It is a skill, an art, and a science... By learning more about how it works, we can become better at it... It is an opportunity; to become better at what we do, and to be more competitive.
No matter what we do, we are better with innovation than we are without it.
Inventor Thomas Edison is often said to have invented the light bulb, but in fact, he didn't. What he did do was develop and implement the idea more successfully than anyone else. He was not the creator, he was the innovator.
You may measure success based upon your artistic integrity or popularity, or you might be best pleased by profits. Whatever; if you find success in creativity, you are an innovator.
Creativity is linked, inextricably, with innovation... Creativity is not enough.
Whatever we do, whether we are an artist, baker or businessman, some of us intrinsically want to do great work. Innovation is an opportunity to do this, by thinking differently and introducing new ideas. You may innovate in small ways, improving how you work or do business. Or you may change the world with a groundbreaking new invention. It doesn't really matter; what matters is that you are doing good.
Doing great work, being successful, and changing things for the better. These are great things, and we can use innovation to help us do them all.
That someone might be you, doing your job. And even if innovation goes no further than your own four walls - if it makes your working life better, faster and more productive - it's worth it.
Size only matters if you want to be big. If you are content to focus on the little things, innovation can still help you become more successful. Day in day out.
Factory Records, the label that brought us Joy Division and The Happy Mondays, are renowned for their innovation. Not just in their music, but in the way they did things. Part of the reason for this is that Factory's founders didn't know how to run a record label - they just made it up as they went along. For a while this formula worked: they enjoyed great success, brought a new musical culture to the streets, and innovated in ways their competitors would later emulate.
The rest of us may not choose to disregard the rule book, but that doesn't mean we can't change the rules. Innovation is about rethinking, redefining and redoing. By challenging the status quo, we might just be able to do things better. In that process we create value and find success.
More and more, individuals and businesses are picking apart innovation, to see how it really works, to understand how to measure, apply and master it. Experience, research and case studies continue to teach us more about how a myriad of factors such as diversity, collaboration, company culture and leadership are important to and influencing innovation.
Individuals and businesses that follow this increasing understanding of innovation will gain a competitive advantage over those that don't. So now is the time to push forward our understanding of innovation... Now is the time to push things forward.
Let's push things forward