Innovation Management

Establishing terminology and frames of reference helps set the context and build a solid foundation from which we can have an intelligent conversation about this topic.

Creativity and Innovation are very often confused. For example, one popular author recently defined innovation as "...any idea that generates wealth." That's lazy thinking.

A good definition of creativity is that it is problem identification and idea generation whereas innovation is idea selection, development and commercialisation.

Within idea generation, a further definition is valuable: the number of ideas produced, the novelty of the ideas produced, the diversity of ideas produced and the frequency of their production.

Corporate Man

In many lectures, the concept of the Corporate Man rears its head.

The myth of Corporate Man is based on suspect ideas such as a) businesses are not creative, b) managers are not creative / they are automatons, c) Corporate Man is functional and hence cannot be creative.

This idea that businesses are not creative is incorrect - they are highly creative entities where products and services must be developed, competitive advantage maintained and profit made etc. These are very creative activities, especially for senior players. In any one business, hundreds if not thousands of small to large problems need to be solved everyday