Research and analysis of trends shaping the organization

The chosen company for the task is Zume Pizza Inc. The company currently operates in the food tech and food delivery industry. The company was founded in the year 2015 by Alex Garden and Julia Collins (Zumepizza.com, 2019). MountainView is the destination for the headquarter of the company. Along with the mentioned location, the organization operates in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, San Jose, Sunnywale, Atherton and Menlo Park (Zumepizza.com, 2019). The organization is able to acquire the preferences of the customers in producing the pizza, salads and cookies (Zumepizza.com, 2019).

The project evaluates the innovative planning of the company and the implementation of them in producing the best quality service to the customers of them. Along with that, the project assess the scope for the organization in incorporating the innovative thinking and presence of innovation in their business operations. Apart from that, the paper analyses the barriers in the implementation of the innovations into the business operations of the mentioned company as well.

The past theory and thought process regarding the innovation and the creativity in the business operations of the mentioned industry, is bit irrelevant compared to the impact of it in the modern business context. Earlier, the presence of the innovation in the business context was considered to be a sole luxury and the presence of the innovation in the products and the services of the company was directed towards a specific section of the customers who can afford them. However, in the modern business context, the concept is bit different. The modern theory of the innovation clearly specifies that the innovation has notably good effect for the company if it is aligned to the demands and the preferences of the customers (Anderson, Poto?nik & Zhou, 2014).

The internal global and local innovation drivers for the company are the entrepreneurial desire of the leaders of the organization in producing new food products that are notably in alignment with the preferences and needs of the customers, creation of an internal technological environment and technology based strategy along with the training on the total quality management (Garcia Martinez et al., 2014).

The external global and local innovation drivers for the company is seen to be the customers of their products as majority of them are seen to have lesser amount of time for the processing of the food products and that creates the need for the company in introducing the innovation to their operations. Along with that, the presence of the new technology, global changes and the market competition are seen to be significantly influential for the company.

Evaluation of overall context for individual and collective innovative thinking

The mission of the organization is to make sure that the customers of it is delighted with services and the products that it offers to the customers. Along with that, the primary objective of the organization is to reduce the amount of time that the customers spend or wait for the processing of the food products. The strategy implemented by the organization is the introduction of the robots and the automated services into the processing of the pizzas (Bedford, 2015).

The specific condition required for the innovation in the company’s context are the requirements of the customers, the scope of increment in the generation of the revenue with the implementation of the innovative plans in the processing of the products, the achievement of the sustainability in the innovative products and the increment in the operational efficiency of the organization and the employees of it (Moodysson & Zukauskaite, 2014).

The issues that affect the collective and individual innovative thinking inside the organization are the lack of motivation or the absence of the portrayal of the trust from the part of the higher authority (Chua, Roth & Lemoine, 2015). Along with that, the lack of skills and the competencies of a minor section of the management in accepting the criticism and the scope of formation of the conflict from that are also influential in the formation of the apathy among individuals regarding the innovative thinking and creativity.

The production of the freedom from the part of the management in taking the decision regarding the innovative operations of the organization to the employees and the other members of the organization positively motivates the process of innovative thinking.

The potential barriers or the risk to innovation is seen to be dependent on the issues faced during the process of innovative thinking. As mentioned earlier, the process of the innovative thinking is notably affected with the absence of the trust and motivation from the part of the management of the organization. Majority of the employees were observed to have certain amount of apathy in thinking for the innovative solutions and the recommendations due to the absence of motivation such as monetary and non-monetary benefits from the part of the management. Along with this, the middle managers of the organization are seen to be notably indifferent to any sort of changes or evolution of the innovative thinking from the part of the employees of the organization. This plays a significant role as a barrier to the innovation.

Leadership role in improving innovation

The impact of the legislative framework such as the patents, logo and the design is seen to be limited on the products and the operations of the organization as the company uses unique mechanism for producing the food products and the mechanism that they uses for the fast service that they provide to their customers.

Current innovation performance and opportunities for developing strategies to improve innovation:

The performance of the company in the field of innovation is seen to be significant as they are able to introduce the robotics into the processing of the pizza and the other food products that they serve to the customers. Majority of the processing is conducted by the robots and that is significant in reducing the consumption of the time of the customers. Along with this, the company uses GPS technology based motor vans for the delivery of their products which increases the speed of their delivery and the exactness of their delivery as well.

Apart from that, the organization has notable amount scope for introducing improved technology in their payment policy with a precise focus on the online payments

Their own leadership skills and leadership style and the impact these can have on fostering innovation:

The leaders of the organization, specifically Julia Collins and the chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the organization, Alex Garden were able to show the required skills and the competencies through their leadership styles in the implementation of the participatory management (Mainemelis, Kark & Epitropaki, 2015). Both the important members of the senior level management were able to make sure that they enable the employees to have such an environment where they can express their views and exchange information regarding the incorporation of the innovation into the operations and the implementation of innovative solutions in the production of the food products.

Opportunities for enhancing students’ personal effectiveness to promote a culture of ongoing learning and development:

The business operations of Zume Pizza provides notable amount of opportunity to the students in enhancing their effectiveness in order to promote the culture of continuous learning. The technology that the concerned company uses is subjected to notable amount of improvement with each and every passing day in an attempt to achieve changing demands and the preferences of the customers. Hence the students will also be subjected to a continuous process of adaption. Hence this will be significant from the part of organization increasing the personal effectiveness of the students in promoting a culture of continuous learning and development.

Identifying options for improving innovation

The strategies that are significantly influential for the organization in the modelling of the innovative thinking and practices are seen to be the identification of the needs, communication and collection of the important information and the identification of the best solution from a pool of effective solution (Goldman, Scott & Follman, 2015). The identification of the needs of the innovation into the product notably helps in the process of innovative thinking along with that, the collection of the information helps the individuals in having a proper base for their thinking. Apart from that, the identification of the best solution makes sure that the selection of the most innovative solution from the pool of probable solution is conducted.

The identified barrier for the organization in introducing the innovation into the operations of the organization is seen to be in the form of the absence of the technological intelligence of the employees. The employees of the organization are seen to lack the competency to align their services with that of the robots that the organization uses for a variety of operations associated with the process of manufacturing the pizza, salads and the cookies that the organization offers to the customers. Hence conduction of the appropriate training for the employees of the organization in handling the robots and the innovative implementation of the organization’s objective will be the best suited strategy (Coad, Pellegrino & Savona, 2016).   

Management techniques and tools for encouraging creative thinking and for converting creative thinking into innovation:

Three of the management techniques that is notably suitable for the organization in encouraging the creative thinking and converting those ideas into innovation are observed to be in the form of the six thinking hats, classical brainstorming and the practice of the Osborn checklist (Kazakç? et al., 2014). The implementation of the classical brainstorming activities is significant to be significant in extracting innovative ideas from the part of the members of the organization. The six thinking hats method is notable in representing different direction of the innovative thinking from the part of the members of the organization. The method specifies white hat for the facts, red hat for the emotions, black hat for the judgement and the caution, green hat for the creativity, yellow hat for the logic and the blue hat for the control. The implementation of the Osborn checklist is significantly helpful for the organization in making sure that they be able to develop new products from the existing business ideas.

Theories, processes and practices for organisational transformation strategies for managing the stages of change:

The practices that will be significant in the transformation stage for the organization are the execution of the effective communication, efficient management of the conflicts among the members of the organization regarding the innovative thinking and the solutions and the formation and the implementation of the appropriate rewarding policy for the recognition of the good work of the members of the organization.

Conclusion:

On a concluding note, the organization is observed to use the technology and the presence of the innovation into their business operations in a significant manner. Along with that, the senior management of the organization is seen to appreciate the innovative thinking and creativity of the employees and the other members of the organization. The products and services of the organization had the potential to improve with the innovative thinking of the employees. 

References

Anderson, N., Poto?nik, K., & Zhou, J. (2014). Innovation and creativity in organizations: A state-of-the-science review, prospective commentary, and guiding framework. Journal of management, 40(5), 1297-1333.

Bedford, D. S. (2015). Management control systems across different modes of innovation: Implications for firm performance. Management Accounting Research, 28, 12-30.

Chua, R. Y., Roth, Y., & Lemoine, J. F. (2015). The impact of culture on creativity: How cultural tightness and cultural distance affect global innovation crowdsourcing work. Administrative Science Quarterly, 60(2), 189-227.

Coad, A., Pellegrino, G., & Savona, M. (2016). Barriers to innovation and firm productivity. Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 25(3), 321-334.

Garcia Martinez, M., Lazzarotti, V., Manzini, R., & Sánchez García, M. (2014). Open innovation strategies in the food and drink industry: determinants and impact on innovation performance. International Journal of Technology Management 23, 66(2-3), 212-242.

Goldman, E. F., Scott, A. R., & Follman, J. M. (2015). Organizational practices to develop strategic thinking. Journal of Strategy and Management, 8(2), 155-175.

Kazakç?, A., Gillier, T., Piat, G., & Hatchuel, A. (2014, June). Brainstorming versus creative design reasoning. In Design computing and cognition 2014 (pp. 1-20).

Mainemelis, C., Kark, R., & Epitropaki, O. (2015). Creative leadership: A multi-context conceptualization. The Academy of Management Annals, 9(1), 393-482.

Moodysson, J., & Zukauskaite, E. (2014). Institutional conditions and innovation systems: On the impact of regional policy on firms in different sectors. Regional Studies, 48(1), 127-138.

Zumepizza.com (2019). Order Delicious Pizza and Have it Delivered Zume Fast. Retrieved from https://zumepizza.com/