Introduction to Innovation

Overview

On this page, we will discuss:

What Is Innovation?

Before we dig deep into the concept of workplace innovation and how it will support your co-op experience, let's make sure we have a common understanding of what we mean by innovation. To do so, we can refer to the following multidisciplinary definition of innovation.

Definition of Innovation

"Innovation is the multi-stage process whereby organizations transform ideas into new/improved products, service, or processes, in order to advance, compete, and differentiate themselves successfully in their marketplace" (Baregheh et al., 2009, p. 1334).

This definition highlights many key aspects of innovation as depicted in the figure below.

Attributes of the innovation process are highlighted through 6 interconnected bubbles: Stages (which include creation, generation, implementation, development, and adoption); Social (which include organizations, firms, customers, social systems, employees, and developers); Means (which include technology, ideas, inventions, creativity, and market); Aim (which include succeed, differentiate, compete); Types (which include produce, process, process, technical); and Nature (which include new, improve, change).

Let's consider a few key points from the above diagram about organizational innovation:

  1. Something that is new is not considered to be an innovation, unless it creates value and is successful.
  2. There are various sources of innovation, such as technology or markets.
  3. Different stakeholders can be involved in innovation, such as customers, employees, or developers.
  4. There is a multistage process to innovation.
  5. There are various types of innovation.

If you are curious to learn more about these key aspects of innovation, read the article Towards a Multi-disciplinary Definition of Innovation Links to an external site. (Baregheh, Rowley, & Sambrook, 2009).

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Now think of a recent innovation that stands out for you, perhaps one that has impacted your lifestyle. Can you highlight where it stands with regards to some of the identified attributes of innovation (e.g., the degree of change that it introduced, what type of innovation it was, its purpose and so on.)

Examples of Innovation

The importance of innovation lies in the role it plays in enabling new ways for organizations to reach their goals. Companies can lose their competitive advantage if they fail to innovate, and public sector or community organizations can use innovation to extend their impact on the people they serve.

Here are some examples of the Top 11 Innovations of the Past Decade Links to an external site. as complied by LinkedIn (Loganathan, 2019):

  1. Uber
  2. Pokemon Go
  3. TikTok
  4. iPad
  5. Crispr
  6. SpaceX's Reusable Rocket
  7. AI, GANs, AR, VR, and Chatbots
  8. Amazon Echo and Alexa
  9. The New Age of Video Streaming
  10. 3D Printing
  11. Lab-Grown Meat

Social Innovation: A Different Measure of Success

Beyond organizational innovation, another example of innovation that can lead to improvements or changes to various groups, people, and the environment is social innovation, which leads to social change.

The purpose of social innovation does not lie in gaining market share or earning competitive advantage. Rather, its purpose is to find solutions in response to environmental or social needs, like those outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Links to an external site. we explored in PD3 and PD4. If you would like to learn more, refer to the following two videos: Indigenous Climate Action: Community-based Solutions Rooted in Decolonization Links to an external site. and What Is Social Innovation? Links to an external site.

"But Is It Innovation?"

Illustration with text: "Novelty + Success = Innovation" and a set of chopsticks (as an example of a successful innovation)

Innovation has become a buzzword and is thrown into many conversations, promotions, and/or programs to add an edge to the offering. As such, you often find individuals have different viewpoints of innovation and what one considers an innovation, another might not.

As long as it is novel to the organization and it is successful, it can be termed an innovation.

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Identify the top innovations within the past decade that have most impacted your life. How did these innovations combine novelty and success to affect your life?

The 4Ps (Types of Innovation)

An innovation can be categorized by its outcome.

Usually when considering innovations, product and technological innovations come to mind. Recently, technological innovations in particular are rapidly changing the way we do things. Nevertheless, there are other types of innovation, including: service innovations, process innovations, market innovations, and administrative innovations.

Note that most often a product innovation introduces significant changes to the organizational process, or a process change could lead to a product change, what we refer to as integration between types of innovation (Baregheh et al., 2014). Each type of innovation could then be incremental, radical, or somewhere in between, in terms of the degree of change it introduces.

A comprehensive typology of innovations by Bessant and Tidd (2007) is the 4Ps of innovation, which views innovation strategically from the perspective of the change that takes place as a result of the innovation. On this basis, Bessant and Tidd (2007, p. 13) propose the following four categories of innovation Links to an external site.: Product, Process, Position, and Paradigm.

Illustration showing a black circle "4 P's of Innovation" in the middle of the image. There are four branches going out from this circle: Product, Process, Position and Paradigm. They are explained in the table below this image.

Examples of the 4Ps

Let's explore a few examples of each of the four categories of innovation (adapted from Bessant and Tidd, 2007):

Table: Examples of Four Categories of Innovation
Type of Innovation What does it change? Examples
Product What products or services an organization offers
  • LED lighting to replace incandescent lights
  • CDs replacing vinyl records
  • Music streaming replacing CDs
  • Hybrid and electric cars
Process How products or services are created and delivered
  • Online shopping
  • Food delivery through apps like DoorDash and Skip
  • Mobile banking
  • Improved factory operations efficiency
Position Context in which products or services are introduced
Paradigm Underlying mental models which frame what the organization does

OPTIONAL Video: Exploring Innovation Space

If you are curious to learn more, refer to the video Exploring Innovation Space Links to an external site. presented by Professor John Bessant.

⏰ Video Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction
2:04 - Exploring innovation space
6:19 - Radical process innovation
10:13 - Position innovation
16:05 - Paradigm innovators

Video player icon with the words "embed video here".

This external video does not have captions. Download the transcript (PDF Download PDF | DOC Download DOC).

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There are many other innovative companies in Canada.

Hopper Links to an external site., a Montreal based booking platform, is an example of innovation at its best. They have used Artificial Intelligence and big data to identify the best booking times for users. In doing so, they are adopting existing technologies to find a solution to a common problem that budget travelers face: when is the right time to book a flight to get the best deals?

What would be an example of an innovative company that has impacted you or has impressed you the most? Perhaps this is the company you would like to work at; if so, think about why this is the case and what type of innovation they have adopted.

References

Baregheh, A., Rowley, J., & Sambrook, S. (2009). Towards a multidisciplinary definition of innovation. Management Decision, 47(8), 1323-1339. https://www.doi.org/10.1108/00251740910984578 Links to an external site.

Bessant, J. [john6mistral]. (2018, March 12). Exploring innovation space [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRxAIiN-KbI

Bessant, J., & Tidd, J. (2007). Innovation and entrepreneurship. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

Loganathan, K. (2019, December 23). Top 11 innovations of the past decade. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-11-innovations-decade-kulathendral-l/ Links to an external site.