Never one to shy from a semantic debate, the blogosphere emerges again with a new question...
What is Innovation, really?
Digitas' Jon Burg, with a push from Crayon's Greg Verdino, has called for a simple one-liner, a single sentence description of the word. Innovation is...and the rest of us fill in the blank.
From Cam Beck, dictionary.com describes innovation as "something new or different introduced." Bleh.
I think for many people innovation in reality means the ignorance of what other people are doing. But maybe that's just me being cynical. I'd say it's as simple as solving problems in a significantly more useful way. Maybe that's a little boring, but fuck it, I'm allowed to do that from time to time.
Of course, to be an innovator, you'd have to solve problems in a significantly more useful way consistently.
UPDATE: Katie's having her own discussion on innovation. It's the goodness. Be sure to read Rob's comment, too. He's wrong, but at least he says it with conviction.
I don't think your definition is boring at all; I'd call it succinct. Accuracy & brevity shouldn't be dismissed as dull ~ I often wish folks in our business would be more succinct. ;)
Posted by: Gracie aka Marketing Whore | August 15, 2007 at 07:39 PM
Man- this is a case of serious BSP! Rob Campbell and I have having a similar discussion here:
http://katiechatfield.wordpress.com/2007/08/15/extreme-shoutyness/
Posted by: Katie Chatfield | August 15, 2007 at 08:03 PM
Wrong? Bit like beauty mate - all in the eye of the beholder! Ha.
Posted by: Rob @ Cynic | August 15, 2007 at 11:34 PM
Oh and for what it's worth - what you defined as innovation is most commonly known as evolution - which is why we're all getting our knickers in such a twist, me most definitely included, hahaha!
[If it's any consolation, this issue caused a 5 hour [no exaggeration] debate with one of my clients - a rather well known company named after a piece of fruit.
It ended up with me being called a 'shit stirrer' which I still don't know whether was meant as a compliment or not!]
Posted by: Rob @ Cynic | August 15, 2007 at 11:38 PM
Thanks so much for sharing the love! The more participation we drive, the stronger the conversation, the more telling and accurate our results.
Love your blog, love your perspective, keep up the great work! Rock on!
-Jon
Posted by: Jon Burg | August 16, 2007 at 11:06 AM
Innovation is religion. (sure as hell sounds dramatic!).
If you use, would seriously consider using, or believe in something (let's say an Ipod). Then that Ipod, to you, is an innovation.
Innovation is adopting a belief in X, Y, or Z.
Posted by: jon chamberlin | August 16, 2007 at 12:04 PM
Gracie- I thank you, ma'am. You made me feel better... :)
Katie- You guys are wearing me out over there!
Rob- Again with the pushing of evolution vs. innovation. All innovation is evolution, just all evolution isn't evolution. I guess it just gets back to that eye of the beholder thing...
And, thank you Jon and Jon. I think I'm going to change my name to Jon, too. It just looks cooler with no h. But, I digress... :)
Posted by: Paul McEnany | August 18, 2007 at 01:41 PM