Book Summary Preview : The Seeds of Innovation

The Big Idea
There is a need for organizations to become more innovative as markets become more dynamic and competitive. It is important to realize though that there is more to innovation than simply coming up with a new and unique idea.

Author Elaine Dundon explains that there are several components in fostering innovation in a corporation — Creative Thinking, Strategic Thinking, and Transformational Thinking. By planting the seeds of innovation, any organization can become an innovative organization just by using a Nine-Step Innovation Process.

Introduction to Innovation Management

The Need for Innovation

The world is constantly changing. The need for innovation is increasing as change prompts organizations and companies to provide better solutions to the evolving world.

Innovation is composed of four components — creativity, strategy, implementation, and profitability. It gives companies the competitive advantage, attracts shareholders and employees, and retains current employees. Innovation is defined as "the profitable implementation of strategic creativity".

Three Types of Innovation

1. Efficiency Innovation — Efficiency innovation focuses on identifying new ways to improve the current system (e.g. cost-cutting, total quality management, redefining the distribution system, etc).


2. Evolutionary Innovation — Evolutionary innovation identifies distinctly new and better ways to bring value to an organization. Unlike Efficiency Innovation, Evolutionary Innovation focuses on looking at the bigger picture and finding new ways to reach out to their market or improve their products and services.


3. Revolutionary Innovation — Revolutionary Innovation involves the introduction of radical new ideas that not only affect the organization, but the entire marketplace as well. More often than not, Revolutionary Innovation produces benchmarks in the industry.

The Seeds of Innovation

1. Creative Thinking — focuses on the discovery of new ideas as well as connections to these new ideas.


2. Strategic Thinking — strengthens the creative idea by adding value to the idea.


3. Transformational Thinking — takes on the implementation of the idea, from easing the extraordinary into the organization to taking action.

The Nine Step Innovation Process

The author has mapped out nine important steps in bringing innovation into any organization. There are three key stages in the process:

1. Understanding
A problem that is clearly defined and understood is a problem half-solved. It is important for organizations to understand needs and to identify possible solutions before taking action. The steps in this stage are:

1. Gathering information.
2. Clarifying the Real Problem.
3. Setting Innovation Goalposts.


2. Imagination
Imagination prods the organization to gather inspiration, see the bigger picture, and make new connections to familiar ideas. There are three steps in the imagination process:

4. Seeking Stimuli.
5. Uncovering Insights.
6. Identifying Ideas.


3. Action
After ideas have been identified and strategically aligned to address the problem, action turns these ideas into full business concepts and plans. The final steps are:

7. Developing the Innovation Roadmap.
8. Gaining Commitment.
9. Implementing the Innovation Roadmap.

The Seeds of Creative Thinking

Believe in Creativity

In order for creativity to flourish in any environment, one must believe that creativity exists in everyone. It is a common misconception that only those who have the talent to express themselves creatively (e.g. artists, painters, and writers) are creative.

It is important to realize that everybody is creative in their own way. For a person to be fully creative he must be able to exercise creativity skills such as being able to challenge the norm, thinking out of the box, or doing something new every week.

Lastly, in order to believe in creativity, one must learn to accept failure. Failure is an opportunity to discover how things can be improved and to find more creative solutions and pathways to success.

Be Curious

Creativity thrives on curiosity. Curiosity involves having an open mind, gaining a broader perspective, and asking probing questions.

A curious mind acknowledges the fact that there are alternative ideas that exist. Curious minds challenge traditions.

It is important also to gain a broader perspective by observing the current environment, asking questions, and talking to those who are both inside and outside the process.

Curious minds also keep asking three important questions that push the limits in discovering new ideas: "Why? What if? What else?"

Discover New Connections

There are more than a million ideas already in existence, and it is important that one must be able to keep on finding new connections between things in order to be innovative.

One can build connections using imagination. Pushing the limits, doing the opposite of what is expected, looking elsewhere for inspiration are some of the exercises one can use to creatively connect one idea to another.

Another way to create connections is by using diverse stimuli. The problem has to be clearly defined to be able to determine what kind of stimuli is to be used. Stimuli can be found in either the internal or external workings of the organization. It is also important that an organization develops a systemized approach in gathering stimuli, i.e. idea banks. . . . . . .