Creativity and innovation addresses reality.

See a Case Study by Peter Sergeant in the Knowledge Base.

Making innovation a reality, become creative.

Creative innovation starts with an original idea or discovery. Any original concept, new or improved device, product, material, business model, process or service can be considered an innovation. The true test of whether an innovation can become a business success is when:

• It becomes accepted by the marketplace.
• A new business model or process improvement can lead to cost savings, efficiency gains, productivity improvements, or a competitive advantage.

To make innovation a reality, you must understand how to organise your business around innovation and get the best outcomes. Consider your strategic imperatives and how you can transform through people, processes, and structure.

The next step is identifying the technologies best suited to your unique circumstances. Then, using emerging technologies, look to improve productivity by reducing complexity and creating a more agile environment that enables business growth.

Work towards a clear piece of innovation for a new product or a new process. Recognise the need for change. If the existing product isn’t selling or the process is no longer working well and delivering the outcomes required.

Look at the various parts of a product or process that you think are outstanding and could be part of some great innovation. Your search for innovation can become a bit of a blur, and you are often stuck on what to do next. At this point, you need outside assistance, such as your family, colleagues, or a facilitator, to work through the concepts.

Determine the types of creative innovation you need.

• Creative innovation. Pull something new out of the box.
• Incremental innovations. Make small changes to a company’s existing technologies and business models.
• Breakthrough innovations. Make significant changes to the technology or business model, producing substantial growth.
• Radical innovations.  Combine technology and business model innovation to create significant new industry paradigms with exponential growth.
• Innovations that maintain the status quo.  It should be avoided.

Although breakthrough innovation is transformational, it’s often the build-up of incremental and continuous innovation around existing technologies and business models that can transform how your business functions.  You need to set up the organisation around innovation and establish appropriate processes and metrics to integrate it into the fabric of your culture.

Quotable quotes

“Every human has four endowments – self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom. The power to choose, to respond, to change”. Stephen Covey

“Successful innovation lies in the fun of achievement and the thrill of your creative efforts”. Peter Sergeant

“Successful people are always willing to help, and while travel shines the light on the many good ideas and opportunities everywhere, you must be the one to take action”. Peter Sergeant