Innovation and Creativity: Case Study of Facebook "FACEMASH TO FACEBOOK: AN INNOVATIVE JOURNEY FROM UNIVERSITY SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITE TO BILLION DOLLAR Business"

On 28th October, 2003, Mark Zukerberg wrote Facemash in order to create a social networking website for the students of Harvard. At that time he was not aware that he was starting a whole new era of social networking innovation and creativity. What was started as a tool of social networking for the students of university became the biggest social networking hub. The reason behind this unexpected and surprising success is the innovative and fearless attitude of the Facebook leader. In this rapidly changing world, it has become necessary for each and every business to innovate and change in order to survive and operate profitability. To create examples of this kind requires leadership hype in innovation, creativity, and change.

BACKGROUND AND HISTORY OF FACEBOOK:

Thefacebook.com, as known at that time, was launched on 4th February, 2004 by Mark Zukerberg. Initially it was limited to the students and faculty of Harvard University, later it was extended to other universities located in Boston and then to all Universities of United States. In August 2005 it was named facebook.com, and from September 2005, the different High Schools of United States were also added into the network. Next milestone for Facebook was going global and it reached to universities of United Kingdom a month later (Phillips, 2007).

The network was further expanded and extended to other people who had email ids, apart from different educational institutions, in September 2006. The site is free of cost from the very start. Advertising is the main and major source of revenue for Facebook. In 2010 the company reported revenue of around two billion dollars (Womack, 2010).

Facebook is used by around 78% online households of United States (Hofstetter, 2009). In the year 2010 the Facebook reported around 500 million active users which is a big number (Chapman, 2010). Google and Yahoo are one of the companies which are interested in purchase of Facebook, but the founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is not interested in selling Facebook.

REASON OF FACEBOOK SUCCESS: INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY:

The main reason and cause of success of Facebook is the innovation and creativity. The approach of Facebook towards innovation and creativity is the key of its success. The leader of Facebook is ready to take risk for bring new ideas and concepts into practice. The creation of Facebook itself is the biggest example of innovation and creativity of part of its leader. Facebook is an innovative organization and it keeps on bringing creative changes and innovation irrespective of their implications. The approach of Facebook is to first do it and then see what happens (Blodget, 2010). This approach is very much important for the success of any business in this changing world.

In the last five years, Facebook is believed to be the most successful online innovation. Facebook's idea of innovation is aggressive but at the same time smart (Blodget, 2010). Mark, as a CEO, has the ability of coming up with new ideas and has the guts to implement them and take the risk. At the same time he has smart and clever enough to observe, judge, and predict surroundings and conditions effectively and correctly and bring innovations accordingly.

This approach towards innovation of Facebook has given the company a competitive edge over all other social networking websites. The Facebook has been started as an innovative organization and is still proving to be a pioneer and leader in bringing in and trying new ideas and concepts.

INNOVATION, CREATIVITY, AND CHANGE -- NEED OF TIME:

Innovation, creativity, and change have become essential to survive and succeed in today's world. Everything is changing at a rapid pace, and in order to adopt and adjust to changing surroundings the organizations have to come up with new and innovative ideas and concepts. In order to bring in continuous improvement and changes there should be a strong leadership (BlessingWhite, 2007).

This kind of approach...

The leader should be innovative, creative, and ready to take risk. At the same time the leader should have the tendency and ability of motivating and encouraging the employees for innovation and change. One of the effective and best instruments for change management for effective and successful leader is the innovation and creativity.
The process of change is not easy, it is important to manage the change process effectively and efficiently. Change is accompanied by high level of resistance both from inside the organization and from outside the organization. The responsibility and task of an effective leader is to minimize this resistance and bring in new ideas and innovation (BlessingWhite, 2007).

Innovation and creativity is critical for the success of organization, but the process of innovation should be smartly managed and controlled. One has to first assess the climate for bringing in innovation and change. In order to bring in continuous changes and innovation the climate of the organization should be such that it supports innovative ideas and concepts (BlessingWhite, 2007).

The top management should involve employees in the process of change and encourage them to bring in new ideas and concepts in order to motivate them and reduce the level of resistance. In order to bring in effective change and innovation the employees should be involved in the day-to-day operational decisions and empower them and delegate authority to employees. This raise the confidence and motivation level of employees and encourage them to come up with innovative ideas and concepts. There should be an informal and friendly environment in which employees can think about new ideas and elaborate and share them with each other. Moreover there should be support from top management and leadership and the new ideas should be welcomed and discussed and if appropriate then they should be implemented. Apart from this the top management and leadership of an innovative organization should be ready to take risk and should have tolerance of uncertain and unexpected results which can accompany the innovation, creativity, and change (BlessingWhite, 2007).

Because of globalization and technological advancement the whole scenario of business world is changing. In this changing context and situation, innovation, creativity, and change has become main driver and source of attaining high performance, growth, and valuation (BlessingWhite, 2007). This is the main reason behind the growth and success of Facebook. Apart from this it is the leadership which is most important in bringing in innovation and change, which is also visible from the case of Facebook success.

INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY -- THE DEMAND OF MODERN LEADERSHIP:

The latest trend and believe is that for competitiveness and ongoing success the organization should be innovative and creative. Despite of this trend many organizations are not able to bring in necessary innovation and changes according to the changing requirements and demands. The main reason behind this is the lack of effective and efficient leadership (BlessingWhite, 2007). The innovation and creativity is dependent on the efficiency and abilities of the leader. The leader should be aware of the changing environment and situations and should have the ability to anticipate future and devise strategies accordingly. The modern leadership should be aware of the ways and methods of bringing in effective innovation and implementing the innovation in the whole organization. It is important for the leader to be ready to take risk and at the same time he or she should be able to effectively manage and overcome the associated resistance with the change and innovation.

It is the leadership on which the innovation, creativity, and change relies on. The leader should be creative and innovative himself and at the same time should have the ability of motivating and encouraging the other people in the organization to bring in new innovative ideas and concepts.

FACEBOOK -- PERFECT EXAMPLE OF INNOVATIVE LEADERSHIP PIONEER OF BRINGING INNOVATION:

Innovative leadership is the need of the…