Ideas are about potential. Innovations are about results.
by Andre Laurin
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Innovation is a process that spawns newness in the forms of products, services, efficiencies and a host of other improvements; but the process also creates instances for opportunities. As a process, rigor is essential for proper functioning and flexibility vital for sustainability. The latter is key, as the process itself requires periodic improvement and demands alternate courses of action; sometimes, that kind of change can even lead you onto a completely different track.
To use a contemporary success story as an example, let’s walk through an abridged journey of Steve Jobs’ career:
- Apple (Round 1): Apple l / Apple ll / Apple lll / Lisa / Mac
- NeXT
- Pixar
- Apple (Round 2): iPod, iPhone, iTunes, AppStore, iPad
Each milestone lead to another – without his first gig at Apple SJ could not have created NeXT. His involvement at NeXT (which never enjoyed the commercial success of Apple) introduced him to animation which enabled the step-up to Pixar. And from his experience at Pixar came the impetus for media-rich applications and devices for his second tenure at Apple. Even though the businesses varied, revenue models differed and some endeavors were even flops (Lisa, NeXT), the thread of innovation not only remained a constant, the process itself lead to opportunities that one could not have imagined unless having gone through the process itself. As the a well-quoted idiom reminds us: it’s not the destination but rather the journey.