YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED: WHAT BEST DESCRIBES INNOVATION?

Innovation is best described as the process of introducing new ideas, devices, methods or processes that create value in the real world. The concept solves problems, improves efficiency, enhances experiences or adds beauty and meaning. It is not innovation unless the novel solutions actually get implemented for tangible results that matter.

At the highest level, innovation is about identifying unmet human needs and creating new solutions for them. In a business context, those human needs show up as customer pain points or desires not adequately addressed by current options. The practice is focused on developing new offerings that eliminate frustrations while delighting people because their lives are genuinely improved in some way.

Great innovators have deep empathy for customer problems and imagination to conceive solutions not currently present. They have perseverance to turn initial ideas into prototypes, then viable products or services that successfully make it to market and get adopted. Innovation is not flash-in-the-pan ideas but rather creative problem solving combined with excellent execution from start to finish.

The best innovations provide unexpected yet delightful solutions that create completely new product categories or ways of doing things. Post-it notes, mobile phones, online shopping with one-click checkout and ride sharing services are good examples. These breakthroughs redefined what was possible for whole industries and re-shaped consumer behavior with their usefulness and appeal.

While radical innovations completely disrupt accepted beliefs, incremental innovations provide value through gradual, ongoing improvements in line with market evolution. Think more memory and better screens on new smartphone models each year. Both radical and incremental innovations can sustain organizations.

A key test for innovation is whether it makes something truly simpler, faster, more beautiful, longer-lasting or creates net new value some other way for customers. If an innovation does not ultimately crack some code of unmet needs to bring people tangible benefits, it falls short of being that special mix of invention + execution that moves organizations and societies forward.

At its essence then, innovation is all about fresh, pragmatic and valuable problem solving that allows human beings to do things they truly want and need to do but could not do previously. When this happens, innovation fulfills its highest purpose.