Innovation

When I tell friends I am studying for a master's in Management of Innovation, I often get asked: “So, what do you study in practice?”. Sometimes, I find it hard to answer that question, hence the necessity to write it down.

First of all, what is innovation? Its etymology dates back to the mid-16th century: from Latin innovat- ‘renewed, altered,’ from the verb innovare, from in- ‘into’ + novare ‘make new’ (Oxford Dictionaries, 2023). Once noticed the difference with invention, which is linked to the idea of discovery, it becomes clear that it is the process of taking something already existing and changing it. At its core is to do things differently, for example, by combining different technologies (iPhone) or rethinking a business model (Uber). The crucial three aspects for the innovators are to be able to create, deliver, and capture value.

The next question is: “Can you study innovation?” My takeaway from the master's program is that it is possible to learn to have a mindset that searches for improvements and doesn’t take everything for granted. Acknowledging that humans made everything around us and can constantly be improved is the first step to ideating and implementing different ways of doing things. While it is possible to train an innovative mindset, innovation per se can’t be learned. By definition, it involves taking a novel approach to an established way of operating, which means going against the status quo, and education can’t teach the future. In addition, as Jeff Bezos put it: “You have to be willing to be misunderstood if you're going to innovate.”

After all, the quote of Thomas Edison summarizes well how having good ideas is just the start of innovation: “Genius is one percent inspiration💡and 99 percent perspiration🥵.”

Take a moment to think about the next task you are about to do: Is there any better way to start doing it?