Organization Impact (AFLAC, Microsoft, and Mayo Clinic)

Organizations without innovative ideas may frown at words such as transformation, renovation, transition, shift, and modification, which are all more commonly known as change. Change can be difficult for companies that do not have a competitive advantage nor have any plans to adjust and transform their organization to meet the demand for the innovative products and services that consumers desire. Innovation in the business world is inevitable, and either a company will make the transition and changes necessary to gain a competitive advantage, or it will fall behind the bandwagon and become an organization only known for its past successes and its current absence from the market. In this paper, I will discuss the impact of innovation on three different organizations, including AFLAC, Microsoft, and Mayo Clinic, and concentrate on how each company's strategy, processes, products and/or services have been affected by innovation. Although some organizations have been able to withstand the powerful forces of innovation, they will eventually fade away one by one, if their strategies, processes, products, and services are not conformed and transformed to gain a competitive advantage, meeting and exceeding the standards and expectations of consumers.

Bill Gates at the World Economic Forum ,2007.

Microsoft Building

Microsoft and Flickr

Before evaluating each of the three organizations, I will define the terms that will be discussed in this paper. Innovation is something new or different that is introduced, but can also be understood as developing and delivering a product or service that offers benefits to consumers, perceived as excellent, improved, superior, or new. Strategy is a plan, method, approach, or course of action designed to accomplish or help accomplish a specific goal or objective (Dictionary.com [D], 2008). Processes are a systematic series of actions, operations, or changes, directed to some end, taking place in a definite manner (D). Products are things that are produced by labor resulting from a...