Y6 Prelims 2017 CUEGIS
6) With reference to an organisation of your choice, evaluate the impact of culture on innovation.
Culture and innovation are two closely related concepts in business. Culture refers to the norms,
beliefs, customs and behaviour of an organisation, country, or other social grouping. Meanwhile,
innovation is the introduction of new or improved products, processes or ideas by a business. Hence,
these two concepts are closely linked as the internal and external environment in the form of culture
experienced by a business would undoubtedly shape business activity, such as through encouraging
innovation. In this essay, we would be studying the relationship between culture and innovation in
two aspects. Firstly, we would be discussing how a business’s corporate culture may shape
innovation within a company. Secondly, we would analyse how the culture of different market
segments the business targets could encourage innovation of products in a business.
For the purposes of this essay, Nintendo would be used as a reference for discussion. Nintendo is a
Japanese multinational consumer electronics and video game company headquartered in Kyoto,
Japan. It owns top-selling video game franchises such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda and Pokémon,
while selling products such as home and handheld consoles as well as games.
Firstly, an instance in which culture has an impact on innovation is where corporate culture of a
company affects how innovative a company is. Corporate culture is part of the internal environment
of a business which affects business activities, and may lend the business some strengths which may
enable its growth. A strong corporate culture of acceptance to change and risk taking may
encourage innovation and intrapreneurship among employees, which may be used as a strength for
the company to stay competitive for long-term growth and survival.
An example of how corporate culture impacts innovation can be seen in Nintendo’s Mario Maker,
which started out as a course-making tool for Nintendo's internal development teams under the
Entertainment Analysis and Development Division of Nintendo. Tools like these are constantly
developed by a dedicated team in Nintendo to increase efficiency of game developers. This is an
example of innovation as new tools specific to the development of Nintendo games that are not in
the market must be constantly innovated, designed and produced. As such, we see that the
corporate culture of Nintendo is one which encourages innovation, given that there is a special team
dedicated to innovating and coming up with new technologies from scratch to improve efficiency in
other parts of the company. The Mario Maker however, has been further developed into a game
called the Super Mario Maker, released in 2015, that allows players to design their own Mario
courses.
There are certain advantages associated with Nintendo’s corporate culture that encourages
innovation within the company innovating of tools for its in-house game developers. A main
advantage is that it allows game development teams in Nintendo to develop new courses quickly, so
as to constantly provide new content to gamers, to ensure customer needs are met and customer
loyalty is built, as new levels released through updates is a service that Nintendo provides which
gives further value-addedness to their products. In addition, in the specific case of Mario Maker,
successful new products may be serendipitously developed, as the Super Mario Maker developed
from the original Mario Maker was a hit and helped increased sales and profitability of Nintendo.
However, there are also certain disadvantages. Innovating new processes and technologies for use
within the company is costly and requires substantial investment in the form of salaries to the tools
team that innovates and designs new technologies to support internal games development teams. In
6) With reference to an organisation of your choice, evaluate the impact of culture on innovation.
Culture and innovation are two closely related concepts in business. Culture refers to the norms,
beliefs, customs and behaviour of an organisation, country, or other social grouping. Meanwhile,
innovation is the introduction of new or improved products, processes or ideas by a business. Hence,
these two concepts are closely linked as the internal and external environment in the form of culture
experienced by a business would undoubtedly shape business activity, such as through encouraging
innovation. In this essay, we would be studying the relationship between culture and innovation in
two aspects. Firstly, we would be discussing how a business’s corporate culture may shape
innovation within a company. Secondly, we would analyse how the culture of different market
segments the business targets could encourage innovation of products in a business.
For the purposes of this essay, Nintendo would be used as a reference for discussion. Nintendo is a
Japanese multinational consumer electronics and video game company headquartered in Kyoto,
Japan. It owns top-selling video game franchises such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda and Pokémon,
while selling products such as home and handheld consoles as well as games.
Firstly, an instance in which culture has an impact on innovation is where corporate culture of a
company affects how innovative a company is. Corporate culture is part of the internal environment
of a business which affects business activities, and may lend the business some strengths which may
enable its growth. A strong corporate culture of acceptance to change and risk taking may
encourage innovation and intrapreneurship among employees, which may be used as a strength for
the company to stay competitive for long-term growth and survival.
An example of how corporate culture impacts innovation can be seen in Nintendo’s Mario Maker,
which started out as a course-making tool for Nintendo's internal development teams under the
Entertainment Analysis and Development Division of Nintendo. Tools like these are constantly
developed by a dedicated team in Nintendo to increase efficiency of game developers. This is an
example of innovation as new tools specific to the development of Nintendo games that are not in
the market must be constantly innovated, designed and produced. As such, we see that the
corporate culture of Nintendo is one which encourages innovation, given that there is a special team
dedicated to innovating and coming up with new technologies from scratch to improve efficiency in
other parts of the company. The Mario Maker however, has been further developed into a game
called the Super Mario Maker, released in 2015, that allows players to design their own Mario
courses.
There are certain advantages associated with Nintendo’s corporate culture that encourages
innovation within the company innovating of tools for its in-house game developers. A main
advantage is that it allows game development teams in Nintendo to develop new courses quickly, so
as to constantly provide new content to gamers, to ensure customer needs are met and customer
loyalty is built, as new levels released through updates is a service that Nintendo provides which
gives further value-addedness to their products. In addition, in the specific case of Mario Maker,
successful new products may be serendipitously developed, as the Super Mario Maker developed
from the original Mario Maker was a hit and helped increased sales and profitability of Nintendo.
However, there are also certain disadvantages. Innovating new processes and technologies for use
within the company is costly and requires substantial investment in the form of salaries to the tools
team that innovates and designs new technologies to support internal games development teams. In
