Tired of innovation

Innovation here, innovation there, innovation everywhere.

The word 'innovation' is becoming more and more misused. As an innovation researcher, it bothers me. A politician uses word 'innovation' to make his message more lucrative among voters. A CEO uses word 'innovation' to describe their products and services  ... revolutionary. Similarly, words 'creative' and 'creativity' are used to describe someone doing things enthusiastically. Aarrgghh!!!

Where is novelty? Where are breakthroughs? Where is value creation?  Where are those people utilising the innovation?

BusinessWeek had a nice article about this frustration around innovation. I also liked the innovation hype definition discussion by Joyce Wycoff.

Back to basics:

"Innovation = The action of innovating; the introduction of novelties; the alteration of what is established by the introduction of new elements or forms" (Oxford English Dictionary)

What is your favourite innovation definition? How do you feel about this innovation hype?

Comments

[Mikko Järvilehto]

I share your frustration. I find that in publications by Kristian Möller et al. views about innovation are somewhat aligned with Wycoff/Christensen. Improving= Established, Evolving= Incremental, Game changing= Radical.

The problems arise when people use word innovation without referring the spesific type of improvement. Also another problem will surface when innovation is used as only referring to the invention part of the process, not towards the holistic value creation process. But I guess, the way one uses the I-word, means revealing one's theoretical, paradigmal or rhetorical background.

Innovation is without the doubt THE MARKETING/POLITICKING BUZZWORD of the 2000's. I wonder what comes next? Rannovation? (Radical Innovation):) Sounds already almost as "Run Away, Son"!

[Diann Daniel]

I agree that innovation is the buzzword du jour and it is frustrating b/c people mean such different things (including nothing much) when they use the word. Still it's worth noting this bit from the BW article that you mentioned: "The term has been overused and abused of much of its meaning, with every lame brand-tweak and extension being hailed as a 'innovation.'" Yet McCullagh, director of London-based consulting firm Plan, adds: "I don't think there is much evidence of consumers getting tired of innovation. Look at the widespread hunger for a better cell-phone experience that the iPhone is tapping into."
That's a really important point: If something--whether process, product or other--needs improvement, then nobody will argue against innovation, and I don't believe innovation must be earthshattering or reinvent the wheel. Sometimes simply tweaking process can result in real innovation and look at the iPod...all the elements were in place, it just took someone recombining and tweaking what was already out there in the marketplace.
As for the idea versus innovation process, I think anyone studying or working in innovation would absolutely separate those two. I cover innovation for CIO.com and hope that I am diligent about it (see for example Seven Highly Effective Ways to Kill Innovation @ http://www.cio.com/article/125658/ or other stories at http://www.cio.com/author/41425/Diann+Daniel )
Still, I think when you are trying to reach a broad audience of readers, a certain generality and term overuse happens...I'd love to see an alternative, although I'm not entirely sure what that would look like. Like the whole Web 2.0 concept (and debate), people often use broad stroke words as a way to quickly let readers (or listeners) know what general category something is in.

[Mikko Ahonen]

Way to go, Mikko J. :-) I like that ”Rannovation - Run Away, Son”.
I should run, but I can't. I am not any more tired of innovation, more like ... I am curious about it, again ;-)

We definitely should focus more on processes after the invention phase.

In that sense I like the five P's of Innovation Success by Tom Peters:
1. Pissed-offedness
2. Passion
3. Pals
4. Politics
5. Persistence

Quick explanation: http://www.tompeters.com/slides/uploaded/TRY_It_072407.ppt
Cheers

Mikko A.

[Mikko Ahonen]

Great insights, Diann :-)

Consumers and crowds are indeed waiting for improvements ... and innovation. So, no need to get tired of innovation :)

I finally managed to look at your article. My favourite item was “Innovation killer #2: Tell everyone to “think outside of the box,” hold a brainstorming session, then call it a day”.

Since I am organising innovation workshops with my business partners, this area is always challenging. I try to avoid ‘Empowerment Trick Shops” once a year, more like, I try to help people learn to observe, broker and analyse continuously. Not an easy task to accomplish ;-)

BTW, your story called “The Secrets of IT Innovation” (http://www.cio.com/article/134201/The_Secrets_of_IT_Innovation/2) is worth looking. I will get back to this IT Innovation topic later on.

Take care

Mikko