Being a Systems Innovator

Abstract

Let us welcome you the modern age, so full of promise both in terms of human and technological progress! In this chapter, we address the role of innovation and being a systems innovator. Without systems innovators, it is quite possible that our modern age would not be so full of promise and potential. In fact, without systems innovators, humanity might never have reached modernity at all. Several historians say we humans are "modern" when we do not automatically reject new or foreign elements in society. For human society, modernity begins when communities began to explore, tolerate, and accept the new and diverse. Thus, modernity includes a receptiveness of human societies to new ideas. Living in the modern age allows us to expect that modern enterprises and markets will tolerate and potentially reward to new ideas and new practice. In a modern age, those individuals who design insightful innovations (i.e., innovators) can be highly praised if their innovations are well timed, well designed, and well implemented. As systems innovators, we welcome the modern age and strive to be open to new and beneficial ideas of change. Human societies value and evaluate new ideas by expected impact and effect. Modern markets and firms represent particular types of human organizations. Markets and firms can incorporate innovations by changing either their design or practices.

Keywords: innovation, design, information systems, organizational systems, modernity

JEL Classification: D23, D81, D83, O31