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Innovation is as old as mankind and lies at the heart of human survival and destruction. The modern definition is that whilst invention can be just clever ideas, innovations are successful and practical applications which diffuse through the market place/environment.
Popular image has it that invention is like a bolt of lightning. However Innovation is evolutionary in the full Darwinian sense, as knowledge and expertise build and change and other more suitable/competitive ideas crush and replace the preceding ones.
Innovation involves boundary crossing and creativity, with inspiration coming from the past, from science, from suppliers, from other products. It combines imagination and creativity with an understanding of both users and competitors.
Above all it involves high risk and the successful diffusion is more a sociological process than a technological one.
Successful innovation involves the dynamic dance of two questions: What is needed and what is possible? What is needed means understanding customer needs and ensuring product design accommodates and responds to them.
The interplay of the two questions is ongoing and constantly changing and the best innovators and entrepreneurs have an innate sense of this dance.
What is possible depends on the environment, within a firm, within a sector and is shaped by available technology, materials, and knowledge.
