First Steps Consulting – Startup Strategy  

Innovation can often be considered one of those overused words.  It smacks of general goodness like “empowerment” or “collaboration”.  Just about every professional in every arena that I am aware of would describe themselves as innovative or would aspire to being innovative. 

While we have a passion for innovation at First Steps Consulting, I believe that no one has a lock on the appropriate definition of innovation but rather it is a moving target.  By nature, as soon as you have a lock on the definition of innovative, someone will come along and innovate your definition.  For this reason, I am not going to try to define innovation, but will simply share some of the best attempts at definition and descriptions that I have come across.   

The Wikipedia’s Classic Definitions:

The classic definitions of innovation include:

1. the process of making improvements by introducing something new
2. the act of introducing something new: something newly introduced (The American Heritage Dictionary).
3. the process of translating new ideas into tangible societal impact (Krisztina Holly, Vice Provost, University of Southern California, and Executive Director of USC Stevens Institute for Innovation)
4. the introduction of something new. (Merriam-Webster Online)
5. a new idea, method or device. (Merriam-Webster Online)
6. the successful exploitation of new ideas (Department of Trade and Industry, UK).
7. change that creates a new dimension of performance Peter Drucker (Hesselbein, 2002)
8. A creative idea that is realized [(Frans Johansson)] (Harvard Business School Press, 2004)
9. “The capability of continuously realizing a desired future state” ([John Kao, The Innovation Manifesto, 2005])
10. “The staging of value and/or the conservation of value.” (Daniel Montano 2006.)^[1]

The Guy Kawasaki Definition: “By definition, if you don’t change the rules, you aren’t a revolutionary, and if you don’t think different, you won’t change the rules.”

Peter Drucker: ‘Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship.  The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.”

The Steve Jobs Definition: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

The Machiavelian Definition: “He who innovates will have for his enemies all those who are well off under the existing order of things, and only lukewarm supporters in those who might be better off under the new.” – Niccolo Machiaveli,  The Prince

The Biological Definition (Biomimicry): too cool to explain in a definition, check out this link:  http://www.biomimicryinstitute.org/

I will continue to add more alternative perspectives as I come across them.