WHAT IS INNOVATION?
The term innovation has long had multiple definitions. Why? Because, in spite of (or perhaps because of) wide usage and continual interest, the term has lost precise meaning for many. Nowadays, it is applied to nearly everything, casually enough, leading to some uncertainty around what innovation really means.
Innovation’s import and thrust have gone adrift, at least for those who do not read about it regularly – a phenomenon that can happen when powerful words and concepts become popular and descend into cliché territory.
So, the short definition: A considered change in method, technique or approach which carries demonstrable benefit. This is a simple doorway to a rich and very broad landscape, which is sometimes complex in its application. The key word is “considered” – meaning human forethought – to urge measurable improvements and affect positive change.
And the elaborate version: Start with what it is not. It is not science, except that testing of hypotheses, a scientific method, is sometimes a useful tool when applied to an innovation operation, although usually this application is less formal than in “hard” science.
Innovation is not invention – the process of coming up with a new idea – yet it often carries an invention to full fruition. As the enveloping carrier of scientific progress, furthering frontier advances, innovation is hugely valuable to humanity.
Innovation is a process. Whereas science and invention often depend on small teams or individuals, innovation is usually more widespread within an organisation, making collaboration a prime concept within the innovation vocabulary.
The creation of new systems, methods, strategies and group behaviours – all of it can be described as innovation. It can boost performance and efficiency in a diverse range of fields, from human resources, health services, customer assistance and government policy to financial strategy, urban planning, logistics, consumer product development and manufacturing.
Innovation is about people, new systems, collaboration, strategy, and steady evolution, and built permanently into an organisation’s DNA. A simple definition crafted more than 60 years ago by the founder of management analysis, Peter Drucker, retains its rigour:
“[Innovation is] the task of endowing human and material resources with new and greater wealth-producing capacity”.
Some commentators are blunter: “if it doesn’t make money, it is not true innovation.” While this is true, there are exceptions, as the field of innovation study has evolved. It is now understood that innovative practices can be applied far beyond the confines of the corporation and the balance sheet, hence social innovation, a younger cousin.
A more recent definition by Michael Porter of Harvard goes like this:
”To me, innovation means offering things in different ways, creating new combinations.
Innovation doesn’t mean small, incremental improvements – these are just part of being a dynamic organisation. Innovation is about finding new ways of combining things generally.”
Sam Palmisano, Chairman, President and CEO of IBM, gave us this:
“The nature of innovation – by its inherent definition – has changed. It’s no longer individuals toiling in a laboratory, coming up with some great invention. It’s not an individual. It’s individuals. It’s multidisciplinary. It’s global. It’s collaborative.”
And Katsuaki Watanabe, CEO of Toyota, offered this rather energising comment:
“Everyone should be dissatisfied with the present situation and should constantly try to improve or change things. It’s important to realise that there is always something more we need to aim at.”
There were dozens of other quotable observations, each unique, but the crux was largely consistent: innovation requires top-down leadership with full collaboration, a keen appetite for improvement, long-term strategy, willingness to try new things and the intent to imbed innovation practices in an enduring way.
Innovation is remarkable, worthy, exciting: because it can permeate virtually every sector, department, endeavour – and it can touch the lives of every member of an organisation. That is why it is both diffuse and varied – but a primary key to competitiveness, and profit, thus an unavoidable priority for CEOs.
