Innovation process

Definition
The innovation process is first and foremost a systematized, creative, learning and application process. Its goal is to capture and maintain comparative competitive advantage for an organization.

Overview
An organization largely accomplishes this goal through an innovation process which is designed to acquire and create knowledge and transform that knowledge into business value &mdash; higher profits and equity. Throughout time the source of knowledge has traditionally been those people who desire to learn and to change, and who are alert, aware, open-minded, and are capable of capturing and interpreting vast quantities and diverse levels of knowledge and information.

Competition today comes from a culture of innovation, and creativity has become an important component of this culture. Companies adopting a creativity mindset develop an inventive environment within the innovation process which stimulates ownership and employee creativity. A company's innovation process could well involve literally hundreds of people consciously and continuously sharing experiences and information and seeking and inventing together. Jamming often occurs inter-firm as well involving extensive networks within which employees foster and facilitate the interchange and flow of information and knowledge between firms while maintaining competitive rivalries. Equally important, the innovation process of the successful company interacts with consumers and government and other businesses including suppliers, retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, bankers, and others. It is not surprising that the clustering or co-habitating of these successful firms in relatively small geographic areas &mdash; Silicon Valley or Boston's Route 128, for example &mdash; has contributed to the pace of innovation.