Innovation: Taking a Holistic View

The proliferation of technology in the workplace is gradually changing the narrative to technological innovation. However, I strongly believe in the necessity of adopting a holistic view rather than focusing solely on technological innovation. 

Innovation is both a process and an output; capable of taking multiple forms. It can simultaneously affect goods and services, processes and business models. It can radically change the value chain of an industry.

Hence, innovation is a multi-faceted concept that not only concerns technology but also user experience and how innovations are used. It entails work on applications, business models, and design. Marketing should also be involved as a way to analyze customer experience and the ways they use innovations.

Innovation also plays an essential role, whose economic impact should not be underestimated. Even for technological innovations, an analysis of current practices is critical to their adoption, utilization and ability to generate revenues. 

Below are other key elements;

Design

Research, when it succeeds, produces an invention, which should not be confused with innovation. For businesses to be innovative, a number of functional and organizational factors must come together, especially in marketing, design and creativity. 

Design plays a growing role in a company’s operations. As for marketing, its role is evolving in order to address markets driven by supply and innovation, rather than by unfulfilled needs. 

In our postmodern societies, consumption is increasingly experiential, spurring innovation to be more about how to create emotions and experience rather than just providing functionalities and benefits. Consequently, demand can be driven by innovations, not just the reverse.

Adopting an iterative process

Innovation does not occur suddenly or by chance, it results from long-term iterative processes that integrate ingredients, procedures and outcomes. It is therefore necessary to encourage businesses to strongly stimulate their long-term capacity to innovate.

Adoptable across board

Innovation should not be considered to fall solely within the ambit of certain industries, occupations/positions or businesses of a certain size because, by definition, innovation thrives on the interconnected nature of sectors, businesses and occupations. 

Many industries are now converging, bringing every sector into the innovation race. As for business, innovation concerns all types of companies; start-ups that question and replace business models and technologies; large companies because of their investment capacity; and SMEs for their ability to succeed in interfunctional approaches to innovation. 

Champions vary by country; the Mittelstand is the heart of Germany’s innovation capacity, for instance, while large companies are the most innovative in France and start-ups are an amazing driver of innovation in Nigeria and the US.

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Culled from: Revue Journal of Innovation Economics