We often use the words "creativity" and "innovation" interchangeably, however, creativity is about coming up with ideas while innovation is about "bringing ideas to life." While individuals may display creativity, innovation occurs in the organisational context only, by bringing creative ideas to life.
Innovation is linked to performance and growth through improvements in efficiency, productivity, quality, competitive positioning and market share. It typically adds value by changing old organisational forms and practices. Organisations that do not innovate effectively may be destroyed by those who do.
A 2007 Booz Allen study illustrated that the one key characteristic of successful innovators is that they had a rigorous process for managing innovation including "a disciplined, stage-by-stage approval process combined with regular measurements of every critical factor, from time and money spent.to the success of new products and services in the market."
From Booz Allen's study, it is very clear that innovation does not often happen by accident, it is a planned and well defined deliberate process. However, with this said, there still remains two challenges when it comes innovation. 1- most organisations do not have suitable key indicators that may be used to measure innovation. 2 - No strategic approach to innovation.
More often, innovation is seen as an add on, and not a key driver in most businesses. Without a proper strategy and key indicators that would measure innovation success, it is almost impossible to view innovation as a key function and tool to the business.
For innovation to be a priority in bussiness, it needs to be treated as such, only then will the results of innovation come. Organisational leaders need to champion the cause when it comes to innovation. That way, all organisational members will feel the freedom and need to come up with more creative ideas that may be translated into innovation.
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