Do you still believe in the myths of innovation?

Innovation provides new forms of growth and also improves what already exists in the company. However, many times it encounters barriers or obstacles that prevent it from materializing. One of the main obstacles is associated with economic difficulties. Traditionally it is considered that all innovation processes involve large budgets, but this is an excellent lie since, with the application of new methodologies small elements, processes and procedures in the organization can be transformed to be considered as incremental innovations.

The concept of prototyping of new products is generally one of the most expensive that can exist. Still, with the development of agile methodologies as well as LEAN, prototypes can be launched on the market without the need to start the final product and, accordingly, analyze the impact of acceptance by customers, the best example can be seen with Tesla. Who has launched a prototype of new vehicles on the market and started their pre-sale, with the money raised, began the construction of them, this is the best test that does not require high capital to start an innovation project? Another interesting example to leverage innovation projects is associated with crowdfunding, this is a project financing system through the investment of individuals who buy shares of the company, and when the required capital is collected, companies can start their operations. It is important to remember that currently there are a wide variety of ways to leverage innovative projects, such as angel investors, sale of preconceived shares, shared financing risks, digital prototyping and even implementation of LEAN startup methodologies to initiate potential projects.

It is challenging to identify new ideas.

No one doubts that a superior intellect can be constructive, but, according to Steven Johnson, “some of the best ideas are given at a conference table, exchanging experiences and mistakes and not in front of a microscope or laboratory.” New ideas are everywhere; these not only come from the geniuses, mainly the good ideas come from the detailed analysis of a need of a specific public, comparing these problems with possible solutions, but you also should never limit or consider that an idea is good or bad, ideas are not judged. In the course of the Strategic Intelligence methodology, some workshops will be held that serve as an example to leverage Creativity and innovation without previously judging an idea or waiting to have the complete and super complex idea.

New ideas are the result of a continuous process of thinking about difficulties to solve, analyzing what problems you face day by day, what are the limitations you find concerning resources or machinery, or access to information among others, in this way you can generate a portfolio of ideas. As a work challenge, the reader is encouraged to invent a business or a solution to a common problem every day, regardless of whether it is viable or not, this will be a constant training in which the brain develops skills to associate issues with solutions.

Creativity and novelty are the same as innovation.

Today for many, the difference between the two is unclear. When talking about innovation, different definitions invariably emerge, it is essential to understand that “Creativity is not the same as innovation, but it is the basis for innovation … Innovators solve real human problems and uniquely add value.” As stated – Charles M. Wood, PhD.

A false myth is to think that every new product is an innovation, or even in some advertising commercials, they use bad words, as well as “The innovation of…. “This is redundant because to comply with the innovative concept it is because it is new, and even more, a false concept is to think that the launch of a product or service. That has the label” innovative product “added to it is already creative, false, It can only be considered an innovation when it is accepted in the market, as previously defined.

Let us remember that a product that is creative or novel does NOT imply that it is innovative, to be worthy of this concept, the market must accept it. For purposes of understanding, in internal processes, the client or the market is the internal one, I mean that the user agrees and implements this improvement effectively.

You can measure innovation.

It is a great false myth; trying to measure innovation is like stepping love; they are activities that depend on human perception and that do not obey standard metrics. However, considerable efforts have been made by research centres, international entities and experts in these topics, today, there is a great myth that innovation can be measured; this is an entirely false argument.

Although, on the other hand, something that can be measured and quantified using instruments and metrics is the ability to innovate that the organization possesses. These capacities can be distributed in different dimensions. To date, there are a wide variety of proposals that present approaches to measuring the innovation capacity of a company, with these instruments you can quantify the effort made, but you can never directly measure innovation.