One of the biggest barriers to organisations innovating, especially SME’s is the widespread misuse of the word innovation and its application by companies who can’t really define it.
Because of this, innovation is normally used by said companies to describe something that they are doing that in their mind sets them apart from their competitors. The truth is they are more likely to just be doing something different or doing the same thing in a slightly different way. The dictionary perpetuates this by seeming to back up the notion that all you have to do is something different to be innovative.
in·no·va·tion
‘The act of introducing something new’
Whether their new thing is different or useful or different and useful is the part that needs clarification before branding it innovative. The truth is that a modern day commercial ‘innovation’ must be something new that has value to the creator and the user. For that to happen the ‘innovation’ must be relevant to the person/group it is being applied to or for and cannot purely be in the eye of the beholder.
'The road to innovation' is very rarely as short a journey as an ‘aha’ moment anymore and indeed requires nurturing and planning. Innovation in the modern sense is now more of a buy-product of lots of complementary initiatives. Just like a prize winning marrow needs a greenhouse of light, heat, water, humidity and nutrients the road to sustainable innovation requires organisations to consider similar holistic approaches that address their strategy, people, culture, environment, creativity, leadership and so on.
When all these things are considered and ‘switched on’ a company can hand on heart claim to be on a meaningful journey and maybe, just maybe something innovative will happen along the way...
Forgot to add this in to 'What it really takes to Innovate'but this was the reason for writing it...
ReplyDeleteIt seems that everywhere we turn at the moment the word ‘Innovation’ is being used as the solution to our economic situation. However, merely throwing the word round as if it’s some kind of magic fairy dust that once sprinkled yields instant results isn’t enough. I wonder if most organisations and company owners really understand what it really takes to innovate.