The Innovation Solution
While others talk about the known innovation problem, “The Innovation Solution” offers a well-researched, logical and holistic understanding of the innovation process. Author Praveen Gupta provides an easy-to-understand, powerful innovation framework. But more than that, he demonstrates that innovation skills can be taught and learned for pursuing one’s passion and growth. Here is an excerpt from the book:
Innovation has been a topic of discussion for over 25 years. In 1985, Peter Drucker published the seminal article on this subject, entitled “The Discipline of Innovation,” followed by a book, “Innovation and Entrepreneurship”, which led us in the direction of thinking in terms of the innovation process. Also around that time, Robert W. Weisberg, the author of “Creativity, Genius and other Myths”, said the time was right for somebody to develop a theory of creativity. Concurrently, the world’s largest economy — the United States — started experiencing serious global competition.
For executives, the key question remains what to innovate. A company normally innovates in its own domain expertise, unless its innovators come into contact and collaborate with experts in other fields. Most innovations will fall into the basic categories of human needs. The categories are safety, food, health, communication, productivity, entertainment, and comfort.
Once the opportunities are identified, analyzed, enhanced, and sifted through success filters, potential projects must be defined for new innovative product development. To prevent project delays, a company must deploy a process for innovation that in some way includes the following five steps: target, exploration, development, optimization and commercialization (TEDOC). The commercialization must be a distinct and required phase, as it is the divider between success and failure. TEDOC represents the key aspects of successful innovation that one must be aware of to develop skills and competency in innovating on demand for breakthrough solutions.
Most studies show that establishing a correlation between innovation and corporate performance is challenging. Even worse, surveys of CEOs find an adverse relationship between investment in innovation and corporate performance. Such existing situations and executive perceptions may be a contributing factor to the confusion concerning the topic of innovation, as well as for the lack of commitment to systematic innovation.
Linking the corporate strategy to profitable growth will lead to planning for innovation at all levels. Successful companies continually look at their innovations with annual 10- or 20-year outlooks in order to perpetuate the culture of innovation. Maintaining profitable growth through innovation will bring purpose to innovation activities.
About the Author
Praveen Gupta is a Director of Center for Innovation Science and Applications at IIT School of Applied Technology, and an Adjunct Industry Professor at Illinois Institute of Technology for teaching Innovation. He has also authored “Business Innovation in the 21st Century”, and is the founding Editor of International Journal of Innovation Science, and co-editor of Global Innovation Science Handbook (2013).
Innovation has been a topic of discussion for over 25 years. In 1985, Peter Drucker published the seminal article on this subject, entitled “The Discipline of Innovation,” followed by a book, “Innovation and Entrepreneurship”, which led us in the direction of thinking in terms of the innovation process. Also around that time, Robert W. Weisberg, the author of “Creativity, Genius and other Myths”, said the time was right for somebody to develop a theory of creativity. Concurrently, the world’s largest economy — the United States — started experiencing serious global competition.
For executives, the key question remains what to innovate. A company normally innovates in its own domain expertise, unless its innovators come into contact and collaborate with experts in other fields. Most innovations will fall into the basic categories of human needs. The categories are safety, food, health, communication, productivity, entertainment, and comfort.
Once the opportunities are identified, analyzed, enhanced, and sifted through success filters, potential projects must be defined for new innovative product development. To prevent project delays, a company must deploy a process for innovation that in some way includes the following five steps: target, exploration, development, optimization and commercialization (TEDOC). The commercialization must be a distinct and required phase, as it is the divider between success and failure. TEDOC represents the key aspects of successful innovation that one must be aware of to develop skills and competency in innovating on demand for breakthrough solutions.
Most studies show that establishing a correlation between innovation and corporate performance is challenging. Even worse, surveys of CEOs find an adverse relationship between investment in innovation and corporate performance. Such existing situations and executive perceptions may be a contributing factor to the confusion concerning the topic of innovation, as well as for the lack of commitment to systematic innovation.
Linking the corporate strategy to profitable growth will lead to planning for innovation at all levels. Successful companies continually look at their innovations with annual 10- or 20-year outlooks in order to perpetuate the culture of innovation. Maintaining profitable growth through innovation will bring purpose to innovation activities.
About the Author
Praveen Gupta is a Director of Center for Innovation Science and Applications at IIT School of Applied Technology, and an Adjunct Industry Professor at Illinois Institute of Technology for teaching Innovation. He has also authored “Business Innovation in the 21st Century”, and is the founding Editor of International Journal of Innovation Science, and co-editor of Global Innovation Science Handbook (2013).