. As a result, process innovations are often associated with overall cost leader strategies because the aim of many process improvements is to lower the cost of operations. There are several problems with seeking competitive advantage through investments in process technology. Firstly, the people who sell you robots or point-of-sale terminals, software to analyze production or service delivery will sell the robots, terminals, and software to your competitors. Your ability to obtain the benefits of this technology depends on your ability to implement it more rapidly and more effectively. Secondly, investment in specialized technology is not a substitute for skill in managing the work force. This is because more skills may be required to operate the more sophisticated and advanced equipments. Having a higher level of investment per employee will result in increasingly expensive interruptions in the process which means that the ability to operate, maintain, and repair equipment effectively becomes even more critical (Pfeffer, 1996). 1.3.3 Strategy and Structural Innovation Strategy and structural innovation refers to the administrative section in an organization. It is related to the management and supervision in the organization, including changes in an organizations strategic management and structure, policies, accounting and budgeting systems, reward systems, labor relations, coordination devices, management information and control systems. Strategy and structure changes in an organization are mandated by top management. They usually have a top-down structure. An example may be if the corporate goes downsizing. On the other hand, product and technology changes may come from the bottom up. 1.3.4 Cultural Innovation Cultural innovation refers to changes that may occur in an employees attitudes, beliefs, values, expectations, abilities, and behavior. Culture innovation tends to change the way employees think. These are changes in mindset rather than the technology, structure, or products and services. Culture can be a powerful force undermining or shoring up the effectiveness of a nation, a business, and a manager. Recognizing the presence and power of culture will help in better navigating through the rough seas of international business. Discovering how to harness the power of culture in an organization will help the organization gain competitive advantage (Schneider and Barsoux, 2003). To conclude, it can be said that successful innovation in an organization occurs when technological and product or process innovations in the value chain are implemented through effective strategy and structure innovation. Innovation in an organization, which includes people, leadership, creativity, process and organizational culture, is the driver to grow, to achieve high profits and to succeed in the market. Innovation in an organization should be approached in a systematic way and not a piecemeal manner and should be initiated even at the lowest levels (Tyagi, 2008). 1.4 Leadership in Practice of Innovation Many organizations are resistant to changes and continue operating the way they had been operating in the past. To remain competitive, they work harder, improve efficiency, reduce cost and implement best practices. But, this is not enough. Instead of getting stuck in their standard mode of operations, organizations need to adopt innovative ways to change the strategies. The best way to create a competitive edge and be in the head of the competition is to innovate by drawing advantage from the creative power of your people. Turn your greatest assets into opportunistic entrepreneurs who discover new ways and improve the way they do business. Management innovation involves total transformation of existing culture to enhance organizational performance in an integrated manner involving technological innovation, product and service innovation, and strategy and structural innovation (Tyagi, 2008). Sloane (2003) suggests that every organization needs to have a vision, a culture and a process of innovation to build a truly innovative environment. There are eight key elements that create a truly innovative and entrepreneurial organization as below: Painting the vision. The first step is to paint a desirable, challenging and believable vision. Innovative leaders must be sure that people share a common goal and embarke on a journey all together. Being all together means they accept easier the changes, all the challenges and difficulties that show up during the journey. Innovative leaders should delegate more responsibility, and empower the staff with control over their work. Once staff is aware of the goal and direction headed, they contribute the best creative ways to solve challenges and obstacles that lie ahead. Build an open and questioning culture. The painted picture quickly fades away from view, so great leaders should take time to meet staff and illustrate the goals to be achieved and the challenges to overcome. Leaders inspire the staff to become entrepreneurs finding innovative routes to success and constantly remind them how their role is decisive in fulfilling the vision and meeting the challenges. Empowering. The purpose of empowering your people is to turn them into entrepreneurs looking for new opportunities. By empowering, leaders enable them to develop the skills for the task and achieve the change through their own efforts to come up with radical innovations. People need freedom to succeed and need to understand and agree on what management expects of them. People and management must agree on the scope of freedom and responsibility. Empowering means trusting your people, supporting and believing that they will achieve great things. Set goals, deadlines and measurements for innovation. Change is uncomfortable, resulting in anxiously people fearing an embarrassing or costly failure. Leaders should spend time with people encouraging them to undertake risks and come out from their safety zones. Leaders should reassure them that risks are necessary and worth taking and no one will be punished if their initiatives do not succeed. Use creativity techniques to generate a large number of ideas. Innovative leaders should build a culture where everyone can come up with creative solutions and crazy ideas through techniques, methods, and workshops. The goal is to change the people within the organization; from people who do routine jobs into highly energized entrepreneurs who constantly search for new and better ways of making the vision a reality. People need to be trained to learn the skills and to develop the confidence to try new methods, and use creative techniques to come up with new solutions. Review, filter and select ideas. In the innovation process many ideas are generated in response to a given issue or challenge. At the end, the most promising idea is selected. Prototype the promising proposals. After the idea is selected, then the move is to rapidly prototype it. Analyze the results and the successful projects. New product is tested for its feasibility, attractiveness and payback. Those that pass these criteria are given more funding. King (2009) suggests that the most effective, efficient and leading edge organizations are those that innovate and encourage innovation. Innovative organizations require a strong leadership team to approve the importance of innovation and create a culture for it. A development of strong capabilities for innovation leadership need to be started early in the career development process. In an innovative culture, the staff is given freedom to innovate and experiment. In an innovative culture, risks are managed and the organization understands and accepts that future success is built on a series of learning from unsuccessful attempts. Collaboration with outside parties to generate and adopt innovations is encouraged. Success will depend on strong leadership. We can take learning from market leaders to help us identify key leadership behaviors to promote innovation as explained below: Lead continuous innovation and improvement. Develop and communicate an encouraging story. Encourage partnerships and collaboration. Staff should be exposed to new viewpoints and ideas that can be adapted in the organization. To do this, the organization should create partnerships and collaboration with different parts within or outside the organization. Promote innovation. Organization should consider innovation as a core part of its role, and time is allocated for its employees to innovate. Different organizations have created bespoke Innovation for Competitive Advantage in International Market Innovation for Competitive Advantage in International Market INTRODUCTION Organizations must run fast to keep up with changes taking place all around them. They must modify themselves all the time. Change, rather than stability, is the norm today. Every business is affected by a number of powerful environmental forces such as; technological advances, environmental changes, evolving society and customer desires, and maturation of market, which drive the need to change in todays globalized economy. All of these enviromental forces have created opportunities and threats. Every organization strives to take advantage of opportunities and manage the threats which have arisen during the change process (Daft, 2001). Organizations, to be considered innovative, need to implement technologically new products and processes, or need to make significant technological improvements in existing products and processes. Organizations generate and apply the appropriate knowledge required for producing something new and improving the existing product or process, simply known as â€Å"knowledge creation† (Atmaca, 2006). The rate of innovation and technical change is important to an economys rate of growth. Differences in knowledge creation, diffusion, and use have implications for international competiveness, standards of living, and quality of life (Feldman and Massard, 2002). To remain competitive, established firms must continually seek out opportunities for growth and new methods for strategically renewing their performance. Changes in customer needs, new technologies, and shifts in the competitive landscape require that companies continually innovate and initiate corporate ventures in order to compete effectively (Dess, Lumpkin and Eisner, 2008). The discussion begins with defining the innovation concept focusing on different literatures from professional writers. Innovations can take many forms, including radical breakthrough innovations as well as incremantal innovative improvements, and todays researchers are strongly emphasizing that innovation is one of the most valuable differentiator for sustainable competitive advantage. The concept of innovation is compared to the concept of invention and creativity as they are confused and interchangeably used. Later, the discussion concentrates on the importance of innovation in identifying opportunities and threats coming with change; which are followed by suggestions how to become successful innovators to overcome these threats. The discussion continues by identifying the four types of changes an organization undergoes to achieve advantage in the international environment. These changes can be used to update the products or the services, the technology, the existing strategy and structure, and culture in the organization. Then, focus will be on how organizations can build innovation by applying key elements that create a truly innovative and entrepreneurial one. The next chapter identifies some successful global innovators that have delivered novel benefits to their customers. This thesis reviews the innovation concept and the forms it takes to achieve competitive edge in the market. It identifies the benefits driving from innovation, explains why people and organizations resist change and identifies the appropriate steps to overcome barriers resisting it. It explains the role management has during innovation and the key elements to create an innovative organization. It concludes by explaining why healthcare sector is different and identifies the best practiced innovations in healthcare sector. The later chapter concentrates on how innovation evolves in the service sector. The biggest industries for RD spending for 2009 are identified. The important features of services sector; the concept of service innovation and its four dimensions are compared to the service product concept. To conclude, some suggestions how management in service companies can achieve effective innovation are given. The last chapter concentrates on the healthcare sector. It focuses on the main and best practised innovations in the healthare sector, as healthcare is a part of the service sector. The reasons that make the healthcare sector different from others are underlined. Big structure, complex size, and different government policies are some of the reasons. To sum up, best practised processes and services which are applied by present healthcare service providers are identified. CHAPTER I LITERATURE REVIEW IN INNOVATION 1.1 Defining Innovation According to King (2009) innovation is doing things in new ways in order to achieve significant results and make a huge difference in performance compared to others. Innovations goal is to have a positive change, to make someone or something better. Testing and evaluation of ideas is critical in achieving this goal. The ideas that do not work are identified through testing. Failure is an integral part of the innovation process. Failing means collecting data and evidence about the changes that organizations want to undergo. This view is supported by Mulgan and Albury (2003) who define innovation as new ideas that work and a successful innovation can be achieved through the creation and implementation of new processes, products, services and methods of delivery which will result in significant improvements in the profitability and enhance the growth of an enterprise. Innovation is a special case of planned change and learning that either transforms current products, services, and markets, or creates an entirely new market by introducing a radically new product or service. An organization is considered innovative if it stirs up the marketplace, by creating competitive pressures and new opportunities. It has been recognized that innovation success in an established organization requires balancing the stabilized efficiency of the current market offerings and building new capabilities to create and develop offerings for unknown markets (Bloisi, Cook and Hunsaker, 2003). The changes used to adapt the environment can be evaluated according to the scope and to the extent to which changes are incremental or radical for the organization. Incremental changes maintain the general equilibrium of the organization through a series of continual progressions and affect only one part in organization. On the contrast, radical changes, transform the entire organization. Incremental changes include technology improvements, such as the introduction of computer-integrated manufacturing or product improvements in the established structure and management processes. In radical changes, the technology is likely to be breakthrough, and new products created will establish new markets (Daft, 2001). Importance of innovation seems to be the most talked management issue these days. Knowledge plays a crucial role in the economic processes because within the knowledge-based economy, innovation plays a central role and stands at the heart of economic change. Firms innovate to defend their competitive position as well as to achieve competitive advantage. Organizations possessing more knowledge outperform those with less. It was believed that an enterprise can maintain competitive advantage through quality and price. While todays different researches have revealed that innovation is one of the most valuable differentiator for sustainable competitive advantage (Tyagi, 2008). 1.1.1 Invention Tyagi (2008) has made a distinction between invention and innovation. Invention is discovering of things never existed before while innovation is discovering how to introduce and commercialize new products, processes and new ways of adding customer value through innovative business models and management systems. This point of view is supported by King (2009) who defines invention as the generation of new ideas which have the potential to make someone or something better. New ideas can drawn from scanning other industries, by having conversations and meetings, or accessing information which is not usual in your business. All innovations starting point is invention of creative ideas. The distinction between them is; invention is having an idea about a service, product, technology or device, while innovation is the successfull application of those ideas. Another author who has discussed about the difference existing among invention and creativity is Sloane (2010). Invention is the creation of a product, device or method that has never been made and existed before. So, every invention is an innovation. But every innovation is not an invention. When a company first publishes its website this is a major innovation for the company even though many other websites may already exist. 1.1.2 Creativity Creativity is defined as the process of thinking and generating new things, new concepts, and new ideas. Converting these thoughts into tangible things, bringing these ideas to life is innovation. Creativity is like dreaming up new things and innovation is making those dreams come true. Expressed in other words, creativity is the capability of conceiving something unusual or original while innovation is the implementation of those unusual or original things (Difference Between, n.d.). 1.2 Benefits and Barriers of Innovation In the last years change has occured incrementally and infrequently. A globalized economy is creating both opportunities and hazards to everyone. Firms are forced to make dramatic improvements not only to compete and prosper but also to survive. People who have been through difficult, and not successful change efforts end up drawing pesimistic and angry conclusions. They become suspicious of the motives of those pushing for transformation (Kotter, 1996). This section will focus on the discussion of benefits and barriers that come with innovation. The advantages supporting a strong leadership and the factors causing resistance toward change will be identified. In addition, this section will also explain some methods that managers can use to implement change successfully within the organization. 1.2.1 Benefits of Innovation Bhatt (2007) states the reasons that make companies innovate, those are listed below: To advance in technology. To change the environment. The evolving of the society. The evolving of the customer desires. Competitors improve their products and services. Customers stop buying your old products so you need to replace them and add new products. Innovation opportunities can arise due to environmental changes in technology, science, and data analysis. Environmental changes may result in creation of new customer needs or may enable the organization to develop better solutions to current customer needs. Service or product innovations have to fulfill four benefit aspects listed below: Unique. The target group should perceive the new benefits generated from the new service or product as unique. Important. The customers should perceive the new benefits as important. Sustainable. The new benefits should be protected against followers by measures such as patents, time to market and brand management. Marketable. The organization should have the resources, capabilities and competencies to market the product which also includes an effective and ready to market version of the product (Anon., 2008). Stark (n.d.) has identified the benefits of good innovation, those are listed below: First to market. Premium prices. Best customers. Large market share. Increased shareholder return. Increased employee motivation and morale. 1.2.2 Barriers to Innovation Beer and Nohria (2000) state that one research team concluded that ‘The brutal fact is that about 70 per cent of all change initiatives fail. These researchers conclude that there are two primary reasons why organizations undergo change: one is based on ‘hard economic value (e.g. financial return to shareholders); the other is based ‘soft organizational capabilities. The organizational approach develops corporate culture, human capabilities, feedback, measurements and reflections on evolutionary progress. Both people and organizations frequently resist change, even if it is in their best interests, especially in large and established organizations. Bloisi, Cook and Hunsaker (2003) suggest five main reasons why individuals resist change: Selective perception. People sometimes perceive the same thing differently. When changes are initiated, individuals tend to focus on how they will be personally affected rather than seeing the big picture for the entire organization. Lack of information.People will resist change if they are not informed about what is expected from them or what benefits change will bring. If the reasons for change are not clearly presented, people tend to fill in the missing pieces with speculation, which often assumes the worst in terms of initiator intentions and personal impact. In addition, if people do not have enough information about how to change, they may fear making mistakes, so they will not try. Fear of the unknown. Individuals resist change when they are uncertain about how it will affect their well-being. They fear downsizing, uncertainties about not knowing how to change, not being able to perform as well as before the change, losing position, income, and status or power. Habit. Many people prefer familiar actions and events, even if they are not optimal. Breaking a habit is difficult because it takes hard work and involves giving up perceived benefits from the habit, even if the new behavior has more desirable consequences. Resentment toward the initiator.If a change seems arbitrary or unreasonable, resentment and anger are directed towards those initiating the change. People resent being controlled and losing autonomy over their works and lives, when their thoughts and feelings are not considered by change initiators. Finally, without trust in the initiators inventions, people may resist the change out of resentment or fear of possible unknown consequences. Bloisi, Cook and Hunsaker (2003) state that organizations resist change for many of the same reasons individuals do. There are also many forces inside an organization that create resistance to changes initiated by environmental conditions. Some of the main ones are summarized below: Power Maintenance. Changes in decision-making authority and control of resource allocations threaten the balance of power in organizations. Units benefiting from the change will welcome it, but those losing power will resist it. Structural stability. Organizations create hierarchies, subgroups, rules and procedures to promote order, consistent and predicable behaviors. People who ‘fit these desired behavioral criteria are hired and shaped to confirm further through the socialization process and organizational conditioning. Functional sub-optimization.Differences in functional orientation, goals and resource dependencies can cause changes that are seen as beneficial to one functional unit and as threatening to another. Functional units usually think of themselves first when evaluating potential changes and support those that enhance their own welfare, but resist the one that reduce it. Organizational culture. Organizational culture promotes predicable ways of thinking and behaving. Organizational members will resist changes that force them to abandon established assumptions and approved ways of doing things. Group norms. Groups develop their own norms to promote desirable behaviors. Many members conform these norms. Consequently, any change that disrupts group norms, tasks or role relationships will probably be resisted. Strategos conducted a survey of innovation practices of more than 550 large companies, where majority of respondents in every industry rated innovation as critical and said that the importance of innovation would grow in the future. According to Loewe and Dominiquini (2006) the top six obstacles to innovation identified by respondents across industries are: Short-term focus. Lack of time, resources or staff. Leadership expects payoff sooner than is realistic. Management incentives do not reward innovation. Lack of a systematic innovation process. Belief that innovation is inherently risky. Below is a list of suggestions how to become successful innovators about overcoming the barriers to innovation: Have a vision for change. Innovation has to have a purpose, a statement which defines the direction for the business and which people will readily understand and remember. Your team needs to know the direction they are headed in order to be innovative. Illustrate the goals and explain to people how their role is decisive in meeting the goals to fulfill the organizational vision. Fight the fear of change. Innovative leaders constantly explain the need for change. They must paint a picture that shows an attractive future that is worth taking risks to achieve. Have a dynamic suggestions scheme. Great suggestion schemes are focused and open to all. Leaders do not need to offer huge rewards. Sometimes, recognition and response are generally more important. Break the rules. To achieve radical innovation leaders need to challenge all the assumptions related to how things should look in your environment. Business is like Art, with no well-defined rules and referees. Innovation is filled with opportunities for people who can take advantage in creating new ways to provide the goods and services that customers want. Give everyone two jobs. Ask your people to run their current jobs in the most effective way possible and at the same time to find completely new ways to do the job. Encourage them to identify the purpose of their role, the outcomes delivered through this role and if there is a better way to deliver that purpose. Collaborate. CEOs must see collaboration as key to their success during innovation. Success can not only be achieved by using internal resources, but also by looking outside of the organization for people to partner with. Welcome failure. The innovative leader encourages a culture where people feel free to innovate and experiment. Innovative leaders tell people that each unsuccessful attempt is a step along the road to success. When innovative leaders welcome innovation and create a culture of experimentation, means that they except failure and welcome it. Build prototypes. Innovative leaders are suggested to try the new ideas at low cost by building prototypes and see what the customer reaction is. You will learn more in the real world than you will in the test laboratories. Be passionate. Leaders must concentrate on the things they want to change, on the challenges they want to face and be passionate about overcoming them. Organizations need passionate supporters, who are inspired to innovate and change the way they do things to come up with extraordinary results. Be passionate about what you believe, communicate that passion every time you speak and explain why reaching the destination is really worthwhile (ArticleSnatch, n.d.). 1.3 Types of Innovation There exist four types of changes to achieve strategic edge within an organization. Managers can use these four types of changes to achieve competitive advantage in the international environment. Each company can have maximum impact upon the chosen market through its own unique configuration of technology, product and services, strategy and structure, and culture as explained below (Daft, 2001). 1.3.1 Technological Innovation Technological innovations refer to changes in an organizations production process to enable distinctive competence. Changes in an organizations production process, including its knowledge and skills base, are designed to produce greater in volume or to have a more efficient production. Changes in technology involve the work methods, equipment, and work flow techniques for making products or services. For example, in a university, technology changes are about changes in methods for teaching the courses. Tyagi (2008) suggests that traditionally innovation has been associated with the use of technological knowledge, and research and development activities. A technological innovation is any innovation due to an industrial application of scientific knowledge. Dess, Lumpkin and Eisner (2008) suggest that innovation involves the usage of new knowledge to transform organizational processes or create commercially viable products and services. The latest technology, results of experiments, creative insights, or competitive information may be the sources of new knowledge. However it comes about, innovation occurs when new combinations of ideas and information bring about positive change. Among the most important sources of new ideas is new technology. Technology creates new possibilities and provides the raw material that firms use to make innovative new products and services. But technology is not the only source of innovation. There can be innovations in human resources, firm infrastructure, marketing, service, or in many other value-adding areas that have little to do with anything â€Å"high-tech.† 1.3.2 Product and Service Innovation Product and service innovations refer to the product or service outputs of an organization. New products may be in the form of entirely new product lines or small adaptions of existing products. New products are designed to develop new markets, or customers, or to increase the market share. Tyagi (2008) states that product innovation is about the introduction of new goods and services which have improvements in terms of design excellence, core characteristics, technical specifications etc. and are derived from customer or industry insight, or strategic alignment of the organization. Godin (2005) suggests that the old rule was to create safe and ordinary products that were combined with great marketing. The new rule is to create remarkable products and figure out a great theory by looking at whats working in the real world and what the various successes have in common. Identify what the successful companies have in common and do something to be remarkable. Roberts (2002) has made a distinction when discussing if innovation is between product/service innovation and process innovation. Product/Service innovation refers to efforts to develop new products or services for end users. Product/Service innovations tend to be more radical and are more common during the earlier stages of an industrys life cycle. As an industry matures, there are fewer opportunities for newness, so the innovations tend to be more incremental. Process innovation, by contrast, is associated with improving the efficiency of an organizational process, especially manufacturing systems and operations. Process innovations occur in the later stages of an industrys life cycle as companies seek ways to remain viable in markets where demand has flattened out and competition is more intensive. As a result, process innovations are often associated with overall cost leader strategies because the aim of many process improvements is to lower the cost of operations. There are several problems with seeking competitive advantage through investments in process technology. Firstly, the people who sell you robots or point-of-sale terminals, software to analyze production or service delivery will sell the robots, terminals, and software to your competitors. Your ability to obtain the benefits of this technology depends on your ability to implement it more rapidly and more effectively. Secondly, investment in specialized technology is not a substitute for skill in managing the work force. This is because more skills may be required to operate the more sophisticated and advanced equipments. Having a higher level of investment per employee will result in increasingly expensive interruptions in the process which means that the ability to operate, maintain, and repair equipment effectively becomes even more critical (Pfeffer, 1996). 1.3.3 Strategy and Structural Innovation Strategy and structural innovation refers to the administrative section in an organization. It is related to the management and supervision in the organization, including changes in an organizations strategic management and structure, policies, accounting and budgeting systems, reward systems, labor relations, coordination devices, management information and control systems. Strategy and structure changes in an organization are mandated by top management. They usually have a top-down structure. An example may be if the corporate goes downsizing. On the other hand, product and technology changes may come from the bottom up. 1.3.4 Cultural Innovation Cultural innovation refers to changes that may occur in an employees attitudes, beliefs, values, expectations, abilities, and behavior. Culture innovation tends to change the way employees think. These are changes in mindset rather than the technology, structure, or products and services. Culture can be a powerful force undermining or shoring up the effectiveness of a nation, a business, and a manager. Recognizing the presence and power of culture will help in better navigating through the rough seas of international business. Discovering how to harness the power of culture in an organization will help the organization gain competitive advantage (Schneider and Barsoux, 2003). To conclude, it can be said that successful innovation in an organization occurs when technological and product or process innovations in the value chain are implemented through effective strategy and structure innovation. Innovation in an organization, which includes people, leadership, creativity, process and organizational culture, is the driver to grow, to achieve high profits and to succeed in the market. Innovation in an organization should be approached in a systematic way and not a piecemeal manner and should be initiated even at the lowest levels (Tyagi, 2008). 1.4 Leadership in Practice of Innovation Many organizations are resistant to changes and continue operating the way they had been operating in the past. To remain competitive, they work harder, improve efficiency, reduce cost and implement best practices. But, this is not enough. Instead of getting stuck in their standard mode of operations, organizations need to adopt innovative ways to change the strategies. The best way to create a competitive edge and be in the head of the competition is to innovate by drawing advantage from the creative power of your people. Turn your greatest assets into opportunistic entrepreneurs who discover new ways and improve the way they do business. Management innovation involves total transformation of existing culture to enhance organizational performance in an integrated manner involving technological innovation, product and service innovation, and strategy and structural innovation (Tyagi, 2008). Sloane (2003) suggests that every organization needs to have a vision, a culture and a process of innovation to build a truly innovative environment. There are eight key elements that create a truly innovative and entrepreneurial organization as below: Painting the vision. The first step is to paint a desirable, challenging and believable vision. Innovative leaders must be sure that people share a common goal and embarke on a journey all together. Being all together means they accept easier the changes, all the challenges and difficulties that show up during the journey. Innovative leaders should delegate more responsibility, and empower the staff with control over their work. Once staff is aware of the goal and direction headed, they contribute the best creative ways to solve challenges and obstacles that lie ahead. Build an open and questioning culture. The painted picture quickly fades away from view, so great leaders should take time to meet staff and illustrate the goals to be achieved and the challenges to overcome. Leaders inspire the staff to become entrepreneurs finding innovative routes to success and constantly remind them how their role is decisive in fulfilling the vision and meeting the challenges. Empowering. The purpose of empowering your people is to turn them into entrepreneurs looking for new opportunities. By empowering, leaders enable them to develop the skills for the task and achieve the change through their own efforts to come up with radical innovations. People need freedom to succeed and need to understand and agree on what management expects of them. People and management must agree on the scope of freedom and responsibility. Empowering means trusting your people, supporting and believing that they will achieve great things. Set goals, deadlines and measurements for innovation. Change is uncomfortable, resulting in anxiously people fearing an embarrassing or costly failure. Leaders should spend time with people encouraging them to undertake risks and come out from their safety zones. Leaders should reassure them that risks are necessary and worth taking and no one will be punished if their initiatives do not succeed. Use creativity techniques to generate a large number of ideas. Innovative leaders should build a culture where everyone can come up with creative solutions and crazy ideas through techniques, methods, and workshops. The goal is to change the people within the organization; from people who do routine jobs into highly energized entrepreneurs who constantly search for new and better ways of making the vision a reality. People need to be trained to learn the skills and to develop the confidence to try new methods, and use creative techniques to come up with new solutions. Review, filter and select ideas. In the innovation process many ideas are generated in response to a given issue or challenge. At the end, the most promising idea is selected. Prototype the promising proposals. After the idea is selected, then the move is to rapidly prototype it. Analyze the results and the successful projects. New product is tested for its feasibility, attractiveness and payback. Those that pass these criteria are given more funding. King (2009) suggests that the most effective, efficient and leading edge organizations are those that innovate and encourage innovation. Innovative organizations require a strong leadership team to approve the importance of innovation and create a culture for it. A development of strong capabilities for innovation leadership need to be started early in the career development process. In an innovative culture, the staff is given freedom to innovate and experiment. In an innovative culture, risks are managed and the organization understands and accepts that future success is built on a series of learning from unsuccessful attempts. Collaboration with outside parties to generate and adopt innovations is encouraged. Success will depend on strong leadership. We can take learning from market leaders to help us identify key leadership behaviors to promote innovation as explained below: Lead continuous innovation and improvement. Develop and communicate an encouraging story. Encourage partnerships and collaboration. Staff should be exposed to new viewpoints and ideas that can be adapted in the organization. To do this, the organization should create partnerships and collaboration with different parts within or outside the organization. Promote innovation. Organization should consider innovation as a core part of its role, and time is allocated for its employees to innovate. Different organizations have created bespoke

Assessing the Impact of Using Internet for Competitive Intelligence

Assessing the impact of using Internet for competitive intelligence Here is the summary of an interesting scientific paper dealing with the impact of using the Internet for competitive intelligence. The Internet, as an information-rich resource and interorganizational communication tool, has transformed the way that firms gather, produce and transmit competitive intelligence (CI). The aim of this article is to assess the impact of the Internet on CI and the subsequent effects on the organization. What is CI?It is a process of knowing what the competition is up to and staying one step ahead of it, by gathering information about competitors and ideally, applying this information in short- and long-term strategic planning. It refers to actionable information about the external business environment that could affect a company’s competitive position. CI is not industrial espionage given that 90% of all information that a company needs to make critical decisions and to understand it s market and competitors is already public or can be systematically developed from public data.The growth of the Internet has led to CI professionals exploiting its information richness and hypermedia capabilities for CI activities. By using the Internet, a company can monitor the presence, posture, products, and prices of other players in its industry. It can track the views of customers and seek out new ideas and expertise internationally. Model : they examine the downstream effects of using the Internet (for research, internal and external use) on quality of CI information and its subsequent effects on organizational performance.Concretely, the model could be summarized as followed: Research + Internal Use + External Use Quality of CI information Impact on organization The first three components symbolized the Internet Usage. Results and implications The results of this study indicate that using the Internet has a positive impact on the quality of CI information. There is a posit ive relationship between usage of CI information and organizational performance. It shows that the improved quality of CI information through Internet usage has a positive impact on organization.The results suggest that there is a direct positive link between usage of the Internet (for research, internal or external purpose) and the quality of CI information, and a positive downstream impact on the organizations’ strategic benefits. Although there may be some concerns about the reliability and timeless of information published on the Internet, there is little doubt that it is one of the most cost-effective means of obtaining information. However, data must be transformed into knowledge and order has to be created from the chaos of the Internet.The information overload from the Internet also makes focused research difficult but ‘intelligent agents’ have to be developed to automate and alleviate the CI professional’s information gathering workload. My opinio n: This paper has been written in 2001, which means a very long time ago when we are talking about the Internet and its information storage capabilities. Do you think this paper is no longer suitable for the current situation we are experiencing (empowerment of the customers through social medias, increased access to the Internet, hackers and so on) ?Moreover, they say that the ‘intelligent agents’ have to learn how to scan the information to find the relevant one and that it’s the most cost-effective means of obtaining information, do you think this notion is still true or must be nuanced ? Bron: â€Å"Assessing the impact of using Internet for competitive intelligence† Thompson S. H. Teo & Wing Yee Choo Information & Management 39 (2001) 67-83 http://www. cuaed. unam. mx/puel_cursos/cursos/d_gcfe_m_tres/modulo/modulo_3/m3-4. pdf

Blood type

An application of Science to Law, Science to Criminal Justice The analysis of physical, chemical and biological evidence Forensic Medicine deals with crimes involving a human body (Murder, rape, assault) Forensic science enables us to reconstruct the past sequence of events. Forensic science can link a suspect to a crime scene. Examples of forensic evidences are: Fibers (clothes, carpet) Hair Blood If newsprint Shoe print Paint Forensic evidence can distinguish been murder and suicide. Locator Exchange Principle by Proof.Edmond Locator â€Å"Wherever he steps, whatever he touches, whatever he leaves, even unconsciously, will serve as a silent witness against him. Not only his fingerprints or footprints, but his hair, the fibers from his clothes, the glass he breaks, the tool mark he leaves, the paint he scratches, the blood or semen he deposits or collects. All of these and more, bear mute witness against him. This is evidence that does not forget. It is not confused by the exciteme nt of the moment. It is not absent because human witnesses are. It is factual evidence. Physical evidence cannot be wrong, it cannot perjure itself, it cannot be wholly absent.Only human failure to find it, study and understand it, can diminish its value. Every Contact leaves a Trace Case Study: Burglar severed a finger on razor wire while breaking into a builder's yard was caught by police when he went to hospital for treatment. Earliest forensics lab in US is in Austria, LISA in LAP. Singapore forensic lab is set up in 1960 by Proof Chaos Tweeze Change, now part of HAS. In a Forensic Science Lab, you can find: . Physical Science Licit a. Identification and comparison of evidence b. Chemical tests c. Spectroscopy d. Microscopy Drugs, glass, paint, explosives, soil†¦ E. 2.Biology Unit a. Hair b. Plants 3. DNA Lab DNA analysis a. 4. Firearms Unit a. Guns b. Bullets c. Cartridge cases . Firearm damage 5. Documents Unit a. Handwriting b. Printing Paper d. Ink 6. Photography Jinni a. Record of evidence b. Presentation Toxicology – drugs and poisons in body fluids and organs Latent Fingerprints – using chemical means to making them visible Polygraph – or lie detector Vectoring -? analysis of voices Psychiatric Profiling -? What can we tell about the criminal from the way they commit the crime Computer Forensics and Electronic Forensics -? What can be learnt from deleted data?How can other electronic trails be followed? Forensic Engineering – Examine the engine emerging aspects of a building or object Forensic Entomology – Using insects to provide information Forensic Geology – Soil Analysis on mineral content and chemistry. Soil in different countries have individualistic composition. This composition helps to narrow down to a region Of the world. Forensic Anthropology – Examination of skeletal remains Facial Reconstruction – If you have the skull, can you tell what the face looks like?Forensic Demonology – using teeth to provide information such as identification of victims remains or criminal Identification: physical objects Biological properties Chemical properties/constituents We collect as many evidence as we can on scene. These evidences have class characteristics that can put an object in a certain class or group like brand of shoe, type of fiber or type of bullet. Individualizing: Narrowing the class to one, Attaining more information from evidences from a crime scene.Physical objects: Manufacturer, serial number, fingerprints Chemicals: Trace elements and impurities Biological samples: Blood type and DNA analysis Then we do comparison and associate the evidence to the crime scene and the criminal. After which, reconstruction to understand the sequence of past events and Re-enactment Chapter 2: Spectroscopy and the Structure of Atoms Elements are the basic materials consisting of 93 natural basics and many more artificial ones. Elements can neither be created nor dest royed.Paper Cellulose consists of C, H, O CA Carbon Dioxide CA and Water H2O Human Body consists of C, H, O, N, P, S, Ca, An, K, Fee†¦ DDCD, H2O, N oxides, P oxides, S oxides, Ca oxides or hydroxides†¦ Teeth contains Au or Hag C] Au or Hag oxides Analysis: Which elements are present? E. G. Suspected lead or mercury poisoning but are these metals present in the body regardless of their chemical form? Toxicology. E. G. FUN analysis. How much of these elements were present in the Poltroon bones? Time of Death. What is it made of? How can we identify the elements present in an object?Bulk composition (what is it mostly made of? )e. G. Bullets are mostly lead. Trace impurities (what is a small part of it made or? ) e. G. Bullets have silver and antimony Chemical tests can be done to identify these elements and chemical tests have the following characteristics: Large amounts Of sample is needed Destructive Subjected to interference Fast process Easy to do Simple equipment White light consists of all colors. In the early 19th century, black bands observed in the solar spectrum. Different spectroscopic techniques use different frequencies of light.The different frequencies of light interact differently with the molecules. Structure of Atom: Tiny, dense, positively charged core called nucleus where nearly all mass is concentrated with electrons circulating at some distance. Founded by Ernest Rutherford. Nielsen Boor found that electrons are restricted to specific energy levels, therefore atoms don't destroy themselves due to electrostatic attraction. Electrons can jump to higher energy levels by absorbing energy. Electrons can release energy when they drop to a lower level. The frequency of the electromagnetic radiation emitted or absorbed is proportional to LEE DeBroglie equation: E = HP (Constant x frequency of electrons) Absorption Spectroscopy is when electron jump to higher energy levels, energy IS absorbed. A drop in graph for short interval of time. Em ission Spectroscopy is when electron drops to lower energy levels, energy is given out. A sharp spike in graph. Flame tests for metals: if a metal salt is introduced to a flame, a characteristic color is produced. Energy of the flame excites electrons in the atoms and light is emitted as the atoms drop back to ground state. Sodium: Orange Barium & Copper: Green Calcium & Lithium: Red Potassium: LilacAtomic Absorption Spectrometer (AS): Advantages: Fast Specific Sensitive Small sample size Disadvantages: Element by element Neutron Activation Analysis (*ANA) Non-destructive but needs a nuclear reactor Changes the nature of element Each emitted gamma ray is at dif. Energy level. Microscopy Scanning Electron Microscope – Energy Dispersive X-ray fluorescence (SEEM- DEG)* Non-destructive analysis looking at core electrons Use the electron beam of the microscope to eject core electrons Ejecting a core electron creates a vacancy. When a higher energy electron drops to fill vacancy, a characteristic X-ray is emittedCASE STUDY: Napoleon. Analysis of hair samples by Neutron Activation Analysis shows arsenic. Paint used for one of Napoleon's wallpaper is Chisel's Green which consists of copper arsenate. SEEM-DEG shows presence of arsenic. When copper arsenate reacts with mold, arsenic gas is produced. CASE STUDY: Kennedy Assassination 22nd Novo 1 963 Analysis of bullets fragments by Neutron Activation Analysis (ANA) shows the content of Antimony and Silver. You are What You Eat! Bones consists of calcium phosphate in a protein matrix. Calcium is derived from the diet.. Other metals may also be incorporated if they are present in diet.Relative abundance of trace elements in bone can indicate geographical origin: Strontium, copper and lead. Chapter 3: Time Of Death Alger Morris: After death, muscles relax, body is limp and starts to cool down. The rate at which body temperature cools depends on size of body, location, clothing, weather. Different parts of the body co ols at different rates. E. G. Brain cools faster than liver. General rule is -1 to 1. Degrees Fahrenheit However, note that the body may start to warm up after 2 days due to start of putrefaction Rigor Morris: Lactic acid in the muscles causes tension up to 36 hours after death E. . Jaws (errs), arms (4-errs), legs(8-1 Oh RSI), whole body (10-rush) Liver Morris (Color of the body): Also known as Postmortem lividly: the black and blue disconsolation of the skin of a cadaver, resulting from an accumulation of degenerated blood in subcutaneous vessels. Hypothesis: poor or stagnant circulation in a dependent part of the body or an organ. Settling of red blood cells due to gravity (post mortem lividly, hypothesis 0-ours) Disconsolation in lower parts. Parts on the ground not affected due to compression of capillaries (contact flattening) *Has the body been moved?If a body has been moved, he calculation of the body may not give the correct approximation of the time of death. *Take note th at CO poisoning has similar symptoms as Liver Morris, CO poisoning results in cherry pink calculation due to the carbon monoxide-hemoglobin complex Physiological Changes in the body after Death. The average core temperature of a body is 9. Degree Fahrenheit. Postmortem interval = 99. 6/1. 5 (general rule). Other indicators that can estimate the time of death are: Kit levels in ocular fluid (vitreous humor) which increase after death Stomach and intestine contents (time of last meal).A stomach empties its contents in about 2 hours. Look at other objects such as watches or mobile phone records and CATV. Putrefaction This is the process when your micro-organisms start to eat you after death. This produces gases and characteristic smells. The rate of putrefaction depends heavily on local factors such as temperature and also drug use. Forensic Entomology (Using insects) Insects can arrive and lay eggs as early as minis after death. In order to estimate the time of death, the species, lif e cycle, local conditions of that particular insect must be known. Live maggots are collected from the corpse and rear until adulthood.After which, back calculate age and determine pieces. Skeletal Remains A forensic pathologist or anthropologist will use astrology, the study of bones, to find out as much as possible about the identity of a skeleton or collection of bones. Sometimes they rely on skeletal radiology, the study of bones through x rays or fluorescence (light-emission) to help make the identification. No fluorescence indicates that the skeletal remains is 1 00 years old or more. FUN analysis As time passes, the organic components of bone (mostly fats and proteins) are lost primarily through bacterial action.Since these components contain nitrogen, there is a progressive loss of that element. At the same time, percolating ground water deposits trace amounts of fluorine and other elements, such as uranium, into the bone. Bone nitrogen content decreases with age (proteins b reakdown). Bone fluoride and uranium increases with age. Fresh bones should contain 4% of nitrogen and 0% fluoride and uranium. Therefore, FUN analysis is useful for comparing samples from the same burial grounds/sites. Carbon-14 Dating The natural amount of ICC, a radioactive isotope formed in atmosphere by cosmic rays, is constant and living things have this proportion of ICC.Radioactive atoms decay at a predicable rate and only half of the atoms will eve decayed in arrears. Hence measuring the amount of ICC allows estimation of time of death through back calculation. This method is not accurate for Components can be detected as they get to the end. Movement is due to the flow of a liquid or gas (mobile phase). Thin Layer Chromatography (TTL) Colored compounds are visible to the eye while others can be made visible through chemical staining or UP light. TTL is a presumptive test, it is unable to distinguish all the different compounds in the sample and only provides 2 answers: NO or MAYBE. Gas Chromatography (GO) GO can only be used if the unknown sample passes TTL. GO depends on the rate of which the compound moves at different temperatures. GO is still not accurate enough.High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HAPLY) HAPLY is similar to GO, but uses a liquid mobile phase. The graph result of HAPLY has very sharp and narrow peaks which are highly distinguishable to determine the different compounds in an unknown sample accurately. HAPLY GO For both methods: Efficient, highly selective and widely applicable Only a small amount of sample is needed Non-destructive to the sample Readily adapted to quantitative analysis Has high resolution Advantages of HAPLY: Can accommodate non-volatile and thermally unstable samples Advantages of GO: Simple and inexpensive equipment Rapid process How do we tell what compound is it?By comparison of chromatography of authentic samples By spectroscopy By spectrometry Infra-red Spectroscopy Based on molecular vibrations (stretch ing and bending of chemical bonds) Stretching frequency depends on masses involved and stiffness of the bond The graph of infra-red spectroscopy has 2 parts, before 1 500 wave number and after 1500 wave number Before 1500-6000 wave number shows the characteristics Of the class of compounds, but not Of individual compound After 1500 – 600 wave number shows Characteristic of individual compound like a molecular fingerprint Mass Spectrometry Measures the molecular weight of the sample. . Sample is introduced into a vacuum box 2. Sample is bombarded with electrons, leaving only positively-charged ions 3. Ions are accelerated by high voltages (100 – 1 0,VIVO), ions is deflected into magnetic field to detectors, measuring the mass of the molecule. *Know how to calculate molecular weight Some molecules will break up in the spectrometer known as Fragmentation. Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry (GO-MS) Another hyphenated tech unique.

Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal Essay - 459 Words

Jonathan Swift’s â€Å"A Modest Proposal† In Jonathan Swift’s â€Å"A Modest Proposal,† published in 1729, Swift engages in an extraordinary amount of irony and satire. Swift states that in order to reduce famine in Ireland and to solve the problems that they are having that eating children would be a good solution. This is not the purpose of Swift’s essay. The real intent was to get the people of Britain to notice that the ideas that they were coming up with were not any better than his satirical one, and new ideas and efforts needed to come forth in order to solve the problem. Swift stresses that it is hard for mothers to provide for their children and it is not getting any easier. He feels that this is due to an overpopulation and†¦show more content†¦He believes that these less than a year old infants can survive mostly on breast milk and need little other nourishment. So, Swift’s idea is that after a child has reached a year old, that child is to be sold as food to the wealthier members in that society or anybody who can afford it. From Swift’s perspective using the children as food is the most efficient and cheap way to make the children a contribution rather than a burden. Swift realizes that there is a downfall to this approach. That downfall is a sharp decrease in population. Although that is part of the goal, it could create too much of a decline in the population than wanted. However, this is the only con that Swift mentions. Swift goes on in great detail to explain his many pros for this idea. Swift feels that since most of the children born into this poverty grow up to be thieves and beggars that it would be doing society a favor in the long run. Swift also states that he is open to any other opinions that anyone may have regarding solutions to the famine that the country is facing. Here he is merely saying that he wants to hear what is going to be done about this famine and when something is going to be done. He also shows his concern in this essay for such tragedies that this country is facing or may be facing. He shows that he genuinely cares about what happens and he is willing to help. Nothing will get done about itShow MoreRelatedJonathan Swifts A Modest Proposal949 Words   |  4 Pages â€Å"A Modest Proposal† by Jonathan Swift takes place in Dublin Ireland in the 18th century. The narrator is a very ironic character. His â€Å"modest† proposal is anything but modest. This short story takes place during a famine. Since there was a famine, Swift proposes the idea that people sell their one year old children to the rich so they would not be a burden to their family. One important way in which the author engages the audience’s attention and tries to help his readers see deeper politicalRead MoreJonathan Swifts A Modest Proposal844 Words   |  4 Pagesprepared for Ms. Harveys English 1101 Class A Simple Solution Jonathan Swift’s â€Å"A Modest Proposal† is centered in Ireland in 1729. Swift describes his plan to reduce the amount of homelessness, poverty, and malnutrition. He begins by describing constantly seeing women with four or five children begging for food. Swift suggests plumping up the young children before selling them to the wealthy of Ireland for consumption. Dr. Jonathan Swift’s proposal not only potentially creates more problems than it solvesRead More Jonathan Swifts A Modest Proposal Essay1150 Words   |  5 PagesJonathan Swifts A Modest Proposal Swift was said to â€Å"declare at one stage in his life: ‘I am not of this vile country (Ireland), I am an Englishman’† (Hertford website). In his satire â€Å"A Modest Proposal,† he illustrates his dislike not only for the Irish, but for the English, organized religions, rich, greedy landlords, and people of power. It is obvious that Swift dislikes these people, but the reader must explore from where his loathing for the groups of people stems. I believe Swift notRead MoreIrony in Jonathan Swifts A Modest Proposal1101 Words   |  5 Pagesthe tome is usually kept serious and Irony and satire are widely used in such writings. On the other hand while describing the recent developments in genetic engineering, the tone would be objective and humor or satire would be ineffective here. Jonathan Swift was famous for his sarcastic remarks on the government of his days and his works are full of satire and irony which appear to be humorous but carry a sharp edge which make them effective for expressing political ideas. â€Å"Irony refers eitherRead More Jonathan Swifts Essay, A Modest Proposal659 Words   |  3 PagesJonathan Swifts Essay, A Modest Proposal Jonathan Swift in his essay, A Modest Proposal suggests a unique solution to the problem concerning poor children in Ireland. Swift uses several analytical techniques like statistics, induction, and testimony to persuade his readers. His idea is admirable because he suggests that instead of putting money into the problem, one can make money from the problem. However, his proposal is inhumane. Swift wrote his proposal for those that were tired ofRead MoreEssay on Jonathan Swifts A Modest Proposal1391 Words   |  6 Pages In Jonathan Swift’s essay, â€Å"A Modest Proposal†, Swift proposes that the poor should eat their own starving children during a great a famine in Ireland. What would draw Swift into writing to such lengths? When times get hard in Ireland, Swift states that the children would make great meals. The key factor to Swift’s essay that the reader must see that Swift is not literally ordering the poor to cannibalize. Swift acknowledges the fact of the scarcity of food and empathizes with the struggling andRead MoreAnalysis Of Jonathan Swifts A Modest Proposal998 Words   |  4 Pagesbest way to eliminate the social issues that are influencing it.Swift starts by taunting and blaming the moms of the children by saying that if they are capable of finding work they should instead of asking for money. Swift, wrote the essay,A Modest Proposal as a sarcastic approach to show people that they are not showing any interest or even coming up with working plans to decrease these social problems, for example, fetus removal, overpopulation, and poorness. Through his terribly twisted ideaRead MoreSummary Of Jonathan Swifts A Modest Proposal918 Words   |  4 PagesIrish. One of these people was a man named Jonathan Swift. In his essay â€Å"A Modest Proposal† Swift challenges the status quo of the time and place in which it was written by proposing that they eat the children of the poor, ending the hate between the Protestants and the Catholics, and suggesting that the landowners have mercy towards their tenants. In his essay, Swift first suggests that the population of Ireland eat the children of the poor. This proposal would shock anyone, but it was definitelyRead MoreAnalysis of Jonathan Swifts Essay A Modest Proposal903 Words   |  4 PagesJonathan Swifts 1729 essay A Modest Proposal deals with societal issues contemporary to him and is meant to provide harsh criticism in regard to values promoted by society at the time. The author uses this essay with the purpose of suggesting that he found the solution to financial problems experienced by the Irish during the era. By advising these people to sell their people to wealthy individuals in England, he intends to satirize society by emphasizing the cruel attitudes generally expressedRead MoreJonathan Swifts A Modest Proposal And The Daily Show1139 Words   |  5 Pagesgrievances and wait for slow and often ineffective changes to take place. However, in the eighteenth century Jonathan Swift broke societys norms through his highly disturbing and shocking satirical piece A Modest Proposal. Swift proposes to the English Protestants a cannibal solution for the Irish Catholic children who are dying of starvation and diseases on the streets each day. Swift’s far from â€Å"modest† solution paved the way for modern day satirical outlets like The Daily Show. In a time where news commentators