The relationship between government and innovation: obstacles or drivers?

Innovation and Intellectual Property Management Consultant Innovation is not just about innovating products and services. Sometimes companies open the door to golden and pristine opportunities by creating new business models. A company’s business model refers to how that company creates, presents and acquires value, although the rapid development of information and communication technology in recent years has been one of the main reasons for the growth of innovation in the business model. In other words, many business models that could not be implemented before are now the only ones on the Internet that have become very wealthy. For this reason, in today’s business environment, innovation in the business model has become one of the most important sources of creating a competitive advantage. Let us give an example to examine the importance of innovation in the business model. In the past, all passenger airlines more or less followed the same business model. In this model, it was assumed that the passenger must have some luggage with him, he had to receive the passenger on the flight route, he had to show a movie to the passengers during the flight, the airport had to be close to the city, to get a flight card he had to go to the counter The airline came to the airport and … but for several years now, an airline called Ryanair in Europe, with a completely different business model, has had explosive growth and has created a dramatic change in this industry. The airline found that there are millions of people in Europe who are willing to travel cheaply, but do not carry luggage, do not cater, do all the buying and issuing tickets and flight cards online, go to airports far from the city center and … The company has now grown significantly by designing an innovative model that fits this group of passengers and ranks first among European airlines in terms of number of passengers and number of flights. Innovation in the business model, like innovation in products and services, can increase welfare and the level of public satisfaction. Thus, just as governments have sought to increase the rate of innovation in products and services, and to design and implement a variety of policies to this end, they must also strive to support innovation in the business model. For example, in the example above, Ryanair’s business model innovation, resulting in a significant reduction in additional costs, has made it easy for millions of its passengers to travel comfortably and cheaply with the company. Many of these passengers could not afford expensive air transportation services before. The company’s innovation has made other airlines think of innovating so that they can remain competitive unless they increase the quality of service and reduce costs, so this innovation has been very positive for the European economy as a whole and has helped increase social welfare in these countries. Unfortunately, Iran’s government policies have not been so successful in encouraging innovation. Despite the progress of recent years, the overall business environment in Iran is still not conducive to innovation. The strong presence of the government in a large part of the Iranian economy and lack of motivation to innovate in this sector has been one of the major obstacles to innovation in Iran. For example, the government’s heavy involvement in the automotive industry has left no room for innovation in the industry’s products and services. In the latest Global Innovation Index report, Iran’s position among the 143 countries evaluated was no better than 120. On the other hand, we know that the realization of national goals in the field of economics is not possible without improving the state of innovation, so the government is expected to play a more prominent role in encouraging innovation. Clearly, given the growing importance of innovation in the business model, the government should design and implement specific policies to provide the basis for business model innovation by private enterprises. But in practice, sometimes there is evidence of moving in the opposite direction! That is, sometimes the government, with inappropriate interventions, becomes an obstacle in the way of innovation in the business model !! For example, some time ago, the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Tourism of Tehran issued a circular banning the sale of last minute (or ninety minute) tour services. (ISNA News Agency, June 15, 1994) In this strange circular, it is stated that: “Some offices and travel and tourism service companies, by informing about last minute tours, sell tour services at unreasonable prices, which disrupts market regulation. And encouraging the passenger community to use this method and pave the way for false and unhealthy competition and endanger the professional activities of travel services offices. “The General Directorate prohibits the use of this method in order to support the healthy and professional activities of offices and travel service companies and to expand the tourism industry and avoid the process of unhealthy competition.” The above directive can be interpreted from the perspective of innovation management as follows: The innovative “last minute tour” business model, which both reduces the cost of tourism services and does not deplete the capacity of companies providing services in this area, is prohibited. The reason for this ban is the government’s full-fledged defense of the old and outdated business model of companies established in the tourism industry !!! In other words, the government has announced that innovation in this area is prohibited because those who cling to the same outdated model do not like these innovations !!!