Innovation Choices

27 November, 2014 / Articles

Innovation choices. Most of us live in a consumer driven economy. That is, we have a number of alternatives or choices for any need. At the grocery store, for example, we can choose among a number of brands of ketchup, cheese, cereal and other staples. We can choose across different brands of gasoline, airlines, automobiles and many other offerings. We are familiar with, and comfortable with, alternatives and making choices. Except, it seems, when we are called on to innovate.

Innovation, in all of its facets and complexities, is really about making choices. What we do so casually each day of our lives becomes significantly more difficult in the context of innovation. What is innovation if not an intertwined series of choices? For example:

•Executives choose to identify a market need that demands innovation

•They choose an individual or team to pursue innovative solutions

•That innovation team chooses to use innovation tools or techniques to discover new ideas

•The team chooses how to rank or evaluate its ideas

•The team selects (or chooses) its favorite ideas

•The team recommends ideas to an executive, who chooses the ideas that seem best

•The corporation chooses to prioritize (or not) the ideas in the product development process

Everything about innovation is a choice and that’s what makes it so interesting.

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