Innovate to Succeed

 

Innovate to Succeed

by 

Dr. Nikhil Agarwal, Director, Europe Asia Business School (EABS)

Two fascinating words are: Innovation and Collaboration. In the present recessionary times, these two words have become buzzwords for most organization.

To treat Innovation as Invention is a great myth.

Invention is creating absolutely a new product by individual research or idea, whereas innovation is commercialization of the invented product.

There are various aspects of innovation, like disruptive, operational and incremental innovation, which are common in the business world.

I was reading the Garfield cartoon strip in the Pune Mirror recently. The scene was set at a location where one person is diffusing a bomb whereas his partner is giving him instructions on phone. The person diffusing the bomb says, ‘Hurry up tell me the way out; only five seconds are left’. The person on phone say, ‘Can you see two wires one red and other green? Please cut the red now.’ The person with the bomb says with lost hope, ‘I am colour blind’. 

Merely working together towards a common goal may not be enough in today’s jet age business environment. We must find strengths and weaknesses of team members well in advance before we commit ourselves toward working together for a common goal. It saves time, energy and frustration in the end.