Innovation vs Invention
- Invention is the process of discovering a principle which allows a technical advance in a particular field that results in a novel or new product
- Innovation is the business of putting an invention in the marketplace and making it a success.
Stages of Innovation
Development
- Developing an idea into a viable product.
Economic
- Thought is given to how the product can be manufactured in the most economical way.
Marketing
- Once the product is ready to launch, it must be promoted through marketing and sales.
Redesign
- To maintain its market position, the product will need to be re-designed in response to customer feedback and technological development.
Difficulties in Becoming an Innovation
- Investing in innovation is risk taking.
- There are different reasons why few invention become innovations.
Marketability and Need
- There may not be a market for the idea.
- It can be very difficult to undertake appropriate market research on a new product to establish whether there is a market.
- The market may be too small.
- The product may go out of fashion.
Financial Support
- There is little monetary backing from the organization or an outsider.
- The invention would need more sponsors to financially aid the product.
Marketing
- The product may not be marketed properly.
- Too little money may be invested in marketing.
- The product may not be appropriately targeted to a market segment.
Price
- The product may be priced too high.
- The product may not represent good value for money for customers.
- The product cannot be produced for a viable selling price.
Outlay
- Too expensive to get to production.
- Too long to achieve return on capital investment.
Resistance to Change
- People and organizations can be resistant and reluctant to change, feeling comfort and security in the familiar thus resist new ideas and products.
Risk
- The risk of entering the market with the product might be too risky compared to the possible reward.
Categories of Innovation
Sustaining Innovation
- A new or improved product that meets the needs of consumers and sustains manufacturers.
- An evolution of an existing good or service.
- Does not change the market. Redevelopment of an existing product is common due to the fact that market demand has already been established.
Example
- For example continued versions of the iPhone, they all have unique features but are all improvements of the previous. The manufacturers that make iPhones and other firms do not have to change their production and marketing strategy.
Disruptive Innovation
- A product or type of technology that challenges existing companies to ignore or embrace technical change.
- Creates new markets. Can disrupt an existing market. Usually results in the displacement of an older technology. Improves a product or service in a way that the market does not expect.
Example
- The iPod greatly disrupted the market, forcing companies that once sold cassette players to change to adapt. It was an unexpected change that led to new markets and the replacement of older technology.
Process Innovation
- An improvement in the organization and/or method of manufacture that often leads to reduced costs or benefits to consumers.
- Creating a better/more efficient way of creating a product, such as reducing waste, cost or increase productivity.
Example
- For example the robotic arms have improved the automobile industry due to making the construction process far quicker and cheaper due to not having to pay as many workers.
Innovation Strategies for Design
Architectural Innovation
- The technology of the components stays the same but the configuration of the components is changed to produce a new design.
- Putting existing components together in novel ways.
- Innovation through improvements in organization.
Modular Innovation
- The basic configuration stays the same, but one or more key components are changed.
- Making one or more existing components better through technological innovation.
Configurational Innovation
- A change is made in both technology and organization.
- Putting existing components together in novel ways and making one or more existing components better.
- A combination of improvements in organization and technology.
Innovation Strategies for Markets
Suppression
- A process where a new idea is actively slowed within a company.
- Adoption of a new product by the market is actively slowed.
This may be due to difficulties:
- competing with a dominant design
- ambiguity over patent ownership
- competing companies actively petitioning against a new product it perceives as threatening
- or the natural resistance to an unfamiliar concept.
Suppression Strategies
- Other companies/people use their power and influence to make it difficult for the new product to succeed.
- An organization that limit access to clients/ customers and therefore prevent understanding user and customer needs.
- Leaders/ managers who do not want to or know how to recognise innovation.
- Companies who do not allow rapid prototyping of ideas.
- Shooting ideas down before they can be explained in the idea generation stage.
- Looking for group consensus without proper explanation of the ideas potential and background.
- Over-complicated submission procedures to initiate new ideas.
Diffusion
- The wide acceptance and sales of a product.
- As an innovation becomes accepted by an increasing number of individual and organizational users it goes through the process of diffusion. Which is the process of adoption of an innovation over time from limited use to widespread use in the market.
Diffusion Strategies
- Product launches and effective marketing, are important strategies to try and achieve initial diffusion.
Key to Success
- Designers will be successful in the marketplace when they solve long-standing problems, improve on existing solutions or find a “product gap”.
- The constant evaluation and redevelopment of products is key, with unbiased analysis of consumers and commercial opportunities.
- In order for an invention to become an innovation, the idea of the product needs to be effectively communicated. The communication can take many forms and be between many stakeholders.