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 White Paper on
 
Innovation Processes
Janet Rabin & Ben Turner
 
1. Overview 
The study of innovation is on the rise: all fields, from the public sector to big business, fromengineering to international development, are seeking to capture innovation and weave it into theirplanning and operations. Innovation research was originally confined to the sciences, but thenprogressed to spheres of the private sector, especially in efficiency and product design. Recently ithas also expanded to the social sciences and the public sector; more and more organizations areseeking to implement systems and processes into their management structure which willconsistently produce innovative solutions to problems in their field.In order to come to a precise definition of innovation, we must distinguish between the conceptsof 
an
innovation and the innovation
 process
. It might help to explain this distinction within thecontext of a cycle: invention, innovation, and diffusion. Invention is the development of a new product or idea. Innovation is the successful conversion of that product or idea into a process thatadapts itself to multiple contexts reliably and consistently. Diffusion is the commoditization of innovation as it spreads and becomes a standard, accepted idea.Our goal in this white paper is to examine and explain the processes that promote this cycle andlead to the adoption of innovations -- that is, to identify reproducible, transferable techniques thatcan be implemented across a variety of projects and practices. First we will give a brief literaturereview covering fundamental works on innovation from the sciences, the private sector, andinternational development. We will then consider the commonalities and common principles thatarise from these different perspectives. Finally we will draw together theory and practice andforecast future trends for increasing innovation and its diffusion within a development consultingorganization.
1.A. Academic Theories of Innovation
1.A.i. SCHUMPETER'S CREATIVE DESTRUCTION
Joseph Schumpeter, father of "creative destruction" and oft-referenced scholar of entrepreneurship, defines economic innovation in
The Theory of Economic Development 
:1.The introduction of a new good — that is, one with which consumers are not yet familiar
 
— or of a new quality of a good.2.The introduction of a new method of production, which need by no means be foundedupon a scientifically new discovery, and can also exist in a new way of handling acommodity commercially.3.The opening of a new market, that is a market into which the particular branch of manufacture of the country in question has not previously entered, whether or not thismarket has existed before.4.The conquest of a new source of supply of raw materials or half-manufactured goods,again irrespective of whether this source already exists or whether it has first to becreated.5.The carrying out of the new organization of any industry, like the creation of a monopoly position (for example through trustification) or the breaking up of a monopoly position.
1
Not a mathematician by practice, Schumpeter was an economist who used behaviors to theorizeabout business and economies. This was in contrast to his peers, who tended to rely onmathematical models. In particular, Schumpeter envisioned a series of business cycles and circularflow in most firms, recycling the same ideas and products within an enclosed circle. Only throughentrepreneurship were external inputs and outputs introduced into this cycle or flow. Fromentrepreneurs, Schumpeter believed, came economic development.One of Schumpeter's key insights was promoting "creative destruction," the process of new ideas breaking down old ideas and replacing them continuously, ensuring an innovative, generative pathof development. He wrote at length about capitalism and socialism, saying that capitalismeventually gives way to corporatism, as entrenched old interests set an agenda to protect againstentrepreneurs, whose ideas are inherently targeted to destroy the entrenched interests.Schumpeter sought to ensure that the ability to destructively create would continue to exist so thathealthy capitalism and innovation could continue. This can be extended to a firm level, whereestablished ways of doing things dominate and those who execute those ways well get promoted,making them biased against new or different upcoming ideas. Thus, Schumpeter believed thiscontinual process of replacing and upgrading was normal, necessary, and, contrary to popular belief, far more stabilizing for the internal health of a government or firm.
1 Wikipedia.org. "Innovation", Wikipedia.org. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation
 
1.A.ii. TRIZ
TRIZ is named for its Russian acronym,
Teoriya Resheniya Izobreatatelskikh Zadatch
, whichroughly translates to “Theory of Inventive Problem Solving.” TRIZ was created by Genrich Altshuller, (1926 – 1998), who used the Soviet Union’s open patent database to compare over200,000 inventions in his quest to find common factors that lead to innovation. He was later sentto a prison camp in Siberia for criticizing Stalin; however Altshuller used this time to interview themany scientists, intellectuals, and artists who were also imprisoned there, and so continued his work on the process of innovation.TRIZ has multiple layers of analysis and can become very technical; many of the examples used are drawn fromengineering. However the basic principle is one that can beapplied across numerous fields. TRIZ defines an inventiveproblem as an unresolved contradiction. An innovationtranscends the limits that create the contradiction. A very simple illustration would be a travel coffee mug: it solves the problem of needing coffee to be hotenough to enjoy when drinking, but cool enough to hold in your hands. The insulated mug allowsthe coffee to be simultaneously hot (inside) and cool (outside).The TRIZ method maintains that if an analogous problem that has already been solved can beidentified, then an analogous solution can be applied. Altshuller created various tools to facilitatethe process of finding and overcoming contradictions. The first is his 40 Principles of Invention, which are the principles Altshuller determined to be the most frequently-employed in the creationthe successful innovations he studied. For example, the Principle of Segmentation calls for dividingan object or a concept into multiple parts. This could be implemented by replacing a too-large truck  with a truck and trailer, or using a work breakdown structure to manage a particularly unwieldy project. Ellen Domb, editor of the
TRIZ Journal 
 
, provides this and other examples for each of the40 Principles in an article available on the publication's website:http://www.triz-
 
 journal.com/archives/1997/07/b/index.html
 
 Another tool is The Contradiction Matrix, which visually displays the most common types of contradictions, matched up with the principles that are most suited to resolving the contradiction.The rows of the matrix contain 39 characteristics a would-be innovator wants to improve, such asstrength, speed, or ease of repair; the columns display the trade-offs that would normally have to bemade to in order achieve the improvement, such as loss of speed or decreased stability of an object. At the intersection of the feature you want to improve and the feature you don't want to worsen are
of 00

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