Innovation: Getting Your Think On

What do you think of when you think of the word innovation? What constitutes an innovation? Can anyone be innovative? Aren't innovations and inventions practically the same thing? Are new innovations inventive?

These are all questions that have been posed in the last two weeks when exploring the creative realm of invention and innovation. 

As humans, we all have different ways of perceiving things. Our brains help us perceive things by making categories and sorting our experiences, thoughts and ideas accordingly. These categories are formed by things we have done ourselves, things others have told us, things we have learned by doing ect. These categories can hinder us, serving as a blocker to creative thinking, as we are sometimes unable to see past our own categories and remove our ideas from the confines of our constructed 'boxes.' Our brain is 'conservative' in the sense that it won't make new categories to sort things, unless it absolutely has to. This is where creativity and innovation come in. How we think can enable innovation allowing us to think 'outside of our boxes' comparing new thoughts and ideas to pre-existing constructed categories. It is when we allow ourselves to form new categories by broadening our knowledge with travel, exploration, questioning and education that we open the door to innovation. 


The fact that we all have different ways of thinking and perceiving is extremely important when talking about invention and innovation. The concepts of invention and innovation are fairly subjective ideas; beyond the first inception of an idea and initial construction of the concept, it can become convoluted as to what is a true invention and what is an innovation (or improvement) on an existing invention. 


For example, take the Q-tip. When first invented, the intended use for the Q-tip was to clean earwax out of your ears, but since it's introduction many people have innovated.

There are now Q-tips that contain acne medicine where you can pop one side off the cotton swab and medicine flows to the other side. 

There are Q-tips that have plastic sticks making for a more streamlined and pleasing feel when using the tool. 

There are also pointed Q-tips that have foam applicators made to help with make-up application for women. 

Which of these are innovations and which if any are inventions?

An invention is the first occurrence of an idea. Therefore, the first initial form of the Q-tip would be the invention. Out of the provided examples of Q-tips, the plastic one and the pointed one would be innovations upon the originally invented Q-tip as they are not entirely new, but are improvements upon the original with slightly different form.

At first thought, the Q-tip with the medicine inside of it may seem like an invention; it is a new idea that has never been seen before. However, it is merely an innovation as it is a Q-tip that has been improved upon to make the application of acne medicine easier. A Q-tip encapsulating medicine within it is an  entirely new idea and it is the first time that this idea had been brought to market.

The above example illustrates the differences between invention and innovation: an invention being the first occurrence of an idea and an innovation being improvements on something existing, that isn't entirely new in concept. 

There are lots of different ways that innovation can occur. Innovation can occur incrementally being introduced slowly, in small ways to something. This is often the least noticed type of innovation as companies often try to assimilate these innovations as small changes. Radical innovation is where a change occurs and causes something existing to no longer have a use or become obsolete and creates an entirely new market and need based on it's introduction. Disruptive innovation is the introduction of something new, similar to radical innovation, but it doesn't create an entirely new market. Disruptive innovation just shifts a market in a specific direction and replaces something already existing within the market. 

Dominant design innovation is a bit similar to disruptive innovation. Dominant design is when an innovation makes other models of a similar design in a particular model obsolete and replaces them, but doesn't necessarily disrupt the entire market. 

Platform design is another kind of innovation where the platform is what is changed. The platform is what something is built upon or depends upon as a design. 

Open innovation is the last type of innovation which depends upon ideas flowing in and out of an organization. 

All of these types of innovations can lead to many different inventions and improvements on existing products. These are what can change the face of an industry, spur a new multi million dollar product, and are the dreams of entrepreneurs. 

While watching the show Shark Tank on NBC (9/21/12) Mark Cuban said, "First there's the innovators, then there's the imitators then theres the idiots." While I don't necessarily agree with the quote, the humor behind it is that with any invention, anyone can innovate off of it, to the point where all the innovations following the initial invention can become absurd to the point of idiocy.