Innovation

If there were a popularity award for a word that captures the curiosity of academics, politicians, the media, and the business world, a strong contender would undoubtedly be the word “innovation.” Alongside the term “entrepreneurship,” it carries the magical promise of opening all doors and unlocking new markets, enabling greater efficiency in companies and driving economic growth.

The word “innovate” derives from the Latin innovare, meaning to renew, to invent, to create. In simple terms, innovation means having a new idea or, at times, applying someone else’s ideas in novel ways or in a new form, as noted by Michel Vance.

Innovation is what we do anew each day in our everyday lives, and its outcome is generally what we hope for. In a sense, we are all innovators! Above all, innovation involves two essential elements: creativity and new ideas. But it is more than just having ideas—it is necessary for those ideas to be implemented and to generate a positive economic and social impact.

The difference between invention and innovation lies in the question of implementation and the diffusion of ideas. The real challenge is ensuring that innovation becomes an idea successfully put into practice. This could be within a community or a company, such as the creation of a cooperative network for the production and industrialisation of local goods, the launch of new products, improvements to existing products, or organisational innovation aimed at improving the efficiency of the community or the production process. At the macroeconomic level, innovation is closely linked to economic growth and social development.

Very often, products we consider innovative are actually based on someone else’s ideas or are adaptations of existing products—that is, the transformation of an idea into a success for consumers. Robert Sutton, in his book “Weird Ideas That Work”, reminds us that creativity involves the use of old knowledge applied in new ways. He describes three such approaches:

● Product variation, which involves applying old ideas in specific contexts where they appear new or innovative to the organisation;

● Déjà vu, meaning observing how things are done both inside and outside the company, then applying them internally in new ways;

● Breaking with the past, which implies finding new ways of acting and thinking about other places and people.

A creative person is someone who is able to apply ideas—whether original or borrowed—in an effective manner. As the writer Henry Miller once said:

"All genius is parasitic. It feeds on the same source—the blood of life... There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we need only to open ourselves, to discover what is already there."

Innovation can have a much broader character, not necessarily involving technology, but rather encompassing some form of social change. This may include innovation in business models or forms of organisation or communication. These types of innovation do not necessarily involve technological advancement but are valuable in their own right.

Nevertheless, it is technology that, by making a product difficult to imitate, offers it some degree of protection and, at the same time, high growth potential—thus making the sustainability of innovation possible.