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Success of Innovation

Innovation is a word that carries a lot of baggage. In some companies, "innovation" is code for "working on something cool." Craig noticed the SoftwareCEO/ CompTIA Software Innovation Awards where innovative ideas are judged by:

Scope of the innovation – What business problem/opportunity does the innovation address and what is the size of the problem/opportunity?

Impact of the innovation on software or the software industry – What practical results (sales, users, profits, etc.) has the innovation had on a software product or the software industry? The innovation must be new and have both a current and future impact.

Innovative ideas are judged by practical results! What a great idea!!

Peter Drucker said it best:

The test of innovation lies not in its novelty, its scientific content, or its cleverness. It lies in its success in the marketplace

Is company focused on innovation? or working on something cool?

success of innovation

Posted by Jeff at 2007-08-15 11:33 AM
True that the results in the marketplace matter. The problem is organizations tend to focus on the results when they begin their innovation and don't allow time for play, failure and a lack of results. The results in the marketplace will come if given time for ideas and creativity to evolve. Imagine if Edison was to focused on results in the marketplace when he was inventing the lightbulb.

Eventual success

Posted by Steve Johnson at 2007-08-16 03:27 PM
Agreed. We need to find the middle ground between innovation without marketplace success, and an equally intolerable insistence that everything must generate profit immediately.