The Meaning of Innovation

The hot concept today is innovation. What does that really mean? What is innovation? A process? A product? A channel? A mindset? A behavior? When does that light bulb actually blink with an idea that will create real change, improve life, make something better?


What we are seeing in many countries is that innovation has different networks of meaning, depending on the culture of the company, the people, and the space that gets created for experimentation.

Innovation requires experimentation. Experimentation means that some things will work, and some things won't. We will learn from our our mistakes. Experientation is a path to innovation. Airplanes fly because we learned why they crash.



If we must innovate in a culture that shackles our experiments because of fear of failing, what happens to innovation?