Innovation and Innovation Management - 'The Must-Knows'

Everybody in business and politics knows that innovation is vitally important, yet companies still struggle to innovate on a continual basis. One of the reasons for this is that there is considerable confusion about what innovation is (its definition); the vocabulary of innovation; and innovation's associated constructs. The following facts about innovation help reduce some of this confusion:

innovation is the profitable implementation of ideas



innovation is a multi-dimensional construct.



an innovation can be described by type (process, product, service, business model, value, market, brand, price, channel etc.).



and degree (incremental, semi-radical, radical, transformational etc.).



an innovation can be described as a user innovation (the developer benefits by using it) or



a manufacturer innovation (the developer benefits by selling it to a market).



a definition will emphasize a particular unit of analysis (e.g. task, project, individual, group, SBU, firm, region, or nation).



a definition can, therefore, take a broad or narrow perspective.



a definition can take a supply- or demand-side view.



viewing innovation as either product or process, while useful, is overly simplistic.



a sustaining innovation can be radical or incremental.



a disruptive innovation, by contrast, emphasizes a dimension of a product that incumbent firms' most profitable customers don't especially value.



the same author may use a number of different definitions, depending on which dimension is being discussed.



innovation can also be viewed as attitude: "There must be a better way."

Understand the above and you will be well on your way to understanding innovation and making it happen at your own organization.

Innovation is defined here as the profitable implementation of ideas. Update your knowledge of innovation and innovation management at the BrokenBulbs.com innovation blog. The blog focuses on innovation management in Asia and beyond and includes a combination of academic research on innovation and "real-world" experience. The above article was written by Gordon Graham, owner and writer of BrokenBulbs.com