In a competitive business environment, a company has to promote constant innovation as a way of creating a competitive advantage in the market. TECHSOL Company is seeking to make an entry into the highly competitive market. The company has to foster a climate of innovation and ensure that the climate is entrenched in the organizational culture of the company ( Nambisan, Lyytinen, Majchrzak, and Song 2017) . It seeks to focus on companies prioritizing their investment in online marketing. Therefore, the company’s innovation path will have to align with the business niche of online marketing ( Shanker, Bhanugopan, Van der Heijden, and Farrell 2017) . Consequently, it will need to innovate systems that have the capacity of being used by multinational companies as these are its main targets. The company leadership has to be at the forefront in promoting a climate of innovation.
Tools to Foster an Innovative Climate
Leadership
The company leadership is the first step towards the attainment of a conducive culture in the company. The CEO and founder have to ensure that employees are engaged in the decision-making process of the company. The engagement should focus on ensuring that all the employees’ ideas are considered and incorporated in the final decision that is made by the organization ( Mir, Casadesús, and Petnji, 2016) . Engagement helps in promoting the provision of ideas whenever the company is on the verge of coming up with an innovation. Research shows that the leadership style adopted by the leaders of a company plays a major role in ensuring that the company has a positive culture that fostered innovation.
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Innovation usually starts with the leadership qualities that are possessed by the founder. The leader of an innovative organization has to be passionate about their work, have a positive look at things, and have a vision that should be passed on to the employees ( Nambisan, Lyytinen, Majchrzak, and Song 2017) . The leader also has to make sure that he or she embraces change and they play a major role in coaching other employees on the path towards innovation.
The organization has to create a culture of innovation. Research shows that people usually perform better when they are driven by inspiration ( Mir, Casadesús, and Petnji, 2016) . The leaders have to encourage the employees to always push beyond their imaginative boundaries if the company is to have a competitive advantage in the market. Risk taking in the company should be encouraged and rewarded while the leaders should avoid micromanaging the employees. They must feel independent for them to be creative and implement their ideas into meaningful products ( Shanker, Bhanugopan, Van der Heijden, and Farrell 2017) . If the management can effectively foster a creative as well as an open environment, there is a chance that the innovation would happen naturally. When the organization brainstorms on an idea, the employees can refine the suggestions and come up with one idea that would benefit the company in the end.
The company has to build effective teams. Teamwork has been found to play a big role when it comes to the innovation process. In this case, the CEO should espouse dependability between the team members, develop a clear vision, and have clarity of objectives. Although the teams have a higher chance of succeeding, there are some instances that the company should reward failure. Recognition is one of the most powerful tools that promote employee creativity and innovation ( Dereli, 2015) . Employees are always looking for instances where the organization can recognize and reward them for their ideas and initiatives ( Frishammar, Richtnér, Brattström, Magnusson, and Björk 2019) . Employees may fear to express their ideas if failure is condemned. As a startup, TECHSOL should ensure that employees can understand what it takes to handle innovation and failure should be encouraged at all times.
The company should promote a flat management structure for it to be able to remain innovative . Research shows that a flat management structure enables opportunities for open communication and confidence amongst employees ( Dereli, 2015) . In particular, there is a need to ensure the use of transformational leadership where managers work closely with employees in order to ensure there is the guidance of employees whenever necessary.
From the tools described above, it is evident that organizational support is the most efficient way to promote creativity and innovation in the organization. The strategy requires a general orientation towards innovative goals ( Shanker, Bhanugopan, Van der Heijden, and Farrell 2017) . The organization as a whole has to value innovation and always strive towards providing a climate that is focused on always remaining open and less judgmental. A sense of pride has to be cultivated among employees and their capability to achieve creativity ( Nambisan, Lyytinen, Majchrzak, and Song 2017). In order to support creativity and fair evaluation of work in the company, the CEO has to foster a culture of openness in communication, provision of recognition and rewards, as well as fair evaluation of work. Therefore, both success and failure have to be celebrated in equal measure.
Mr. Gonzalez has to make innovation the corporate priority in order to make employees more creative. It emanates from their perception of the organizational climate as freer and accepting new ideas and the testing of new approaches ( Edú-Valsania, Moriano, and Molero, 2016) . Therefore, the employees will learn how to take time to generate new ideas and nurture them to fruition and not just be occupied with speed. Having innovative ideas alone may not help in driving the company towards innovation. However, the leaders have to make sure that the organization has a vision that is referred to by all the employees.
Motivation is the most important factor in the promotion of creativity. The leaders have to conduct the activity of motivating and encouraging individuals always to remain creative and generate new ideas. Intrinsic motivation is effective in stimulating creativity as compared to extrinsic motivation ( García-Peñalvo, Blanco, and Sein-Echaluce 2015) . This is due to the notion that intrinsic motivation fosters confidence and self-fulfillment when an employee is working on something challenging. TECHSOL is an organization that aims to make a mark in the market. The leadership should guide employees but also let them free to develop their ideas ( Strese, Adams, Flatten, and Brettel 2016). The process of motivation should remove the fear of failure that limits the curiosity and creativity of the employees.
The concept of the work-group design is important especially in promoting a culture of teamwork and dependability of the team members. One of the most important managerial activities is the careful consideration of the work-group design. The leader has to ensure that individuals with different background, knowledge, as well as skills to promote creative thinking and idea generation ( Edú-Valsania, Moriano, and Molero, 2016) . Having a multidisciplinary team helps in ensuring that there is a variance of ideas generated, which increases the chances of the company coming up with an appropriate idea that can lead to success ( Tidd and Thuriaux‐Alemán 2016) . However, research shows that when people with different expertise work together, it is important to prevent misunderstanding and conflict for collaboration to be effective ( Goffin and Mitchell 2016) . This can only be achieved if clear goals and objectives are set for every innovative project. It has been established that the lack of clear goals and objectives has the potential of hampering creativity and innovation in the end. One of the key factors for the promotion of creativity is usually to give individuals the freedom they need to perform their duties.
Resource allocation is important in enabling and supporting creativity as well as innovation. It is important for the organization to prioritize its resources for innovation ( Edú-Valsania, Moriano, and Molero, 2016) . It calls for the allocation of the right and sufficient resources in order to support the innovation process. Lack of resources in the organization may hamper the employee motivation to be creative and generate new ideas. For efficiency, clear goals should be set for every department and enough resources provided.
Conclusion
In most cases, innovation is a process that starts with the generation of ideas and ends up with the first use of a program or system. The first step to the creation of an innovative climate is the alignment of the organizational leadership with the innovation goals. The leaders have to lead from the front in all matters to do with innovation. In this case, the fonder has to share his vision with the employees as a way of making them understand the direction that the company is taking. The managers have guaranteed proper resource allocation, group dynamics, and motivation to create a climate of innovation.
References
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Frishammar, J., Richtnér, A., Brattström, A., Magnusson, M. and Björk, J., 2019. Opportunities and challenges in the new innovation landscape: Implications for innovation auditing and innovation management. European Management Journal , 37 (2), pp.151-164.
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