What is Innovation?
Definitions vary and people mean
different things. After reviewing dozens of definitions from a diverse set of
sources, I propose a consensus on a simple definition…as a basis for future
conversations about Innovation. Note the red and green highlighting in the
following definitions that help lead to the consensus.
10 deffinitions of Innovation:
- “Technically,
“innovation” is defined merely as “introducing something new;” there are no
qualifiers of how ground-breaking or world-shattering that something needs
to be—only that it needs to be better than what was there
before.
And that’s where the trouble starts when an organization requests
“innovation services” from a consulting firm. Exactly what are they really
requesting? The fact is, innovation means different things to different
people.”
- “Innovation
is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship… the act that endows
resources with a new
capacity to create wealth.”
Peter Drucker at Quotations Page
- Innovation
is defined “aschange that creates a new dimension of performance“
Peter Drucker at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation
- “Innovation:
a creation (a new device
or process) resulting from study and experimentation; the creation of
something in the mind; the act of starting something for the first time;
introducing something new“
Wordnet
- “Innovation:
First of all, here is my own definition of innovation: ‘invention refers
to new
concepts or products that derive from individual’s ideas or from
scientific research. Innovation, on the other hand, is the commercialization of the invention
itself”
- “The
term innovation may refer to both radical and incremental
changes
to products, processes or services. The often unspoken goal of innovation
is to solve a problem. Innovation is an important topic in the study of
economics, business, technology, sociology, and engineering. Since
innovation is also considered a major driver of the economy, the factors that lead
to innovation are also considered to be critical to policy makers.”
- “Something
new or different
introduced”
- “Innovation
is converting ideas to numbers”
- “Innovation
is a process, involving multiple activities, performed by multiple actors
from one or several organizations, during which new combinations of means
and/or ends, which are new for a creating and/or adopting unit, are
developed and/or produced and/or implemented and/or transferred to old
and/or new
Joerg Gemuenden at Innovation.cc
- “Innovation
is then simply new
technology, i.e. the systematic application of (new) knowledge to (new) resources to produce (new) goods or (new) services”
