Innovation...thought provoking, inspiring, refreshing, yet overloaded and at times abused term…I have been working with innovation for some time and it is close to my heart and soul, in fact, my official business title bares the term “innovation” somewhere in the business card.

So, what is innovation? in simple terms: a new way of doing something; it could refer to organisational, societal, procedural changes in thinking, products, processes, etc. But, I am mostly focused and interested in technology innovation or technological innovations.

I see technology innovation as a means to an end. It is an enabler for new business models, it creates new revenue streams or extend existing ones, improves a situation and responds to a latent need. Innovation at a large scale, for example, in large enterprises takes time and needs careful consideration of a variety of factors. This is the kind of innovation I am interested in.  

It is important to note that technology innovation at a young, energetic start up, follows a different path to maturity, an evolutionary one. Due to the nature of business in these early incubators, technology innovation has more room to flourish but at the same time it is likely that lacks a clear long term plan of sustainability.  

On the other hand, technology innovation at a large enterprise has to respect cultural dynamics within the organisation: for example: Is there a clear view and endorsement from the top that supports and cultivates a culture for innovation? Is there passion from the innovators? Does it link to current business models or provides an insight of the newly emerged business models? Is there a “burning platform” for innovation, in other words, a real and acknowledged need for technology innovation? 

Finding answers to these questions is not easy and at times not attainable. But they are important supporting data indicators that ensure a smooth path from technological innovation to new products and solutions that offer a distinctive advantage for the enterprise that will follow the innovation path.  

Customer interaction in the technology innovation lifecycle is a necessity. The customer can provide the proofing needed, can give insights on how a particular technology innovation would change things for the better and act as a test bed for perfecting the solution. From the innovator's point of view, customer-driven innovation is a cost effective approach, as R&D budgets are ever so tight these days and blue sky research is limited. A direct link to a current and burning need is a prerequisite for a successful transformation of an R&D artefact to a fully fledged commercial product or solution that disrupts current status quo and accommodates latent needs.