Ian F. Wilkinson and Roy Crossfield
Business innovation comes from combining, recombining and modifying existing ideas, knowledge and know‐how in new ways. The purpose of this paper is to describe an approach to…
Abstract
Purpose
Business innovation comes from combining, recombining and modifying existing ideas, knowledge and know‐how in new ways. The purpose of this paper is to describe an approach to accelerating the business innovation process by priming the combining and recombining process, called the Business Genome Project (BGP).
Design/methodology/approach
Business innovation and evolution is compared to cultural and biological evolution and the Human Genome Project (HGP) is used as a template for developing the business genome concept, which involves identifying and mapping the building blocks of extant businesses.
Findings
The paper describes a way of priming the innovation pump by aiding the identification and sharing of key business ideas, knowledge and know‐how across firms, organisations, industries, technologies and nations. Recent developments in internet‐based technologies, like Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia of Life, suggest the project is feasible.
Practical implications
The BGP can provide a fundamental, new understanding of the commercial world: its businesses, their know‐how, their context and their cultures. It also provides a basis for on‐going collaboration, communication, research and development, amongst businesses (and their stakeholders), which would accelerate the innovation process.
Originality/value
The BGP is an original idea inspired by the HGP that promises to have a similar impact on business practice, policy and research.
Details
Keywords
M & T Chemicals have announced the appointment of Mr David Smith as Director of PCB Systems and as a member of the company's Board of Management. Mr Smith, who was formerly Sales…
Abstract
M & T Chemicals have announced the appointment of Mr David Smith as Director of PCB Systems and as a member of the company's Board of Management. Mr Smith, who was formerly Sales and Marketing Director of Lea Ronal (UK) Ltd, has had more than seventeen years experience in the printed circuit industry.
Since the widespread finding by public analysts of penicillin in milk as the result of the treatment of bovine mastitis, it could only be a matter of time before there were…
Abstract
Since the widespread finding by public analysts of penicillin in milk as the result of the treatment of bovine mastitis, it could only be a matter of time before there were prosecutions under Sect. 2, Food and Drugs Act, 1955. In this issue we report a successful case at Leeds, in which the defendant was convicted and fined. In our July issue (p. 98) we also reported a case brought by the Milk Marketing Board, where the defendant was given an absolute discharge, but although this was the first reported case in England and Wales, the complaint was laid earlier at Leeds, so the distinction of being the first food and drugs authority in the country to test the decision of whether or not penicillin traces in milk constitutes an offence rests with Leeds. The amount present—0.06 I.U. per ml.—was much lower than analysts have often reported, but on medical grounds, the possibility of hypersensitivity reactions and the development of antibiotic‐resistant types of organisms, comparison of amounts present in samples is a refinement not particularly relevant. Another important point about the prosecution at Leeds is that the authority was prepared to prove toxicity and to fight the case on these grounds, with expert witnesses lined up for the purpose. A plea of not guilty obviated the necessity of this. The defence naively suggested that the choice was either penicillin traces or the pathological products of mastitis in the milk, but in truth, it is neither. A purchaser expects genuine milk, pure and of the quality demanded