Personal Development Plan: Innovation and Change Module in ICT

This report presents a personal development plan formulated within the context of an Innovation and Change module, reflecting on its impact on professional duties at Saudi Telecom Company. The module enhanced knowledge across various innovation topics, including risk assessment and sources of innovation. The author intends to apply these learnings to a research project on internal and external risks impacting innovation in the ICT sector, leveraging their role as a VP Advisor. The report contrasts the structure and data collection methods of business reviews and journal articles, noting the reliance on secondary data in reviews versus primary and secondary data in journals. To further enhance expertise, the author plans to pursue a skill enhancement program in the Internet of Things (IoT) to better understand associated risks and opportunities, contributing to future research studies and dissertation quality. The integration of IoT concepts with existing business systems like ERP and CRM is also highlighted as a key area of interest.

Week 8: Personal Development Plan
Hi All,
The entire module of Innovation and Change which we have been undertaking for the
last seven weeks has a pivotal role in conducting my professional duties in Saudi Telecom
Company as PMO manager and VP advisor. During this module I was able to amplify my
knowledge across several topics of innovation via academic and collaborative methods of
learning. The initial concepts have been conducive in knowing about the innovations which
we encounter on day to day basis associated to a process, service or product. The learning
experience of the study has further allowed me to evaluate the potential risks and rewards for
exploring new ideas of innovation in an organization/industry. In addition to this, the learning
opportunities pertaining to this module has helped me to gain sufficient knowledge of sources
of innovation which are implemented by the organizations. The learning aspects related to
diversity and creative culture has allowed me to enhance my scope of knowledge on the
techno-economic role of changes pertaining to innovative elements. Moreover, I have learned
about the growth areas of the business and areas which can be developed in a particular
organization through the implementation of innovational competence. I would also like to
mention that past few weeks of this module have helped me to get a profound understanding
of innovation role in developing sustainable competitive advantage for any organization
(Halme and Korpela 2014).
As a working professional in one of the leading telecom operators in Saudi Arabia, I
would like to explore my learnings from this module on innovation in ICT. I will take it as an
opportunity to conduct a research project on internal and external risks impacting innovation
in ICT. Being assigned with the role of VP Advisor I will be able to share my knowledge and

hands-on experience relating to the problems which are faced by the ICT industry on a daily
basis.
The academic sources referred during the study are depicted with various types of
structures. Some of the common approaches taken by the authors are seen with maintaining a
format of business review or journal. The structure for the research paper adopted by authors
such as Clayton Christensen in his Harvard business review for disruptive innovation has
followed a standard report format. The business review in general have explained the idea in
brief with subheadings such as issue, response and bottom line. The rest of the findings in the
business reviews are mainly seem to be following several excerpts taken from secondary
sources associated to the chosen topic (Christensen, Raynor and McDonald 2015). The
structure approach followed in the business reviews have also included several interactive
and user-friendly graphical diagrams from other sources which were not present in journal
articles (Quinlan, Babin, Carr and Griffin 2018).
The structure followed by the journal articles published by the authors are discerned
with abstract, introduction, conceptual framework, literature review, methodology, data
analysis, conclusion and recommendations (Osiyevskyy and Dewald 2015). The most
significant difference among the business review and journal articles are seen with method of
collecting the data. Sources of information which I have referred during the collaboration
program which our business review have mainly collected the data from secondary sources
which has been already published by other authors. However, while reviewing the journal
articles in various subject areas I have noted that they have used either primary or secondary
data collection method or collected from both the sources. Some of the most well noted
methods of collecting primary sources of data by the authors are seen with conducting survey
and/interview with the managers/employees of an organization associated to the innovation
process (Parsons and Knight 2015). Similarly, the theoretical models pertaining to the

secondary sources of data are identified with previously published journals, business reviews
and articles on the topic of innovation research.
The rise of embedded and connected smart device systems and technologies have
accounted for the need of connecting every device with the Internet. Therefore, in order to
proceed with future research, I would like to proceed with skill enhancement program for
“Internet of Things (IoT)”. Such a skill development program will not only enhance my
present academic background and experience but also put me in the front for having a deeper
knowledge of the risks and opportunities associated to ICT. Therefore, it will help me to
contribute in a better way during future research studies. In 2014 consortia for framework and
standards for IoT was formed. Moreover, the company started to introduce number of
services and products following this framework. There are large number of well noted IoT
acquisitions which have been estimated with growing market worth of $ 7.1 trillion by 2020
(Wortmann and Flüchter 2015).
The understanding of technical nuances such as technology slack and platforms for
IoT will help me to enhance my present learnings on the topic of innovation and change even
further and I will be able to achieve a high standard of quality in my dissertation. The
different types of concepts such as value creation through IoT will relate to the topics which I
have already studied in this module. I will be also having a better grasp of integration of
innovation with business systems such as ERP, CRM and PLM (Chandrakanth et al. 2014).
Cheers,
Khaled

References
Chandrakanth, S., Venkatesh, K., Uma Mahesh, J. and Naganjaneyulu, K.V., 2014. Internet
of things. International Journal of Innovations & Advancement in Computer Science, 3(8),
pp.16-20.
Christensen, C.M., Raynor, M.E. and McDonald, R., 2015. What is disruptive
innovation. Harvard Business Review, 93(12), pp.44-53.
Halme, M. and Korpela, M., 2014. Responsible innovation toward sustainable development
in small and medium‐sized enterprises: a resource perspective. Business Strategy and the
Environment, 23(8), pp.547-566.
Osiyevskyy, O. and Dewald, J., 2015. Explorative versus exploitative business model change:
the cognitive antecedents of firm‐level responses to disruptive innovation. Strategic
Entrepreneurship Journal, 9(1), pp.58-78.
Parsons, T. and Knight, P.G., 2015. How to do your dissertation in geography and related
disciplines. Routledge.
Quinlan, C., Babin, B., Carr, J. and Griffin, M., 2018. Business research methods. South
Western Cengage.
Wortmann, F. and Flüchter, K., 2015. Internet of things. Business & Information Systems
Engineering, 57(3), pp.221-224.