Introduction
When people hear the word innovation they usually think of invention and creativity. While this way of thinking is not incorrect, it is more accurate to look at it from the perspective that innovation is in fact being creative and inventive and taking the outcomes of the creativity process and turning these ideas into useful products or work models. In this essay I will be looking at how innovation is often regarded as the lifeblood of an organisation. 87% of people that were surveyed from the Boston Consulting Group believe that innovation is essential to the success of an organisation. The question now is, ‘how can managers stimulate innovation within an organisation?’ I will be addressing this by looking at three variables within an organisation that a manger can manipulate – Structural, human resource and cultural variables.
There are many different definitions of innovation, where Kuczmarski (1996, p.7) states a simple definition of innovation being “A new idea, method or device; a novelty.” However, this simplistic and broad definition does not help managers and employees understand the characteristics of innovation and how they can manipulate the variables to stimulate innovation. If we look at an organisation that is culture orientated, we can define innovation as a social process, as Goffin and Mitchell (2010, p.8) state that innovation in a cultural context is “the intentional introduction and application within a role, group or organisation of ideas, processes, products or procedures, new to the relevant unit of adoption, design to significantly benefit the organisation or wider society”.

Lifeblood
Figure 1.1
Peter Drucker, a famous writer and management consultant says that “The business enterprise has two-and only two-basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.” I