MAN 608 – Technology, Operations & Innovation

Name: Taha Ahmed Mirza

ID: 21912
Reading Journal #1 for Week2: Who Are Innovators?
a. Read the reading for this week titled “The Innovator’s DNA” (Christensen et al, 2009).
Outline and briefly describe in your own words the five discovery skills the authors talk
about in the article.
1. Associating: Innovators have an important cognitive skill: associational thinking, or
synthesizing novel thoughts by connecting diverse inputs and fields. This cognitive skill
can be sharpened by four behavioral skills: questioning, observing, networking and
experimenting.
2. Questioning: One of the encounters to revolutionizing in the justice system is breaking
out of our outdated thought patterns. Asking questions to describe or disrupt the
territory: what is, what if, what caused, why, why not. Provocative questions about
business rationale/details.
3. Observing: Observe customer tasks and better ways to do them; observe tech and
companies.
4. Networking: Idea networking (not just resource); meeting people from different
backgrounds; tap outside experts and commoners. Networking produces serendipity,
and thus lucky entrepreneurs make themselves stumble onto ideas.

5. Experimenting: Innovators make experimentation central to everything they do.

Taking apart products and processes; prototyping and pilots; immersing in new
experiences.

b. Identify and list only at least 5 names of innovators mentioned in the article

1. Marc Russel Benioff (founder of online sales software provider, salesforce.com.)

2. Michael S. Dell (dell computer founder)
3. Ratan Tata (Industrialist)
4. Steve jobs (Apple’s founder)
5. Jeff Bezos (Amazon's owner)

c. The following URL is for a Forbes article that outlines the greatest innovations in the recent
history. Choose any one from the list that you find most interesting and explain briefly why you
find it interesting and how you or the society had been affected by that innovation

http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/19/innovation-internet-health-entrepreneurs-technology_wharton.html

The internet redefined how we explore and share information with each other, breaking down
the communication walls between countries in the progression. The creation of the internet, or
the World Wide Web as it was first recognized, has altered billions of lives by providing access
to a virtually immeasurable source of information. By permitting individuals in different
nations to promptly convey messages to one another, the internet has entirely altered the way
we communicate as well. The internet is very important because it is the limitless space where
people have access to pretty much infinite amounts of information. Internet is an invention that
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MAN 608 – Technology, Operations & Innovation

shaped an industry and succeeding new technologies, constructing it an exclusively significant

category. You can shop through the internet, pay your bills, design your finances, benefit online
courses, work from home, promote your industry, reach to people etc. There is no renunciation
to the fact that the internet has not only made our lives better but trouble free as well.