The Nature of Innovation - Part I
Innovation is change. Most people think of innovation in terms of breakthrough, revolutionary new products and technologies - the things that change the way we live and work. But innovation is more comprehensive - it takes innovation to improve as well as create. Think of innovation in two broad categories:
- Doing things better (evolutionary change) - making things more efficient and/or effective, making general improvements, eliminating unneeded things
- Doing things differently (revolutionary change) - copying and adapting technologies/practices across industry, doing things no one else is doing, making the impossible possible.
Thinking of innovation in this fashion, consider now how innovation ‘flows’ from novelty to ubiquity.
1. Someone creates a new technology, or transfers technology in a novel way (doing what no one else is doing, doing the impossible)
2. Others copy the technology directly or adapt it to new uses (copy/adapt)
3. Over time, others improve it (make it more effective, more efficient, integrate with other existing technologies, eliminate now needless aspects)
A great example of this is inkjet printing, which is currently in all phases of change. In the late 80s, inkjet printing was a novel new technology that provided color printing far cheaper than other technologies like thermal dye and laser. It has become better and cheaper over the years, to the point that the printers are offered ‘free’ with new PC purchases. It’s made more expensive technologies obsolete, and forced others to become cheaper. At the same time, the technology has transistioned to other applications like biotech (inkjet printing DNA/tissue to make biosensors and new organs), rapid prototyping (inkjet printing resin to produce 3-D models), consumer electronics (inkjet printing organic LEDs to produce the next generation of lower cost HDTVs), and even building construction (giant printers that construct buildings by ‘printing’ concrete foundations and walls). In each one of these transfer areas, the technology will be improved to make it cheaper and more effective over time.
Coming up: The relationship between the two categories of innovation and individual creative styles.
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[...] of Innovation Part II - Creative Styles In my first post I discussed the two different broad categories of innovative change - doing things better [...]