Innovation Issues

What do you actually study? That's a common question I regularly get. Yeah, Innovation Management is the consistent and never changing answer...but what is it?! It is part of Industrial Engineering...but that might be as vague as the first answer. And it is vague, I admit.

Industrial Engineering here in Europe is different than what it is in Korea or the US, basically. And also within Europe there are differences. Germany has a different education system then the rest of Europe and are lacking behind in the Bachelor/Master system, which is broadly applied in the rest of Europe. That does not mean that the quality of the German system is bad. In my perception, and I also think in reality, the German education system is relatively very good. The stereotype that Germans are strict and organized is more or less true and also the German education system is based on a strong fundament of knowledge and basic skills. Industrial Engineering in the Netherlands is most similar to the setup in the Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark & Finland). Here besides technical skills some (or a lot) business, management and marketing disciplines are thought. Soft skills are getting high priorities in the education system as in the whole society. So the feminine culture of those countries shapes the education system and vica versa. Innovation Management as part of Industrial Engineering, admits and emphasizes the important role of innovation in development of technology and growth and prosperity of the society. It is the reason to exist for many companies. As Peter Drucker (1909-2005) once said: "What is business? The only function of a business is to create customer value and to innovate". So everybody is talking about Innovation and every multinational company is trying to put attention to the magic term ' innovation'. But why can nobody tell me what it actually is? And more importantly, how to achieve this mean to survival for every single company?!

The only thing I know is that it is not that straight forward as some management gurus try us to believe. It requires creativity, commitment, cooperation and a lot more. I am trying to connect academic knowledge about innovation to the daily practice of Samsung, those days. I just started and there is quite a long way to go before I can call myself Master of Innovation Management. One thing I am sure about....it won't be easy....but it is not about easy jobs in live, it is about perseverance and achievement. Let’s go for it!