While there is much talk about ” Innovation “, what is described is typically something that is inventive or creative – not innovative.
For clarity, the terms are defined as follows –
To explain – Very few creative sparks result in an invention, and very few inventions become innovations.
Further, with many great inventions taking many years to be realized, timing the investment to become an Innovation that can be monetized is important in determining whether you realize a great ROI, business advantage, etc. – or a lot of time, effort and money is wasted !
For example, If you look at most technology-based innovations, whether it’s the mp3 or the VCR, they were invented 20-30 years before they reached wide adoption in the marketplace, and for Gorilla Glass it was 50 years !
To further emphasize the importance of timing, consider Webvan vs. Amazon Fresh ; Pets.com vs. Chewy.com (acquired by PetSmart). With these not being innovations, it’s important to know where you are on the commercialization timeline by ” looking forwards and backwards ” to help assess opportunity and know where you are on the commercialization timeline. From this, if you’re working on a new initiative, are you sure it’s a potential innovation ? If so, be sure to scale quickly, or fail fast and re-start.
Or, your business could be impacted like other industries that have already been disrupted – by technology companies making or re-defining a market –
A. Apple changing the music industry
B. Uber changing the taxi business
C. Airbnb changing accommodation
D. Netflix changing video consumption
E. Amazon changing retailing
+ other examples at www.cail.com/innov-examples/
With market shifts, to capitalize on new opportunities, and the potential of new competitors – for an enterprise to evolve there is the need to do different types of innovation to move forward –
… see Improve Business Outcomes with Innovation for additional insights
…. to avoid extinction like – Polaroid, Kodak and Encyclopedia Britannica, etc.
CAIL – Innovation Industry Commentary www.cail.com/mob-inno