What is an innovation?

We can define innovation as a new way of doing something or "new stuff that is made useful". With innovation we aim to achieve positive change, to make something better. In business it means that innovations lead to an increase in productivity. Companies that fail to innovate, fail to exist.

Innovation vs. invention

There is a big difference between an innovation and an invention but they are strongly connected. Invention is spending cash in order to generate ideas. Innovation means making cash from ideas. We all know Thomas Edison and his light bulb. Thomas was an innovator because he made money from his ideas. On the other hand Nikola Tesla was an inventor. Tesla spent money to create his inventions but was unable to turn them in cash.
The inventor produces ideas; the innovator applies them. Business needs both of them under one roof.

Are innovations important?

Yes, they are. In the short term, neglecting innovations looks natural. Business runs smoothly, customers are happy, cash pours in. But in the long term, failure to innovate is a dead end and your business will probably get absorbed. All this can happen if you leave innovations up to the luck in your business. The results are exterminating:

• You don't generate new useful ideas that make/save money for you or your organization.
• You don't have a quality innovation program or process to select and refine the right ideas to move forward.
• You don't use the best practices to develop and present your ideas so they stick internally and with your customers.

How to increase the number of innovations?

To be innovative, an organization needs to set an innovation process with all what it takes to manage a process, i.e. strategy, idea generation, idea evaluation, KPIĺs monitoringů Even a process for failure is necessary. Based on innovation evaluation we know that 60 to 90% of innovation fails. Without managing failure, each innovation failure can be the last one.
Having the process set up, next step is growing your people because people generate innovations. You need to motivate and educate them.

What can be achieved with innovations?

Innovation can bring unthinkable changes to your/an organization which if not managed can be negative, e.g. investment in inventions and failure to turn them into innovation. In most cases innovation can bring:

• Creation of new markets
• Improvement of the quality
• New product launching
• Cost savings
• Process improvement
• Improved environment

Why organizations fail to innovate?

Innovations are not easy to achieve. In times of failure a strong leadership is the key to success. Innovations need to be well organised. Common causes of failures across the organizations are:

• Poor leadership
• Lack of communication
• Lack of goal
• No alignment of actions to goals
• Low activation in teams
• No monitoring of results