What is Innovation, Importance and How to do it

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Did you know?

The iconic funnel top design of street lamps we are all so familiar with, is an innovation by Benjamin Franklin. Introduced in 1757, it was an improvement over the defective and difficult to maintain globe design that was then standard in London. Franklin addressed those problems and his solution was accepted with open arms.

 

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What is Innovation?

Innovation is defined as the process of bring new invention i.e. ideas, approaches and technologies to customers in the form of products and services. The aim of innovation is to create viable solutions for a problem that is faced by people in an industry or the public.

Do not confuse it with iteration, which is the process of developing incremental improvement in existing solutions.

Henry Chesbrough the ideologist behind Open Innovation defines innovation as “Commercialization of inventions”.[Quote]

Why is innovation important?

Innovation is the tool that protects businesses against the tides of time and competition.
Companies spend millions of dollars on innovation R&D to maintain a competitive edge and sustain growth by offering a rich product mix.[1]

Innovation is a culture of creative and disruptive mind set.

 

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I grew up in an enriched environment perfect for the culture of such a mindset. The likes of affordable and powerful computational power, the internet and material resources were growing rapidly.

I spent most of my childhood learning, experimenting and of course FAILING gloriously, and then iterating. Well, not all the ideas succeed or even saw the light of day, but it helped me develop an innovative and technological mindset that has influenced my life. Sometimes, this did land me in serious trouble but that’s a story for another time.

 

 

Innovation and creativity powers the world. Every product or service you use today, your phone, smartwatch, reading glasses or even something as simple a toothbrush has developed over decades of iterative innovation.   

Example

Let’s take an example of toothpaste, we have moved from using powdered rock salt to tooth powder containing grounded soap to toothpaste with sodium lauryl sulphate, a detergent. 

At one point is even added radium to toothpastes for glow in the dark teeth! That was a time we didn’t know about the life threatening radioactive nature of radium. A classic from the book of innovation failures.

Why is Innovation so difficult?

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Innovation is dependent on invention. Since, inventions are generally conceptual and based on theories however it is the innovators job to create value from those theories and conception into something that will directly add value to the greater society.

Creativity is the fuel for your innovation.

 

 

Most of the times, the inventions are far more advanced than modern technology and innovators have to be patient and let the trends and technology catch on. They must perfectly time their product release such that greater market adoption is achievable. This may take years or even decades of patience!

How is Innovation different from invention?

Invention is focused at break-through research i.e. generating new concepts and technologies they don’t have any apparent real world applications. Invention has no interest what so ever in generating revenue.

Innovation is the adoption of those break-through ideas into real world applications addressing real world needs. Generating revenue is the reacting to the outcomes of innovation.

Process of Innovation

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Their are no wrong ways of doing innovation. Just use your senses.

Large companies create special divisions to drive innovation that utilize Innovation management. Innovation management revolves around continuous development of innovative solutions. It is a fast-growing market, expected to see a CAGR of 29.28% by 2026, as reported by GlobeNewswire.

 

 

Foremost, you must understand the problem you are trying to solve. Ask yourself

‘Is this the right problem I am trying to solve?’

’Am I asking the right questions?’

Big companies with decades of history in innovation often develop  products that Nobody wants! This happens due to of lack of early customer integration and poor interpretation of the problem, more on than this later.

There are a few innovation process models out in the world but it doesn’t really matter which process you use as long as the outcome is the same; to create innovative solutions.

However, using an innovation model can help guide beginners in the field.

Here is one of the most frequently used innovation process known as the innovation loop :

#  Innovation loop

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Step 1: Ideas

Brainstorming Ideas. It is a good practice to value all ideas equally i.e. don’t dismiss any idea considering them stupid or off topic, innovation thrives on out of the box thinking.

Step 2: Build

Develop a prototype. The aim is to only prove the concept, so do not get into functionality and user experience, there is plenty of time to dedicate and develop that later in the stage.

Step 3: Measure

Get feedback from customers. Put your prototypes or MVPs out there are get real customer . Focus on gathering information on things like,

Does this solve the right problem?

Is it better than the existing solutions? Why?

Will they be willing to use this product?

Step 4: Learn

Iterate by utilizing the data. The aim is to iterate as many times as possible to refine the product. And get user feedback every step of the way.

One of the greatest mistakes I made is never taking feedback. It is arguably the most importance step in the innovation cycle/loop, and I avoided it in fear that people may find it stupid or even worst that my idea gets stolen!

Feedback help get a clean, different prospective at the solution quite often you may be trying to solve the wrong problem!

Conclusion:

Innovation like most things needs practice, failure and patience. There is a reason that this is one of the major emerging fields with highly promising careers opportunities in the coming decade. Breakthroughs do not happen overnight, stay focused, consistent, and always take feedback.

 

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation

https://innovationmanagement.se/2008/01/07/how-do-you-define-innovation-and-make-it-practical-and-saleable-to-senior-management/

https://www.wework.com/ideas/worklife/innovation-quotes

www.workspace.digital/30-favorite-quotes-innovation/

http://www.benjamin-franklin-history.org/inventions-and-improvements/

https://lisacaprelli.com/7-reasons-innovation-is-important/

https://innovationmanagement.se/2009/11/03/21-great-ways-to-innovate/

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-five-stages-of-successful-innovation/

What is innovation, importance and how to do it | Krityatirtha Paul