As per various theories, Innovation has evolved from imitation and passing thru invention.
Earlier times, imitation was equated with invention.
Imitation is when an individual or company observes what someone else is doing, and decides to mimic their actions in hopes of achieving identical results.
Invention can be loosely defined as the creation of a product or introduction of a process for the first time.
So what is innovation when we talk in the context of business?
When invention is commercialized, it becomes innovation !
Forms of Innovation:
Innovation is Incremental if the result is marginal change. Eg:people switching over from CD to DVD.
It becomes Radical when the change is substantialEg: DVD to Digital music.
So when does the innovation is termed DISRUPTIVE???
When it completely turns the business upside down …..ultimately and unexpectedly) overtaking the existing market.
Uber Globally and FLIPKART in India can be termed DISRUPTIVE innovators!
The questions the innovators ask themselves are also different with the form of innovation.
For incremental innovators, the prime question is WHAT NOW? , whereas a radical innovator asks WHAT NEXT.
For a DISRUPTIVE innovator, the view is TELESCOPIC with an OFF-TANGENT question : WHAT IF?
Again see the significant variation in THEMES: from IMPROVEMENT to an incremental innovator to GROWTH in case of radical innovator; when it comes to DISRUPTIVE innovator, it is TRANSFORMATION!
On ACTION front, the migration is from DO THINGS BETTER thru do things differently for the first two catagories. The last category DO DIFFERENT THINGS!
The perspective changes from FOCUS thru FORESIGHT to INSIGHT!
The business goal of an incremental innovator is to PROTECT AND MAINTAIN ONGOING(CURRENT ) REVENUE.
That of a radical innovator is to GROW MEDIUM TERM REVENUE
While a DISRUPTIVE innovator’s attempt is to CREATION OF GREEN-FIELD(new) REVENUE streams.
While Cost-economics is the ultimate arbitrator in Innovation, of late, it is found that it is the indirect cost that tilted in case of E-commerce – cost associated with searching, analyzing, price-benchmarking etc getting away with the convenience of a desktop or smart-phone !
Innovation sometimes is ‘forced’ owing to growing Competition.
Can innovation be taught by training? Possibly no.
Are there any founding Concepts in innovation? So far no evidence is there to prove this.
Value addition out of innovation in business : It can vary from marginal to astronomical from Incremental to Disruptive forms!
Innovation and India: India ranks somewhere in the middle at 66th rank in Global Innovation Index(GII); but can take solace that it is topper in South and Central Asia.
CEO, ERGONOMIX INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL ASSETS