Individual Project I-3 1.    Title Technology Innovation Project 2.    Introduction Background of the Corporation Largo Corporation is a major multinational conglomerate corporation which specializes in a wide array of products and services.  These products and services include healthcare, finance, retail, government services, and many more.  The annual revenue is about $750 million and it has about 1,000 employees.  The parent company is located in Largo, Maryland and its subsidiaries are headquartered throughout the United States. The mission of the corporation is to bring the best products and services to people and businesses throughout the world so they can then realize their full potential.  The corporate vision guides every aspect of their business to achieve sustainable, quality growth: Productivity :  Be a highly effective, lean and fast-moving organization. People:  Be a great place to work where people are inspired to achieve their maximum potential. Partners:  Nurture a winning network of customers and suppliers, together we create mutual, enduring value. Responsible:  Be a responsible citizen that makes a difference through ethical behavior. Revenue:  Maximize long-term return while being mindful of our overall responsibilities. The company’s culture is reflected in their corporate values: Leadership:  Courage to shape a better future. Collaboration :  Leverage collective intelligence. Accountability:  Own up to your responsibility. Passion:  Committed to excellence. Diversity:  Provide new perspectives into our business. Quality:  We will want quality as part of our brand. The corporation consists of the parent company and the following subsidiaries: · Healthcare – Suburban Independent Clinic, Inc. (medical services) · Finance – Largo Capital (financial services) · Retail – Rustic Americana (arts and crafts), Super-Mart (office products) · Government Services – Government Security Consultants (information security) · Automotive – New Breed (electric cars) · Systems Integration – Solution s Delivery, Inc. (communications) · Media Design – Largo Media (website and app design) The organization is headed by CEO Tara Johnson who completed her Master’s degree at UMUC and eager to make worthwhile improvements to the corporation.  She rose through the ranks of Largo Corporation starting with systems integration, then retail and her last position before becoming CEO was in finance. The corporation is in a highly competitive environment so the CEO wants savvy employees at many levels to make wise judgments and take an aggressive approach and deliver results towards improving the bottom line yet maintaining corporate social responsibility. Corporate Issues Ms. Johnson is very concerned about the outlook of her company. Revenues recently declined and she felt that the organization needed a transformation for the company to do well over the long term. In thumbing through some readings she was inspired when she uncovered the .

1. Individual Project I-3
1. Title
Technology Innovation Project
2. Introduction
Background of the Corporation
Largo Corporation is a major multinational conglomerate
corporation which specializes in a wide array of products and
services. These products and services include healthcare,
finance, retail, government services, and many more. The
annual revenue is about $750 million and it has about 1,000
employees. The parent company is located in Largo, Maryland
and its subsidiaries are headquartered throughout the United
States.
The mission of the corporation is to bring the best products and
services to people and businesses throughout the world so they
can then realize their full potential.
The corporate vision guides every aspect of their business to
achieve sustainable, quality growth:
Productivity
:
Be a highly effective, lean and fast-moving organization.
People:
Be a great place to work where people are inspired to achieve
their maximum potential.
Partners:
Nurture a winning network of customers and suppliers, together
we create mutual, enduring value.
Responsible:
Be a responsible citizen that makes a difference through ethical
behavior.
Revenue:
Maximize long-term return while being mindful of our overall
responsibilities.
The company’s culture is reflected in their corporate values:

2. Leadership:
Courage to shape a better future.
Collaboration
:
Leverage collective intelligence.
Accountability:
Own up to your responsibility.
Passion:
Committed to excellence.
Diversity:
Provide new perspectives into our business.
Quality:
We will want quality as part of our brand.
The corporation consists of the parent company and the
following subsidiaries:
·
Healthcare
– Suburban Independent Clinic, Inc. (medical services)
·
Finance
– Largo Capital (financial services)
·
Retail
– Rustic Americana (arts and crafts), Super-Mart (office
products)
·
Government Services
– Government Security Consultants (information security)
·
Automotive
– New Breed (electric cars)

3. ·
Systems Integration
–
Solution
s Delivery, Inc. (communications)
·
Media Design
– Largo Media (website and app design)
The organization is headed by CEO Tara Johnson who
completed her Master’s degree at UMUC and eager to make
worthwhile improvements to the corporation. She rose through
the ranks of Largo Corporation starting with systems
integration, then retail and her last position before becoming
CEO was in finance.
The corporation is in a highly competitive environment so the
CEO wants savvy employees at many levels to make wise
judgments and take an aggressive approach and deliver results
towards improving the bottom line yet maintaining corporate
social responsibility.
Corporate Issues
Ms. Johnson is very concerned about the outlook of her
company. Revenues recently declined and she felt that the

4. organization needed a
transformation
for the company to do well over the long term. In thumbing
through some readings she was inspired when she uncovered the
following:
We live in a business world accelerating at a dizzying speed and
teeming with ruthless competition. As most of the tangible
advantages of the past have become commoditized, creativity
has become the currency of success. A 2010 study of 1,500
CEOs indicated that leaders rank creativity as No. 1 leadership
attribute needed for prosperity. It's the one thing that can't be
outsourced; the one thing that's the lifeblood of sustainable
competitive advantage.
Unfortunately, most companies fail to unleash their most
valuable resources: human creativity, imagination, and original
thinking. They lack a systematic approach to building a culture
of innovation, and then wonder why they keep getting beaten to
the punch. (Linkner, 2011)
She decided to establish a team responsible for defining an
operational process that would result in innovations that would
both counter potential future threats as well as provide a
competitive edge for the corporation.
You have been chosen by the CEO as the “Innovation Team”
leader. All members of the team need to understand the process
of environmental scanning in order to identify innovative

5. technologies that allow the corporation to respond to potential
threats and dynamic changes in business and operational
requirements. Further, she has directed you to provide solutions
robust enough to address unforeseen market choices and
demand. Hence, you should always allow for serendipitous
discoveries, that is, ideas that you stumble across which have
potential future benefits which may not be immediately aligned
with the current mission.
This learning activity establishes your understanding of how
innovation is accomplished in an organizational environment.
As you quickly discover, innovation hinges on providing an
environment that nurtures and values creativity and innovation.
Fresh ideas often arise from solving problems nagging the
organization. Keep in mind that genius rarely resides in the
head of one individual within the organization. Yes, you have
the “Steve Jobs” types of executives upon whose shoulders the
vision rests and without whom there is no vision. But this is
rare. Equally rare will be the “hidden employee gem” whose
sudden inspiration saves the day.
You will understand the innovation life cycle process. It begins
with ideation, that is, understanding the problems through a
review of purpose and structure. In a later stage, an example of
a concept you will learn as part of the innovation process is the
“crowdsourcing” model that scours the Internet, creates internal
discursion opportunities, and creates strategic alliances with

6. external partners (Brabham, 2013).
IT professionals need to understand the importance of
innovation and how to achieve it in their organization.
Innovation is doing something different that has an impact on
the business’ operations. Innovations are not often on the
leading edge of technology. They can be as simple as migrating
operations from one form of processing to another, switching to
a greener lighting solution, outsourcing desktop support,
investing in a stronger email security system and so on. Most
innovations result from proactive thinking and what we will call
a “corporate mindfulness”.
All IT professionals must be able to communicate effectively
(oral and written) to executive level management in a non-
jargon, executive level manner that convincingly justifies the
need to invest in IT improvements and modernization. In
addition, you will be developing critical thinking and key
leadership skills. This learning demonstration is designed to
strengthen these essential knowledge, skills, and abilities
needed by IT professionals.
3. Steps to Completion
1) Perform Environmental Scanning
Environmental scanning involves identifying external
opportunities and threats for an organization.
(a) Based on the information about Largo Corporation in the
Introduction, research and project future potential threats to the

7. organization. You may want to focus on 2-3 subsidiaries of
Largo Corporation.
(b) Also identify potential disruptive technologies that Largo
may leverage in order for Largo to succeed in the future to
counter future threats. You may focus on the same subsidiaries
noted in the step (a). As a start, here are several sources you
might want to check (in addition to your textbook):
GoogleX Labs:
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/126681-google-x-explained-
what-s-really-going-on-at-google-s-secret-lab
Ted Talks videos on technology:
c
MIT Technology Review:
http://www.technologyreview.com/
Be sure to connect the technology with the operations of the
corporation. Be sure to assess the impact on the organization.
Deliverable:
Provide an interim Environmental Scanning report which
summarizes of your findings re: addressing the opportunities
and threats to the company, identifying disruptive technologies
and assessing their impacts to the corporation.
(An interim report will be consolidated to a final deliverable in
a later step.) Minimum length = 400 words.
2) Research Innovation and Innovation Cycles
In this step, you are to gain an understanding of concept of

8. innovation, technological innovation and the generic innovation
cycle.
This source provides one perspective of innovation and
technological innovation:
https://books.google.com/books?id=qaqeAwAAQBAJ&printsec=
frontcover&dq=innovation+definition&hl=en&sa=X&ei=yENFV
ai3HMOfNsucgIAD&ved=0CFkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=inno
vation%20definition&f=false
Research the different innovation cycles that are out there. One
can be found at:
http://vectorblog.org/2012/04/where-are-you-in-the-innovation-
lifecycle/
One that uses a turbine metaphor (Pg. 15 and 19) can be found
at:
https://books.google.com/books?id=3VRs0vB25PoC&pg=PA7&
dq=innovation+lifecycle&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5UVFVZKBCpPWg
wSt3oGAAw&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=innovation
%20lifecycle&f=false
Deliverable: Provide a report that compares and contrast the
different generic innovation cycles. Include a table that
summarizes the attributes of these innovation cycles. Minimum
length = 400 words.
3) Operationalize the Innovation Cycle
Based on one or more of the innovation cycles identified in the
previous step, create a detailed process for innovation that is

9. customized for Largo Corporation. Discuss how it will change
the culture of the organization to be more oriented to innovation
and creativity.
You might want to review this reference on the role of
organizational climate on innovation implementation (Pg. 68):
https://books.google.com/books?id=JRf7TxYef70C&pg=PA68&
dq=innovation+implementation&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YkdFVaK2Ds
aqNqeRgZgF&ved=0CEoQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=innovation
%20implementation&f=false
Deliverable: Prepare an interim “Innovation Corporate Action
Plan” that addresses the findings from this step. Minimum 400
words. Include at least 3 references.
4) Develop a Migration Strategy
Research way on how to implement this new innovation process
in Largo. Discuss any change management issues.
Here is an article on how to move innovation forward:
http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/3890
Deliverable: Migration plan. Minimum: 400 words. Include at
least 3 references.
5) Prepare an Executive Presentation
Compile all of the key findings of previous steps and prepare a
narrated PowerPoint presentation. It must be relevant to Largo
Corporation. It should address as a minimum:
·

10. Future opportunities and threats
·
Relevant disruptive technologies
·
Proposed innovation cycle (high-level)
·
Proposed innovation process
·
Migration strategy
·
Conclusion
The presentation should consist of 10-15 slides. It should
include audio narration (directions are found at:
https://support.office.com/en-au/article/Add-narration-to-a-
presentation-0b9502c6-5f6c-40ae-b1e7-e47d8741161c
). The narration should also be captured in the slide notes.
As an alternate method of delivery, you can create a video using
YouTube Capture (
https://www.youtube.com/capture
) or a similar tool.

11. 4. Deliverables
1)
Environmental scanning report
2)
Innovation Cycle matrix or research document
3)
Innovation corporate action plan
4)
Migration plan
5)
Final presentation
Create a folder to hold all of your deliverables.
Title your files using this protocol: Lastname_FirstInitial_I-
3_AssignmentName_Date.
Please zip (compress) the folder containing all of your files and
submit the zipped file in the Assignments area.
In lieu of submitting the presentation, you may provide a link to
your presentation file.
5. Rubrics

12. Criteria
Weight
(%)
Score
Assess methods for instilling an innovative culture in an
organization
40
Evaluate operational processes that facilitates the initiation and
implementation of innovations in organizations
30
Create a migration strategy in transforming an enterprise
architecture
10
Exhibit communication skills
10
Illustrate critical thinking
10
Total

13. 100
References
Brabham, D. 2013.
Crowdsourcing
(MIT Press Essential Knowledge). Boston: MIT Press.
Linkner, J. (June 16, 2011).
7 Steps to a culture of innovation
. Retrieved from
http://www.inc.com/articles/201106/josh-linkner-7-steps-to-a-
culture-of-innovation.html