The two pictures above are both art. I know that, because they were both produced by artists and have been placed in art galleries. However, I’m sure everyone has a very different view about whether they both belong in the same building.
I have a simple rule when it comes to art:
- is it aesthetically pleasing?
- did it require talent to produce?
- is it thought-provoking?
If it can satisfy two or more of these criteria, I’ll call it art.
The challenge of defining innovation is surprisingly similar. Every day, I see entrepreneurs touting their concepts as the next great innovation, but are they really innovative? This is obviously a crucial question to answer, as only genuine innovations have a chance of accessing R&D grant funding – a key part of how Neon helps businesses. It should be said that there is nothing stopping a non-innovative product being a huge market success; you’ll just have to get your financial support elsewhere. I should probably also state that we are talking about product and process innovation here, as these are the primary areas for which grant funding is available.
So, if we can create a simple set of rules to define art, can we do the same for innovation?
Fortunately, someone else has already started this process: patent offices. They have three criteria for something to be considered patentable:
- the invention must be “susceptible of industrial application”
- the invention must be “new” and
- the invention must involve an “inventive step”
The first point means that it is a product, process or methodology, not just a concept or philosophy. However, whilst this defines some measure of tangibility, essential when deciding if something can be protected, it isn’t quite the right definition for innovativeness. Instead, we need to look at whether the concept is feasible and valuable; whether it could and should be realised.
Based on this, my definition of innovation comes down to 4 points:
1) Is it new?
This is where 99% of all ‘innovations’ I see fall down. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, it is possible to find information on just about everything that ever been invented, meaning it’s also possible to find if something is truly new or not. However, most entrepreneurs I know don’t really want to find out if their idea is new or not, just in case it isn’t. We’ll cover this in more detail in a future article.
2) Is it feasible?
I’ve been approached by entrepreneurs more than once who claim to have broken the laws of physics to create over unity (perpetual motion) machines, or tapped into previously unknown cosmic energy sources with simple electric circuits. Unless what you are proposing is both technically and commercially feasible (i.e. it can actually be made at a cost that enables it to generate value for the creator), it’s not an innovation, it’s just imagination.
3) Does it solve a problem?
The Innovations catalogue was one of the great delights of growing up in the UK in the 80s and 90s. A copy would fall through your letterbox every now and again filled with amazing gadgets and gizmos to solve every problem you never thought you had.
A carrot sharpener, for all the times your blunt carrots embarrassed you at dinner parties
And a Chin Gym, to work off the double chin acquired from eating all those pointy carrots (brilliant)!
Because the vast majority of stuff in the catalogue was completely useless, except for cluttering up shelves (although I’m sure they had some great decluttering innovations for storing and cataloguing everything you bought), calling it the Innovations catalogue was definitely a misnomer. If it doesn’t have greater utility than existing solutions, it’s not innovative
4) Does it involve an inventive step?
What this means is that the reason this innovation has greater utility is down to an element that is non-intuitive. For example, increasing power output from a battery by developing a novel anode design would be an inventive step. Making the battery bigger, even if no-one had made one that big before, would not.
At Neon, we are innovation connoisseurs, with a long track record of collecting, appraising and creating. If you have a great idea you want to take to market, or want to innovate your products, processes or services but aren’t sure where to start, Neon can help.
Pete Frederick is Chief Innovation Officer at Neon. An innovation specialist with 25 years’ experience, Pete helps clients across the whole innovation journey, from concept development to equity investment. Pete is also a published author in Persuasive Writing, helping clients communicate their innovations more effectively.
Contact Pete and the rest of the Neon team at peter.frederick@neoninnovation.co.uk