“Innovation” is creeping near the top of this year’s business buzzword list, perhaps even nudging out “Web 2.0″ for top honors. Business seers tell us that innovation is the best way to grow our enterprise, that it is a source of continuing competitive advantage (Wait, I wrote that!), that it must be managed in very specific ways, and that innovators — like crystal china, bunnies, and beehives — need delicate handling.
Now an expert on the history and management of innovation is delivering a new message: Innovation is a vague, subjective term that distracts businesses from what they’re really trying to do: profit by making good things.
Writing on the Real-World Innovation blog on Harvard Business, Scott Berkun tells us Why Innovation is Overrrated.
His point: Managers who study the Apples and Googles of the world trying to understand how their innovation engines work miss the point. People don’t demand innovation, and true innovators hardly use the term. What customers want to buy and what innovators want to build are great products.
“Making good things people love is the true spine of these companies successes, and it’s a stronger framework for managers to use when trying to learn from their examples,” Berkun writes.
Takeaway: Innovation is a vague a concept. When challenging your own organization to be more innovative, the question Berkun suggests you ask is this: “How can we make great things?’”
Do your eyes glaze over when your boss starts talking about innovation? This framework might be just the antidote you need to get to the heart of the issue.
