There is barely a word in the English language which has more definitions than Innovation.  Beyond what the dictionary might say Innovation means different things to different people. To a procurement person, Innovation means expensive. To an operations person, Innovation means complexity.  To a marketing person, Innovation says opportunity and to a technical person, Innovation begs the question, You want it when?!

What do all of these reactions have in common?  Fear.  Despite the fact that just about everybody knows that innovation is necessary for Australian businesses to survive, many people are intimidated by it because we are conditioned to think that innovation equals invention.  I was surprised to see that Wikipedia agreed with me:

Innovation is the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, inarticulated needs, or existing market needs. This is accomplished through more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments and society  ….  Innovation differs from invention in that innovation refers to the use of a better and, as a result, novel idea or method, whereas invention refers more directly to the creation of the idea or method itself.

Innovation differs from improvement in that innovation refers to the notion of doing something different rather than doing the same thing better.

So innovation sits on the continuum between improvement and invention, but in my view, most people assume it is far closer to the invention end than the other. So innovation is seen as difficult and complex and expensive, where it simply need not be. Innovation, very often is the clever rearrangement of existing processes or materials to deliver something better and often cheaper. An example of this is the KFC Ultimate Burger Meal box. A sloping box is in no way new or inventive, but it's not been used before in the fastfood arena.  After months of looking at big rectangular boxes, the sloped box was ‘borrowed' from other markets and a new innovative, cheaper, fast food box was delivered. There was a mixing of existing ideas and products to deliver something new.

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Indeed, innovation could be considered a wanky word for what Australians pride themselves on – making the most of what we've got.  Too often we believe that innovation is creating funky things with materials we don't have and by people with skills we don't employ.  The result is a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde relationship with innovation.  We smile and nod and say yes, yes, but we find ourselves knocking down ideas faster than Mortein knocks down flies around the summer barbie.

We need to change our mindset and see Innovation not as thinking outside the square but rather as Thinking Differently, Inside the Square©.  

Think Differently, Inside the Square©

The reality is that 99.9 per cent of businesses operate within definite, definable constraints.  Whilst a few are capable of supreme creativity, grand diversification and incredible innovation, most see these as a distraction from their main game.  Most businesses simply have too many assets tied up in delivering what they currently deliver to venture too far away.  Thinking about innovation therefore needs to be set within that ballpark, and not be mindlessly drifting towards the different game being played on the park next door.

As a printing and paper industry consultant recently explained to me – he develops an idea; researches it for approximately six months and then pitches it to exactly the right person in exactly the right company that can capitalise on his idea.  This is innovation at its best – not just a fancy idea, but well researched and finely delivered.  And because the homework has been done, a great amount of the unknown (fear) is removed and the implementation becomes imaginable and deliverable.

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So what do your customers really want, when they ask for innovation? 

Your customers expect you to provide them ideas that they have a chance of implementing. This means knowledge of their constraints  and their limitations.  By all means, wow them with the most innovative products and services you can find, but this will be as frustrating as window-shopping if you provide nothing they can actually use.

But your customers also expect an education in your area of expertise, so, it is important to keep the ideas flowing, both grand and simple, because the rules and needs of your customers can change quickly.  Suppliers are rarely privy to the machinations of their clients – much of the time employees don't even know what their own employers are thinking – so an irrelevant idea today can be useful tomorrow.   

Of course, the same logic applies to your own business.  Thinking Differently Inside the Square©, challenges the perceived constraints and may even redefine them, but seeks to extract all the value possible from within the area you operate in.  It practices both creativity and pragmatism.  In the printing and packaging industry, this needs to effect services as well as products.  How does your service model or process differ from ten years ago?  Does the current process reflect world's best practice?

The amazing thing about innovation is that most people really like to talk about it.  We like to see what's new and dream of what could be.  We have fun kicking around ideas and focusing on the future.  We love to know what is possible and where things are heading, but mostly, we love to be able to tell our boss that we've just worked out a way to do more with less or added some profit margin to an unsustainable product or tweaked a poorly performing product in such a way that clients will love it.  This is the kind of innovation that we all need.

Chris Roden

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