WHAT IS INNOVATION?
Given the increasing complexity and sophistication of the markets, a company must know how to better coordinate all its processes, as well as its internal dynamics, in order to launch its proposals, analyzing the timings and risks of new projects quite well, as well as the peculiarities of the sector in which it is located. This is how the need arises to germinate strategic actions or meanings that determine the success of the organization and that it also remains in time.
It is then, when Innovation and Creativity become one of the most important decisions in the current panorama of global competition and apparently a duality that makes the difference between success and failure. Main theme addressed by Ms. Alfons Cornella president and founder of Infonomía (intelligent information management), in her book ¿Qué es innovar?
"Ideas x value = results" from the perspective of business creativity and innovation, under the editorial signature 3J editores in its first edition, published in Bogotá Colombia and Barcelona in 2013.
It has been considered irresistibly appropriate to be analyzed from the methodology known as book review, with the intention of offering a critical review of the ideas developed by the author, recognizing the study itself, which allows consolidating existing information and giving a clear and updated answer on the subject, from the one found in it, to trying to know the trend of new research in business matters. In short, examine the reading and place it in a certain perspective in an attempt to synthesize the results to suggest ideas and offer a theoretical contribution.
Alfons Cornella, in his eagerness to constantly reinvent himself and explore new terrain, opts for the format of drawings plus short texts, to explain his vision of the new dynamic of innovation in organizations in a clear, direct and visual way. In a general overview, this written production shows an emphasis on understanding the meaning of innovation, from the incontrovertible formula on how innovation works, based on the ideas-value-results trinomial. Where the generation of ideas requires a certain methodology when exploring the market, both in an immediate environment and on a global scale.
At the same time, involves a thorough analysis of an idea, depending on the value it brings to a certain niche, large or small, namely managing the curve of investment / results: how are time investing in innovation and how much you need time to recover investment. That is, a synthesis of what is known today about how the best companies in the world innovate; For this he ordered academic articles, success stories, examples of companies, which say today about why to innovate, where to innovate, how to innovate, and with what team.
All this presented in ten main sources of ideas to innovate, used by the most innovative organizations. 1 / Solving problems. 2 / Detecting sociological and technological opportunities. 3 / Analyzing the competition. 4 / Explore the banks of the business. 5 / Open innovation. 6 / Collaboration or co-creation 7 / Internal innovation. 8 / Buying or renting innovation. 9 / Hybridize and finally 10 / Guide the entire company towards innovation.
For this reason, I consider that the author Alfons Cornella, without a doubt, shows a proposal worthy of being valued and considered as avant-garde in business innovation, exhibiting professional criteria in each fragment, from an undoubtedly reasonable narrative because it springs from the own experience, reflecting clear and concise authority in your proposal, as well as firmness in the conclusions presented; without a doubt a simple and illustrative story, as well as congruent, since it is not easy to talk about innovation and at the same time offer an “ innovative proposal”, That like every intention has its weaknesses and strengths. This is how the true intention of this book review is born.
This book starts from the need to understand and understand how the innovation formula works, "what is innovation", this based on the ideas / value / results trinomial. Where innovation "consists of generating ideas that are convertible into a product or service that supposes a value for customers, so that economic results are achieved over time", a definition supported according to the author, by the declaration of a group of experts including Microsoft CEO and Steve Ballmernoting that "innovation is the design, invention, development and / or implementation of products, services, processes, systems, organizational structures, or business models, new or modified, with the purpose of creating a new value for consumers and a return financial for the company ”
This author suspiciously and quite practically does not immerse himself in two great acts that have revolutionized, if you can say man, society and finally the world, the creative act and the innovative act. However, it is quite curious how it manages to detach both concepts from their qualitative nature (being) by considering them in my case, spontaneous actions of the human being, to understand and show them from the quantitative possibility (to do), where the value does not lie in the idea itself, but rather in the result or results (benefits) that it can generate and that also has a durability over time.
In this sense, I consider it appropriate to ask myself : is innovation an individual or collective act? At the same time , will innovation be a manufacturing act? Cornella's proposal shows this meaning as a matter of formulas or of mathematical reasoning without wanting to go too far in this regard, which leads one to suppose that innovation is not necessarily a matter of inspiration and spontaneity, and the intention to massify an act is also appreciated. intuitive or better said intangible, I even believe it breaks with the conception that has been held, that the ideas that revolutionize the world are not manufactured, these appear at the least expected moment. However, it would not be a bad idea to “hatch ideas”, although it should be taken into account how good the idea could be when it hatches when it arises spontaneously.
In this case, that original idea that is truly interesting and innovative, should not be considered as such, if it does not generate the result that the company seeks or if its impact is not lasting over time or worse still if it does not generate value for the people? It is not an easy matter, trying to delimit the epistemological sense of innovation, considering this meaning an element that is intrinsically related to creativity. However, I consider that an idea provided from the natural spontaneous act of the human being, which points to a different and interesting perspective on a certain subject, that is, a novelty or discovery, is an innovative act.
Innovation should not be a recipe, it would lose the identity value of originality, innovation, at least from my point of view, innovation is itself a sensitive process, which is accompanied by biopsychosocial factors , emotions, dreams, strength, feelings identification and inspiration. Therefore it is an arduous task to mass produce it. In this trinomial as a proposal according to the author, it has the need to be guided by the existence of a leadership, which leads us to think that if this did not exist, the innovative act would not take place? Perhaps one more example that innovation should be conceived as a product and or as a one-off act.
This is how Cornella starting from his premise, points out that there are ten sources to generate ideas, as mentioned at the beginning of this book review in the brief description of the book. The first source to get ideas according to Alfons Cornella's innovation studies is solving problems, it is based on observing the context to understand what are the problems that affect people and wondering how a solution that provides value can be given whereby they may end up being a customer. Without a doubt, it can be a great force that would motivate the search for ideas that point to innovation, because it would achieve a transcendent impact on the various problems that affect society.
Given this, it is worth asking what happens when what I consider innovation to solve a problem generates other problems in itself? As it is seen today with more sophisticated inventions, which improve the process and make it more automatic, they often have a great negative impact on the environment or even on the users themselves. A clear example is the creation of the flash drives solved the problem of buying CDs in quantity, only now, it has generated a problem for the vast majority of users, losing almost all the information when they are infested by malware.
For this reason, does innovation necessarily have to be aimed at solving a problem? The fact that an invention with a form and background different from that already conceived does not solve a problem, but is rather a contribution to the range of products or services, right ? is it innovation? Of course, this does not mean that it is not valid, you are right to impregnate the notion of utility with what is innovative.
The second source mentioned is the detection of sociological opportunities, in this case the observation lies in the new needs generated by the recent changes that occur in the environment. These opportunities that can be converted into new market proposals are basically mass production. It is then possible to ask how far is the intention of the innovation? cover all kinds of needs, without skimping on the impact or the result they may have. This conception of mass innovation would have to be broadly responsible for what is brought to the market. Changes in the environment do not always generate truly human needsor beneficial for the human being. Just as the author points out that innovation without results are only occurrences or inventions, then it would be valid to say
"Innovation without responsibility is not innovation".
Then the author presents a third source Analyzing the competition, the purpose of this aspect, is to observe what the competition is doing to try to improve it, but analyzing the reasons for customer dissatisfaction located at the extremes of their offer. In terms of what is now known as competitive intelligence (CI), this option to generate ideas, surely must have a great result, of course if the idea were to generate ideas, but the question would be to ask: doing something from what others have already done (perhaps the true innovative idea), would it really be innovation? Is the fact that a storage device improves its size and color, is it being innovative, or who came up with the idea of creating USB sticks?
Also, the following source appears in the reading Exploring the banks of the business, the author summarizes it in a really relevant question : what do you know how to do well? Because it does not matter what is done today, but what will be done in the near future. A way of thinking about the versatility that the innovative idea can have. However, using innovation in different ways or for different purposes, believing that each of its uses could be called mass innovation, the idea was one and innovation also, that it has different applications is part of the true sense of the innovation.
The number five open innovation source creates methodologies to capture ideas from outside the organization. The idea is quite logical, since it is precisely the users, who end up using the product or service, who more than them to propose ideas. This in the case of products or services, however, when it comes to processes, the intention is that there be a minimal relationship between the person who contributes the idea and the need for the organization, thus existing consistent action.
In the same order of ideas, the sixth source appears Collaboration or co-creation reaching collaboration agreements with other companies, whether or not in the sector, to innovate with products or services that could not be launched in any other way. A way to join forces to achieve a great achievement; It is the synergy that every intelligent organization should do, although in the field of innovation, merging ideas is a somewhat complex task, trying to make the product or service benefit both companies would condition the innovative act and perhaps cease to be really creative.
In the same way, the seventh source Internal innovation is shown in this book, creating the appropriate methodologies and mechanisms to take advantage of the ideas and contributions of all company employees. A great proposal, because it is these who live each process, and many times the great innovative ideas, have emerged from the least thought. It is important that, as the company grows, it is essential to delegate responsibilities and encourage employees' own initiative. As long as the value of your innovation is recognized.
A following source and which I consider is not aligned to the innovative and creative process that has been mentioned. Buying or renting innovation, the author points out that there are countless companies that have already bet with great success on outsourcing a large part of their production processes. I wonder, is the innovation in the idea of renting or buying innovation or in knowing that I am not being innovative because I am buying it from who really innovates?
Likewise, the ninth Hybrid source appears, consisting of the action of creating new "innovative" products and services from existing ones. In this sense, there are clear things in this formula, it is a Hybridization process but not precisely of innovation or at least that's what I consider. Maybe only one of the formulas where is much more simple "innovation" combining solutions already operating on the market that conceiving from scratch or radically innovating (the eureka).
Finally, Alfons Cornella proposes a last source or guideline in the production of innovative ideas. Orienting the entire company towards innovation currently, companies should only be conceived from and for innovation, according to the author. The entire organization must be oriented to innovation management, since the day-to-day management of the organization must be innovative management. Without a doubt, when you want to innovate within an organization, all of this must work to achieve it by propitiating the necessary scenarios so that the innovative act is successfully achieved, keeping in mind that innovation must not be pressured or forcedIn this case, there is no doubt that it would cease to be a truly creative act. It must be especially tolerant, the fact that the entire organization is ready for innovation and this innovate.
Although it is proposed to think about producing an idea and if it is achieved, no matter how many conditions it has, it does not stop being naturally spontaneous, perhaps all these factors facilitate the process, such as when practicing a sport the further we go we have a better chance of handling it fully. In summary, the author wanted to show that ideas not only arise
in the shower or when you are sleeping but you can also search, get and build yourself. In addition to highlighting that the only way to have good ideas is to have many ideas, which allows us to consider this book globally as a very interesting proposal, impossible not to want to read it, therefore I highly recommend it and I recommend having it in your personal library.
Lastly, today's companies have to organize their entire operational structure, starting with the same general direction with a model based on responsible innovation and considering it one of the key tools in the field of competitiveness. Being able to exploit its current business model for a long time. It seems that we can no longer conceive of innovation as a one-off act but as a constant demand from the market. A society where demands are increasingly complex, customers are more sophisticated and fragmented, and competition is measured on a global scale, generating shorter and shorter cycles to launch new products or services.
This means that if a company cannot innovate at the pace of the market, it will cease to be competitive and therefore could fail.
So it's about innovating or dying.
Here are three videos with resources from Alfons Cornella. A presentation on Co-innovation and business development, an interview on Reimagining work and another conference on How to innovate in the digital economy.
If you want to know more about this author, visit his personal page http://alfonscornella.com/ or his company page
If you want to download this book you can do it at
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