Misunderstanding innovation

Just because something is new doesn’t mean it should be touted as an innovation.

What’s an innovation and what isn’t?

Normally, people believe that just because they’ve never seen or heard about something that it’s new, and therefore innovative. In their heads, because it’s new, it also means that it will succeed. Of course, it doesn’t work out that way. It is this type of misunderstanding, and others such as innovation only being about technology, that creates all types of headaches for those of us who help others innovate…

Innovation is a buzzword, but to some of us who use the word know that it holds value. We can tell you what is and isn’t an innovation. More than anything, we can tell you what isn’t: a new color, a change in your fonts, a new flavor, more horsepower, more processor speed, bigger screen, more pixels, etc.

Last year there was article on the WSJ where the parent company of Pop-Tarts laid claim that they had innovated because they had created a new flavor of Pop-Tarts. And now, Domino’s Pizza claims that one of its new products is innovative: breaded chicken crust.

These are examples of something new being mistaken for an innovation…

So, how do we distinguish new from innovation?…