In today’s extremely competitive business society, innovation has become a key player in defining a business’ success. At OneDesk, we believe in the importance of coming up with innovative business and product ideas. Our innovation and ideas application works in conjunction with the latest social and collaboration technologies and helps companies gather and manage ideas from customers, colleagues and partners and drive innovation. It’s always a pleasure for us to provide advice on how businesses can maximize innovation in their respective environments.
We are often asked, “What is the definition of innovation?”
That is a hard one to answer, as there is no set definition of innovation. In fact, there are probably millions!
We thought it would be fun to share a few definitions of innovation that we pulled from different sources.
The act of introducing something new
– The American heritage dictionary
A new idea, method or device
– Webster online
Innovation is creativity with a job to do
– John Emmerling
The ability to deliver new value to a customer
– Jose Campos
Innovation is the process that transforms ideas into commercial value
-Unknown
Innovation is most often defined as a good idea that has a favorable economic outcome – in other words, you know it when you sell it.
-Dan Robles
OneDesk on the definition of innovation
Perhaps the definition of innovation that best fits OneDesk’s philosophy is the following one, taken from Hutch Carpenter’s article on CloudAve:
A change in a product offering, service, business model or operations which meaningfully improves the experience of a large number of stakeholders.
We like this definition because it breaks “innovation” down into different aspects, each one being part of the innovation process. Most innovations are changes to an already existing concept, whether it’s a product, service, or business strategy. We believe that all stakeholders should be part of the innovation process and have a meaningful experience – thus, OneDesk was developed to connect employees, customers and partners, and facilitate the innovation process.
We want to know: What is your favorite definition of innovation?