Oh’s and Woe’s – Identifying Innovations.

Innovation is the root of any business success; all business need to come up with something original and new. Even if the business model addresses traditional lines of ideas; the packaging, the application, the tuning being unique can still be an innovation. Today organizations get caught in the web of ROI, P&L and addressing ongoing PGM routines that innovation has become a negligible and in most cases a rejected case. Lets leave aside the ecosystem for nurturing innovations; these days organizations do not have the capability to differentiate between a successful innovation and a stale drummed up rhetoric. So dismal is the stance that everything that does a workflow with few colors is deemed as an innovation.

As business and organizations evolve, innovation is becoming a key driver of performance. Firms striving to maintain high rates of innovation need a continuous flow of new ideas. Innovation is like field that has to be set right; for the seeds of ideas from key personnel fall and sprout into a worthwhile result. The organization not only need the supportive environment where the birth of an idea happens; it also should be ready with the cradle and life support for the idea to evolve into an innovation.

Woe to the organizations that do not have the capability to differentiate. The breed of intellectuals are a rarity; their ideas and practices if leveraged and nurtured well can help build new channels of business expansions and value. Organizations that cannot innovate or build environments to breed innovation cannot survive in the market. Lets first look at how Innovations can be identified; what can actually be termed as Innovation?

 

Identifying Innovation:
Well, that’s what organizations struggle with. When you say organizations, we relate to the people in flesh and blood who hold offices that across the leadership stack. Innovation happens under the radar; unless your organization boasts of having the wherewithal of setting and managing an innovation management COE – center of excellence.

Lets now dive deep on how we can identify an innovation. With the many ways of identifying innovations the following DND approach can be one of the ways you can identify and value an Innovation.

DIFFUSION:
Diffusion is the way in which innovations spread, through market or non-market channels, from their first micro implementation to different consumers, countries, regions, sectors, markets, and firms. Without diffusion, an innovation will have no economic impact. We look at the diffusion in many aspects; we gauge using audience excitement, value generated, market segment addressed, market size, idea investment and ROI, value impact analysis.

NEW:
A product, process, marketing method, or organizational method can already have been implemented by other firms, but if it is new to the firm (or in case of products and processes: significantly improved), then it is an innovation for that firm. An innovation cannot be termed new if for example a product is purchased off shelf and implemented true to its features in a business practice to achieve the features therein and thereby terming it an innovation. NEW to the Organization, NEW to the Market.

DISRUPTIVE:
An innovation that creates ripples and impacts a market and thereby upsetting the existing norm and creating new value chains; change the structure of the market, create new markets, or render existing products obsolete. Disruptive innovation focuses on the impact of innovations as opposed to their novelty.

Effects of Successful Innovation [DND-E]:

* Increase or maintain market share
* Enter new markets
* Increase visibility or exposure for products
* Reduced time to respond to customer needs
* Achieve industry technical standards
* Reduce operating costs, increase margins
* Increase operational efficiency
* Improve communication and interaction among different business activities
* Increase sharing or transferring of knowledge with other organizations
* Increase the ability to adapt to different client demands
* Develop stronger relationships with customers

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