“Innovation is the practical application of creative ideas.”
That is a good one-line definition for innovation. No one short definition captures all of innovation. Below are some more partial definitions of innovation.
• An innovator is a detective searching for a solution to a real problem, a perceived problem or an invisible problem.
• An innovation has the potential to make the world a better place.
• “To be effective, an innovation has to be simple, and it has to be focused. It should only do one thing; otherwise it confuses people.” (Peter Drucker, “The Discipline of Innovation”)
• “Today, innovation concerns much more than new product development. It is about reinventing business processes and building entirely new markets that meet untapped customer needs. Most important, as the Internet and globalization widen the pool of new ideas, it’s about selecting and executing the right ideas and bringing them to market in record time.” (Business Week, April 24, 2006)
• An innovation can be a product (iPod, double mocha skim latte), a service (text messaging, email addiction treatment), or process (new process for putting a product on the market in six months rather than two years).
• An innovation can be created by an individual, an organizational team or a team comprised of people from different organizations.
• An innovation can be a slight improvement on an existing product (cars with cup holders), service (coffee shop with a fireplace), or a breakthrough product or service that changes the nature of an industry (Cirque de Soleil, wireless).
• An innovation may take decades to commercialize (hydrogen cells) or days (viral marketing of a candidate over the internet).
• An innovation may save lives (new kind of heart stent) or take lives (more precise hand-held grenade launcher).
• An innovation can distract (instant messaging) or focus (eastern forms of meditation).
• “Radical Innovation” defined: An innovation that is life changing or society changing.
– Does it have the power to dramatically reset customer expectations and behaviors?
– Does it have the power to change the basis for competitive advantage?
– Does it have the power to change industry dynamics? (Skarzynski and Gibson)
• “An idea doesn’t become an innovation until it is widely adopted and incorporated into people’s daily lives.” (Art Fry, inventor of Post-it Notes, Fast Company, April 2000)
Innovation is all of these and so much more. Ask yourself: What innovations does your home or your industry need? How can you garner the resources to create it?
Myths of Innovation
1. Myth: Innovation is the domain of solitary creative genius.
Reality: Innovation is the domain of all of us. If we wait for some lone genius to come up with an “aha” moment, we might go out of business.
2. Myth: Innovation is always high-tech and wireless.
Reality: Innovation knows no bounds.
3. Myth: Innovation is chaotic and unpredictable.
Reality: Innovation can be unpredictable, but there are processes and systems that can be put into place to encourage it.
4. Myth: Innovation requires millions of dollars of investment.
Reality: Innovations can be expensive, but can also be done on a shoestring.
5. Myth: Innovation is about producing wild- eyed ideas.
Reality: Innovation is about execution.