Defining innovation

Brand Strategy, April, 2004

Innovation needs careful qualifying. Is it new product development with go faster stripes? Or fundamental changes to business models? Is it consumer-driven or technology-pushed? Incremental or radical?

The origin of this word is instructive. 'Innovare' is the Latin verb meaning to change or to alter. However, there is another Latin verb, 'novare', which means to make new. So under innovation there is a wide spectrum of activities, stretching from adapting what already exists--perhaps with a clever twist like Persil Tablets or Pepsi Max--to the more creative act of bringing something completely new into the world, such as the Sony Walkman or Bluetooth Wireless Technology. All innovations can be disruptive and subversive, but these 'novations' can be difficult because...