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29 January 2008
Award-Winning Scholar Discusses Teaching Innovation
Ask America webchat transcript, January 29
Rajesh K. Chandy, professor of marketing and co-director of the Institute for Research in Marketing at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, answered questions on teaching innovation in a January 29 webchat.
Following is the transcript:
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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of International Information Programs
Ask America Webchat Transcript
The Next New Thing--Teaching Innovation
Guest: Rajesh K. Chandy
Date: January 29, 2008
Time: 9:00 a.m. EST (1400 GMT)
Moderator: Welcome to our webchat! Today is January 29. The webchat will begin at 14:00 GMT.
You may begin sending in your questions now.
Rajesh Chandy: Hello, this is Rajesh Chandy. Welcome to our webchat on teaching innovation!
Question [rarasoa]: Greetings, could anybody become an innovator? If not what are the criteria that help you in the Teaching Innovation to identify the potential Innovator?
Thank you, rarasoa
Answer [Rajesh Chandy]: Great question. A large body of research on the topic suggests that creativity and the potential to innovate is inherent in many of us. However, not all of us enjoy the environment that allows us to successfully translate our inherent creativity to innovative outputs. The economic historians Zorina Khan and Kenneth Sokoloff provide some fascinating insights on this topic in their studies of “great inventors” in America - individuals who were responsible for many of the innovations we continue to use today (e.g., telephone, electric lighting). They find that “great inventors” were not especially highly educated, neither did they have exceptional technical skills. However, these inventors actively sought out professional, technical, and market environments that allowed them to make their ideas into reality. For example, they were persistent, and they were more willing than others to move to geographic and professional environments that gave them the means by which to make their innovations happen.
You asked about the criteria I use to identify potential innovators. I look for motivated and persistent individuals. Of course, ability matters too, and the nature of the ability required varies depending on the innovation context. However, motivation and opportunity are particularly important for innovation.
I tell my students that the important thing is to seek out opportunities – whether in a lonely workshop or in a large firm – that provide them with the means to make their ideas happen. And I tell them to persist in seeking out and pursuing new ideas and markets.
Q [Kuba]: Dear sir, In today's world youth are full of WWW, online communities, mobile connection, etc. As a teacher do you see this as a contributor to innovative thinking or do the youth rely too heavily on the technology to do the thinking and innovating for them? And how do you as teacher reach the youth in your lecture--verbal lecture or multimedia?
A [Rajesh Chandy]: Innovation requires communication and the cross-fertilization of ideas. The WWW, online communities and mobile networks all help with this. Innovation also requires motivation. If the web and other technologies help motivate young people, then understanding how they use such technologies is crucial to educating them successfully. Also, many of these technologies are active and not passive. They require the active engagement of users. By using them, young people can learn by doing. Personally, I find the use of multimedia very useful and important, not to mention fun!
Moderator: Welcome to those of you just joining us. We invite you to submit your questions to Rajesh Chandy.
Moderator: Participants in today’s discussion may wish to visit the U.S. State Department’s latest eJournalUSA “The Next New Thing” available at:
http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itsv/0108/ijse/ijse0108.htm
Q [Chat Participant]: How do you approach your role as instructor? Innovation implies change and move away from the status quo. Thus do you approach your pedagogy from different perspective? –Michal
A [Rajesh Chandy]: Actually, I use history a great deal to communicate the drivers and impediments of innovation. History is full of examples of cases in which individuals, communities, even entire nations either embraced change or ignored or actively resisted it, so I find rich descriptions of historical cases combined with insights from current research on innovation to be an effective way of teaching innovation. Another nice thing about using history to teach innovation is the availability of some terrific multimedia tools that help enliven classroom discussions.
Moderator: Welcome to those of you just joining us. Our guest is reviewing your questions now. Answers will appear on this screen as soon as they are posted by today's guest speaker. Thank you for your patience!
Comment [azocas]: True, the internet is a useful means to enhance innovation in teaching. But there are teachers who are afraid of using ICT in their teaching practices.
Comment [adolatkal]: I have a friend, who has settled in Minnesota, he studied with my son in Moscow, now he teaches physics at the Minnesota University. He is married to an Uzbek lady. He has sent me many magazines about Carlson School of management.
Comment [Dear professor]! Of course, the USA are the paradise for inventors while comparing research conditions in/with other countries especially in/with developing ones. Many researchers come to the USA already with ready inventions. There they become members of the inventors' teams/consortiums, win, become famous ones. We hear so many familiar names of Russia, other countries!!
Q [azocas]: First of all, thank you for this interesting topic. what is meant by teaching innovations? Taking into account that teaching is not financially rewarding in many developing countries. Thus, how can teachers think of creativity and innovations since there are constraints?
A [Rajesh Chandy]: Good question - certainly, teachers are not always rewarded commensurate with the value of their contributions. However, teaching, as you probably recognize, does provide the rewards in other ways - for example, the satisfaction one derives from communicating new ideas and influencing minds. The constraints faced by many teachers are also mitigated these days because many teaching and research tools are now available for free on the internet. Accessing articles through Google Scholar or using video provided on YouTube, for example, can be very helpful to teachers.
Q [Kuba]: Dear sir, Innovation is teh domain of wealthy nations. To innovate there must be financial support, for finacila support must be economy and investment. Thus poor nations do not benefit or contribute to innovation. How do you respond?
A [Rajesh Chandy]: You are right in noting that financial resources are a crucial ingredient for innovation. Technologies are increasingly complex, and markets are increasingly global. Developing complex technologies and accessing far-flung markets can indeed require financial resources.
But times are changing. We live in a very exciting period in history. Increasing movement of money, ideas, and people across geographical boundaries – not just boundaries of rich nations, but also boundaries of developing nations – is making innovation possible in distant corners of the world. Economies are growing at unprecedented rates, and investments are surging. Some research that my colleagues and I are working on now shows that in recent years, the largest increase in new R&D centers by multinational firms across the world has been in China and India. Moreover, the unique constraints faced by individuals in developing countries and the lack of existing solutions actually help stimulate innovations that are entirely new to the world. Professor CK Prahalad at the University of Michigan provides some terrific cases of innovations and innovators that are almost entirely the result of the unique opportunities and solutions that individuals in emerging economies have identified and developed.
Mobile phone based financial services in Africa are another example of innovations developed in emerging economies that are transforming these economies. As such, I believe that poor nations can benefit and contribute substantially to innovation.
Moderator: Participants in today’s discussion may wish to visit the U.S. State Department’s latest eJournalUSA “The Next New Thing” available at:
http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itsv/0108/ijse/ijse0108.htm
Moderator: Thank you for your questions, we do see them coming in. Our speaker is working as quickly as possible to answer you!
Q [Chat Participant]: Thank you. This notion is interesting. Do you agree a nation which does not allow change will "sink". That a nation of tradition (social norms) may be pushed to change by innovation. That is to say will innovation as you see it be thr true push to modernity in some nations reluctanct to change? -Michal
A [Rajesh Chandy]: Certainly, history suggests that countries and societies that become inward-looking and reluctant to change, eventually see substantial decline. The economic historian Angus Maddison points out that India and China together were responsible for over 2/3 of the world economy in the 15th century. By the middle of the 20th century, they accounted for less than 10%. Some scholars, such as Daniel Boorstin, argue that much of this decline can be traced to an increase in inward-focus and reluctance to change.
Nevertheless, individuals can make a difference. The role of key individuals in Singapore, South Korea, Dubai, and other fast-growing economies in promoting change are cases in point.
Q [azocas]: Thank you so much for this convincing answer. What is the difference between google as a search engine and this schoolar google? in other words what is new in this scholar google?
A [Rajesh Chandy]: Please see scholar.google.com - it allows you to read and search the full-text of many academic articles.
Q [adolatkal]: Dear professor on marketing! The old marketing words as product, place, prize, promotion are today in the globalized economy totally new words beginning with C. How would you comment this innovation in marketing on Innovations?
A [Rajesh Chandy]: Nice to hear from a fellow student of marketing. At the University of Minnesota, we're quite proud of the 4Ps [product, place, price, and promotion] of marketing because that framework for marketing was developed right here in our department. Perhaps you are referring to the focus on customers, competitors, companies, and collaborators? These are often the basis for marketing strategy as implemented through the 4Ps. The development and marketing of innovation requires an analysis of both the 4Cs and the 4Ps of marketing. Each of the 4Cs - customers, competitors, companies, and collaborators - can be a source of innovation.
Moderator: To those of you just joining us, welcome! Our speaker continues to review your questions.
Today's chat is the first of several on the topic of innovation. Learn more about upcoming webchats at our Ask America homepage:
http://www.america.gov/multimedia/askamerica.html
Q [Imperial]: What makes a company innovative?
A [Rajesh Chandy]: There is a large stream of research on this very question. In fact, it's been a question I've been working on for some time as well. In research with my colleagues Gerry Tellis and Jaideep Prabhu, I've recently looked at innovative firms in 17 countries around the world and found some striking similarities among them. Innovative firms, we found, share some common attitudes and practices:
Attitudes:
1. Future focus – are decision makers within the firm more oriented toward the future than the past?
2. Willingness to cannibalize – are they willing to reduce the value of their own past investments if an innovation demanded it?
3. Risk taking – are they willing to risk failure?
Practices:
1. Product champions – are individuals who push new ideas valued and given influence?
2. Incentives – are rewards for successful innovation disproportionately greater than any punishment for failure?
Comment [Imperial]: Thank you for your very interesting response. Good luck with your research.
Comment [adolatkal]: Dear professor! You are so far in the USA and not reachable and of Course the Father of these words is not reachable too!!! I just have returned from the famous KCTOS Vienna Conference, where I have a report about MARKETING CITIES and COUNTRIES the very beloved topic of F. Kotler. Also, Customers' wants and needs, Congruence in negotiation/bargaining about prices, no places of origin of products -Guess this C-word! And only Communication is the buzzword in today's marketing.
I suppose that here it is very interesting to discuss cross-cultural issues! I am an emeritus MBA professor on marketing and would like to Communicate with marketing professionals very much!
Q [Regina]: Hello! Where do you see the most innovative teaching of innovation?
A [Rajesh Chandy]: Many companies and universities are finding that first-hand observation can be a very useful means of teaching innovation. My own students find it both inspirational and extremely educational to observe, through international trips we organize, how individuals and firms around the world develop new solutions to vexing problems.
Rajesh Chandy: Thank you all for this very interesting and lively discussion. Thanks, too, to the folks at the State Department for making this happen. For a nice description of some of the challenges and opportunities in innovation as seen by thought leaders in business and academia, please check out:
www.innovationmetrics.gov
Moderator: We wish to thank Rajesh Chandy for joining us today. The webchat is now closed.
A full transcript of today's webchat will be available on our Ask America homepage usually within one business day.
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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
