• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
 
”FOUR PRINCIPLES OF INNOVATION”
Mats Edenius, Uppsala University July 2009
 
 
In this article prof. Mats Edenius disaggregates the meaningof innovation into four general principles.
To manage innovation, we need to understand the purpose of it.
It is hard to imagine any issue morecentral to doing business thaninnovation. However, innovation nevertakes place in a vacuum. We have tomanage innovation processes, and wemay be managed by them too.Innovation is indeedan elusive concept.Innovation is both aphilosophy and apractice. Theproblem with wordslike “innovation” isthat we easily take them for granted.They are so familiar to us that wehardly think about what they reallymean and how they can be applied atbest. We believe it to be a goodpractice to clarify concepts beingexplored; in this case our perceptionof the meaning of innovation. Onesuggestion is to disaggregate theword into following terms:Firstly, innovations can be new ideas,new technologies, new artifacts, newways of doing things, etc. It can alsobe a recombination of old ideas thatchallenges the present order (Van deVen, 1986). However, not all ideas,practices or objects are recognized asinnovation.Secondly, we might say thatinnovation has to do with things thatare perceived or defined as new bythe relevant unit of adoption (cf.Zaltman et al; 1973). That means thatit is the perception of newness thatcounts, rather than whether the ideaor object is new to the world outsidethe unit of adoption.Thirdly, innovation refersnot just to an outcome,but not at least to theprocess, i.e. how the newideas emerge and how it istechnologically supported(Gupta et al 2007).However, in open innovationpractices, R&D is also shifting to moreoutward-looking management.Hence, and finally, the challenge formanagers in practicing openinnovation is also to identify thechanges in perspective and practicesthat are needed to achieve openness,and to locate and take advantage of the different sources from which togenerate new innovations.So next time you hear about aninnovation, ask yourself to find out: Isthe idea new? Who in the organizationperceives the innovation as new?Where does it come from? How canwe support it, and how can we keepdifferent innovative processes open?It is better to manage innovation thanto be managed by it.
 ¶
 ”FOUR PRINCIPLES OF INNOVATION”
Mats Edenius, Uppsala University July 2009
“Innovation never takes place in a vacuum.” 
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...