| By Ian White,
Urban Mapping LLC
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| Ian White |
The past five years have been a wonderful time for the design community. The craft has been elevated to never-before seen strategic importance, with design-related case studies and platitudes and strewn across the business and social landscape. Naturally, much of the design process revolves around novel and creative thinking, which if well-executed, may perhaps (but not definitely) lead to innovations.
Yet I am troubled with the current innovation obsession. As an educator, I think long and hard about what defines true innovation. My students want to talk about contemporary innovative products such as the iPod and cell phone, but I want them to consider the introduction of the zipper and agricultural adoption of hybrid pest-resistant corn. How does a true innovation differ from what may be merely innovative?
The founding fathers of the United States recognized the economic and cultural value of innovations. The first article of the US Constitution paved the way for intellectual property protection:
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries
They recognized that we should build a societal body of knowledge to which we can add. The notion that creators of ideas should be allowed to profit from them is older still, having its roots in medieval trade guilds in England. As our laws evolved, patents, trademarks, copyrights and other forms of intellectual property began to take shape.
Today, R&D and its associated intellectual property are considered benchmarks for innovation. At a national level, this might be a useful metric, but for comparing two firms, R&D expenditures or patent filings do not have as much relevance— especially considering the role smaller, entrepreneurial entities play in quickly reacting to and exploiting market opportunities.
As a practitioner, I am keenly aware of the marketplace. For example, the publishing industry was shocked in 1440 with Gutenberg’s metal and wood moveable type, paving the way for the modern printing. Since then, there have been changes—color inks, binding, etc.—all more or less still putting ink on paper for relatively static content. While it is clear that moveable type constitutes a true innovation, for how many other innovations does this hold true?
Typologies of innovation—sustaining vs. disruptive, incremental vs. radical, and others—are wonderful models of explaining behaviors and actions firms take, and they can be useful in plotting strategy. But the basic question hasn’t been answered—what is a true innovation?
In my research, teaching, and practice several things have become clear:
- Innovations need not be new—it’s all in the timing. Although the technology for the fax machine has been around for more than 100 years, widespread introduction didn’t take place until the 1970s.
- Innovations must communicate value—e.g. social, economic. Without a normative measure of value, it is impossible to translate how a group benefits.
- Innovations must reach a critical level of adoption over time: What separates the hula hoop from the small-caliber rifle?
Building on the research of Everett Rogers, Clayton Christiansen, Larry Lessig, Joseph Schumpeter and others, I present a definition that may move us toward a common foundation.
Innovations are products, services, solutions or processes that have no logical antecedent and are value-creating to a core audience.
There’s great temptation to bolt-on clauses and sentences to this definition, but I practice restraint. A parallel might be that of platforms and extensions: Extensions essentially live off existing revenue streams and awareness of previously defined products and services, whereas new platforms introduce brand new growth opportunities. Although there may be tremendous rewards in extending existing platforms, they by definition will provide only incremental gains in value. New platforms often overcome significant technical, cost or societal concerns to deliver this value. It is not possible for everyone to deliver innovations all the time, nor is this desirable, but clearly that the pace of innovations in many industries has quickened, leading less time to gloat and more time in the labs.
Practically speaking, why is this important? Innovations serve as a catalyst to unexplored opportunities across all spheres of society. Without the sonnet, integrated circuit, or the advent of cooking, our lives would clearly be quite different. As the raw fuel to generate progress, it serves us well to frame the discussion about innovation.
Ian White is Founder and CEO of Urban Mapping LLC. He also serves as Adjunct Professor of Design and Management at Parsons School of Design in New York City. You may contact him at ian@urbanmapping.com.
This article appeared in the Fall 2005 issue of DMI News.
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