Thinking about profitable business ideas? Perhaps a business idea example? Where is your focus? Invention? Innovation? Creativity?
Check out our thoughts on building innovation.
More to think about: Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking
We are always surprised by the number of our clients that don’t make a distinction between these concepts. Can you make the distinction?
On average, it takes about 30 years to go from initial discovery to significant market impact and we are about a decade into the next great transformation. That puts us almost exactly where those Xerox executives were in 1977. They had no idea of what personal computers would unleash and if we’re honest, we need to admit that we are in the same boat.
What we can do is recognize that there is a great transformation underway that will unlock possibilities and opportunities that are impossible to see clearly right now. However, it is more critical to explore than to predict and that’s what we need to do today. We don’t need to understand the future to be open to it.
A clear distinction and your appropriate action focus will definitely make a difference to your business. Let’s explore why.
Creativity is your ability to imagine new concepts. It does not require value creation. That is why when we run brainstorming sessions; we do not allow concepts to be screened for merit. We are being divergent and looking for all possible ideas. Creativity plays an important role in both invention and innovation but is only the front end component of each.
Invention and innovation. They have been so thoroughly misused that it is hard to tell the difference between them. Yet they could not be more different.
Innovation is the process through which value is created and delivered to a community in the form of a new solution. We have purposely chosen to frame the definition as a process. It can also be used to describe a new product or service … the output of the process. In either case, the key elements of the meaning are valued delivery and newness.
The invention is very distinct from innovation. When a new idea surfaces or a new patent is filed—that is an invention. It is the classic eureka moment when a person has an idea for the better mousetrap and sets about creating it, putting off concern about who will buy it for another day.
When you consider the three attributes that an invention must possess to be patentable – novelty, non-obviousness, utility – you can see its distinction from an innovation. One is that innovations can be obvious. The other is in the concept of utility. Inventions need only be useful to the inventor and have recognizable utility to the patent attorney. Innovations must answer to a much wider audience. They must be adopted in practice by the intended user community to be considered a true innovation.
The invention is often viewed as a source of economic growth. As a result, the invention has been linked in the public mind to succeed in the marketplace. It isn’t. It’s innovation that generates new products, new services, new businesses, and new jobs. Businesses need to be focused on innovation much more than invention.
Profitable business ideas … the marketplace
The invention is accurately perceived as a cornerstone of innovation. It generates new ideas, patents, prototypes, designs, as well as breakthrough experiments and working prototypes.
However, it’s innovation that transforms these inventions into commercial products, services, and businesses. Ultimately an invention is only valued by the marketplace when customers use it or buy it.
For example, the technology behind flat-screen TVs was invented decades ago. The breakthrough innovation was the application of that technology to the public’s insatiable appetite for big-screen HDTV. That was the innovation.
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Business idea example … to meet a need
Innovation is a very different process than invention. When a need is identified and a product or service is developed to meet that need, you have innovation. People talk about the “invention” of the light bulb or the “invention” of the iPhone, when in fact neither Thomas Edison nor Steve Jobs was an inventor.
They both used existing technology in new ways with an eye toward a big market for the result. They were innovators.
When launching the first enterprise or growing an existing one, it is important for businesses to understand that an invention, no matter how inspired, will not be worth much if nobody wants to buy it.
For businesses looking for new growth centers, it is important to understand that brainstorming new product ideas is worth far less than identifying consumer wants and needs and developing products or services to meet them.
Our message for businesses is simple. Think more like an innovator. Learn the innovation process. Spend time at the front end on what the marketplace needs, rather than trying to build a slick marketing campaign selling your invention. That is the best way to success.
Innovation isn’t about talking, it’s about doing. The action. So get moving and begin your journey from accidental innovator to a high-performance innovation business leader.
The bottom line
Like anything else, fostering creative business ideas require practice. And distinguishing between creativity, invention, and innovation. So exercise and practice this skill and utilize it in as many areas of your business as you can.
Innovation is extremely essential to any organization, especially in today’s hyper-competitive business market. The successful exploitation of new ideas is critical to a business’s ability to improve its processes, bring new and improved products and services to the market, increase its overall efficiency and productivity, and, most importantly, improve its profitability.
What’s important to consider is that when a task is automated, it is also democratized and value shifts to another place. So, for example, e-commerce devalues the processing of transactions but increases the value of things like customer service, expertise, and resolving problems with orders, which is why we see all those smiling faces when we walk into an Apple Store.
That’s what we often forget about innovation. It’s essentially a very human endeavor and, to measure true progress, humans always need to be at the center.
