What is innovation?

Features of Innovation
Innovation is a buzz word which gets often thrown around in the business
environment today with very few getting into the real meaning behind the word.
Some interpretations are flexibility, problem solving skills, new approaches for
doing something, creating more with fewer resources. All of these maybe noble
ideas but often end up putting bar on the meaning of innovation. This is a
counter-intuitive approach because innovation cannot be shoved under
parameters of economic, social or moral jurisdictions. Some ideas are ahead of
its times , some seem to be economically flawed in business context. When the
first Iphone was realeased costing about 500$. Many critics wrote it off
immediately Thats the most expensive piece of device and it does not have
even a keypad to write emails they said. Innovation sometimes are just crazy
ideas or to put it in a better way Innovation is Expression of uniqueness which
is core to human spirit. The core assumption here is that every individual is
unique with his own sense of identity and is innovative. The expression of it in
organizations is called Innovation. Some of the features associated with
Innovation are

Innovation possible at all level in Orgn- dells supply chain, Toyota

production plant, wall marts inventory management, star buck
reimagining sop, Playfulness
Innovation Sells-Anything that wont sell , I dont want to invent. Its sales
is proof of utility and utility is success

Its not the strongest specie that will survive, not the most intelligent but the one
that is the most responsive to change When Charles Darwin wrote these notes

2) Need of creativity in Organizations?

A study done by IBM with 1500 CEOs across 30 countries. They were asked
What kept them awake at nights? The most common answer was adaptability
meaning how does one create an organisation that is adaptable to change? and
the other was Creativity. How does one create an organisation which has a
constant culture of innovation? How do we find people who are creative? who can
anticipate trends ?, who are ahead of trends? Some of the best institutes in the
world are struggling to produce such people. India who has no academic
institution in the top 300 hardly stands chance. Some of the points below
underline the importance of creativity and its relevance in the organisations

A Dynamic world- The world is changing and its changing at an

exponential pace. The difference between a linear and a exponential
change is that 8 steps of linear change takes you 8 steps ahead and 8
steps of exponential change takes a million steps a head. Super
computers are being used to make even super computer. Peter Diamandis
has shown Cost of communication, cost of transportation, cost of
electricity has significantly came down. For most organization today its
difficult to predict will they be making the same product five year down
the line, the long term vision then takes a hit. What really is require at this
moment are people who have faith in themselves, who are not use to
doing things certain ways, who have open outlook to run organization.
Competitive Advantage- In the dynamic world of outside there is a
constant pressure among firm to keep things stable inside. To develop and
maintain a competitive advantage. Many organisation today are getting
into practices be that in terms of developing a culture, R&D , constumer
service or loyalty of costumers. A company like apple which allocates a
few of budget in advertising is able to develop a customer following where
people stand in Ques the night before the launch of the product to get it.

Consumer Appetite- The rampant consumerism which offers a freedom

through Ferrari , a good family life through furniture, friendship through
simcards is prevelant. In the age of this vanity where peoples innate
needs are being fuelled by consume goods they dont really need, to
impress people that they dont really like. Such culture has lead to vast
disinterest in consumers due to which he is demanding more of that stuff
for that not full filled . The newer version of that phone. More of that sugar
induced fast food that gives a dopamine hike. There is a lots of product
that are offering him that. What else are you giving him. To satify the need

of this highly demanding materialistic person we need new and new ways
of telling same old stories which we are running out of.

Employee Satisfaction- Research shows the innovative companies have

very less attrition rate. This is because of a reason that these companies
give their employee the freedom of self expression ,a nurturing
environment to grow, make them feel valued. Such organistation with
these people who are willing to put their all for the company are much
more likely to succedd than their counter parts which see people as means
to end.

Innovation helps to sustain business- Kodak, Nokia, Sony, Colgate, If you

no innovate you die..
See thing in different perspective- P & G and Gillete

3) Thomas Editon one of the famous inventors of 20 th century with countless

invention registered in his name said Innovation as One percent inspiration,
99% invention and perspiration Many of the social scientist believe that
creativity is the ability to see old things in new light. It is the aha moment in
which something in our head lights out connecting two objects/ideas and
wondering how would that feel like. Imagine when someone might have come up
the concept of glue and paper coming together to form bookmarks. Thats a
creative idea. It might be that somebody else have already thought of it
thousands of years ago and done nothing about it so when this person goes a bit
forward to make a prototype of the first ever bookmark. He would have used glue
which might have been too sticky or not sticky. The quality of paper used for
bookmark might not have been desirable. After countless tries to make it better
he would have finally would come up with a product which was good enough to
come in the market. This prototype would be called an invention. Giving physical
form to the ideas in your head. After which it went to get produced, labled, and
through suppy change ended up stores. It is an innovation when it gets accepted
by the people. When it has changed the way people genrally used to read books
and it has done with a significant mass. This change is behaviour than will be
called an innovation.

4) In his book Richard Dwarkins talk about ideas which use human body as host
to multiply from one brain to another. The Greeks in early times believed ideas
came from spirits whispering them into mortals. The modern psychologist have
come to conclusion that idea are generated in right side of brain which operates

subconsciously. The common things to note among the three narrative is ideas
are not any no ones monopoly. They can come to anyone anywhere. Mr Ratan
Tata got the idea of Nano when he saw a middle class family travelling in a
scooter. Jack Dorsey got the idea of twitter while taking a walk which he
immediately pen down. A human mind is hit by 70,000-80,000 thoughts per day.
Very few of these thoughts can be argued as ideas. Remarkably less is the
portion which see the light of the day. One of the advices given to management
is have a keep a diary & pen/ notes in cell phone to record ideas. Give an idea a
physical form as it occurs in your mind is critical. Ideas are just 1% of the process
of innovation. We all get ideas, some die as soon as they are formed, others wait
to die in the business table, some die due to lack of proper environment and only
few prospers to reach their ultimate aim.
As far as the evaluation of ideas is concerned some people are just gifted to see
the future. Malcom Gladwell in his book The blink talks about intuition and how
it is used by specialist in various fields to make decisions. How a doctor in the
blink of an eye is able to make out what is wrong with the patient. Many
entrepreneurs/ actors constantly tell in interviews It just excited me. But how
can ideas be judged when it comes to whole organization where so many people
have ideas about the progress. I believe that a company called 3M. The way is
simple every employ gets 10% of the organisation resources/ time to do
whatever they want to do. The result is that today 3M has more than 60,000
different products. Similar is the case with Google who give its employs time and
space to work on their unique ideas, run a pilot on behalf of the company, and
see where it takes them. The rest can always give their ideas to superiors to
work on them. Theres a game called protein folder which is played online in
which people from all over the world come together online to solve most
complicated medicine related problems.

Many say that their should be spreadsheets and matrix and finance and market
research to judge the value of ideas or which is worth pursuing. When the first
iphone was launched many experts wrote it off immediately A 500$ device
which has no keypad to write emails, nobody would buy it There was no
reason one should have a computer in their house IBM. Facebook couldnt find
a venture capitalist nor did flipcart initially. The best way to get an idea testing is
start practising it, dont just all but once, but slowly let the idea come to form
organically and face it results on its own.

Nature of InnovationInnvation can be defined as the application of new ideas to the products,
process, or other aspects of the activities of a firm that lead to increased value.

6) A ship might be safe in harbour but that is not why ships are built
Entrepreneurship can be a one word solution to many of the problems faced by
various develeopping countries or world at large. Enterepenureship can change
the way one works and lives. If successful their innovation can improve the
standard of living. In short Entrepreneur ventures in addition of creating wealth
they can create jobs and conditions for a phosphorus society.
According to fobes 90% business fail. Why is that?

There are various sociall & Economic factor behind it

Make Entrepreneurship Cool Settle Down.. Nor son Neither Son in Law...
make advertisements.. start reality shows.. Dirrubhai Ambani..
Make faluire as an option - education system.. conformity..
Entrepreneurial Colleges- create value not create money.. a country of
masses
Micro Finance Schemes- value not money...
Business Guidance- Working Capital management.. How to market... long
term
Institution Management Taxation, Legal procedures, Schemes that allow
local resources to be utilized effectively

Culture of Innovation-

Feeling Secured- US marines .. trust..

Collaboration- apple football ground... pixar rock concert.. Google cafe.. whistle
blower...team work
Sense of Meaning- not another brick in the wall.. 3M stories... Google aim... apple
Aim.. do work as if doing great work
Encourage Self expression- pixar offices..
Ecourage Risk/ Mistakes Henry ford.. on education.. encourage mistakes..
Spirituality- high correlation.. yoga..meditation.. nature walks.. in 10 months not
in 12 months carnaige... quality over quantity..

TechnologicalNo longer demand for discrete software or product .. Busineses today are asking
for unquie [roblems faced by them.. Dell suppy chain management.. Ikea storage
management.. Lexmark earlier a priter company is now providing integrated
digital soln
Diversification Adobe sold boxed software today it sells cloud computing too..
gooogle....
Website/App based ModelPatents & R&D- apple suing Samsung for 2bn