What is innovation?

(Thomas D. Kuczmarski, (1996) "What is innovation? The art of welcoming risk", Journal of Consumer
Marketing, Vol. 13 Iss: 5, pp.7 11)

Innovation is best described as a pervasive attitude that allows businesses

to see beyond the present and create a future vision.
Any change in the product or service range an organisation takes to
market
involves creation of new products and services usually via R&D
departments
Argues that more CEOs and senior executives need to believe in the power
of innovation to increase earnings, stock price, employee and customer
satisfaction, and global competitiveness. Highlights innovation as the
single most important factor in the future growth of any business venture;
innovation is a mindset a new way to think about business strategies and
practice. Suggests that this thinking drives every aspect of a successful,
dynamic organization and penetrates every element of business, creating
a clear and enduring vision. States that innovative companies are set
apart from their competitors and have the potential to fuel future
profitable growth and build longterm investments.
Innovation is the single best way to leapfrog competition, move ahead of
the industry pack and, most important, create new ways to bolster profit
margins and fuel future earnings streams

Innovation process

Idea generation
An idea is generated at a specific time and place within the organization.
Employees often derive information from both internal sources within the
organization or from external sources. Idea generators will often interact with
other scientists in the field, university sources, colleagues in their area of
research, as well as competitors. This can be broadly described as the
technology push mechanism. Similarly, employees will often interact with
customers, suppliers and competitors to gain market information for a better
understanding of what customers want before products are launched to the
market. This approach can be characterised as the market pull mechanism.
[Steve Jobs as the chief innovator is very involved in the sourcing of the initial
idea. For inspiration, Apple oftentimes starts with a new idea for a multimedia
interaction and designs a product that will enable that interaction. Rather than
looking to solve specific customer needs, Apple studies new ideas and how they
can promote customer interaction. By taking this human-centered approach,
Apple thinks differently than their competitors and improves the customer
experience.]
Innovation support
Innovation support was the second step in the process where ideas were
introduced to the management level and evaluated against companies' goals.
Many of the ideas were lost at this stage due to the low level of support provided
by the organization. However, the ideas that did make it through were set up as
projects with clear development methods and project specifications.
Innovation development
The stage of development was often identified with a formalized project structure
supported by the organization with adequate finance and other resources
provided.
[Apple products are not rolled out with beta testing, rather they are presented in a
final and perfected form (oftentimes in an extravagant presentation). A simple,
beautiful, perfected product straight out of the gates is a result of a painstaking
development process. Apples development and experimentation process is veiled in
secrecy. Steve vaguely describes their development process as The system is that
there is no system. That doesn't mean we don't have process. Apple is a very
disciplined company, and we have great processes. But that's not what it's about.
Process makes you more efficient. What we do know is that there are large cross
functional teams with hands-on leaders. Even Jobs gets involved at the product
development and experimentation level.]

Implementation
The last stage of innovation implementation represented the introduction of the
fruits of innovation into the marketplace. Marketing functions often took the
leading role in this stage, aligning the product with market expectations and
feeding back market information for future improvements.
[To implement the innovative strategies requires communication of the idea to
the company and to the outside world. The information made available is
managed and projected effectively. Optimum use of apples resources is carried

out at the right time and place and proper project planning is carried out.
Effective marketing activities is carried out to position the new idea or product in
the minds of the customer.]
In the early stages of the innovation process, sound management and
communication functions appear to be critical. Specifically, it appears that a
strong participative management style that emphasizes social interactivity and
rewards for innovative behaviour is typical at this stage. In terms of
communication, an open, transparent and informal communication system
focused on facilitating exchange of strategic information between internal and
external parties is most prevalent. In the latter stages of the innovation process,
there is strong focus on structure and control issues. Formal teams are usually
used. Also project management methodologies are commonly utilised. Overall, a
highly disciplined approach to project delivery seems to be preferred at this
stage of innovation.

Bernstein B., Sing J. P. (2006) An integrated innovation process model

based on practices of Australian biotechnology firms Technovation.
Volume 26, Issues 56, Pages 561572