Innovation: Thinking Outside the Box and the Four Types of Innovation
Why do we love new gadgets? Why did the Renaissance marked as the period when history, science, philosophy and religion has become so prominent that the ideologies used at this period is still being used until today? Why is it that we recognize those people who aimed for change and the others who have settled themselves with mediocrity are disregarded? Why?
Simple. Because they shed new light on what everyone else thought as final and dormant.
They change things radically and they created improvements that are way beyond the limits of what was presently thought of.
Central to innovation is the ability to think outside the box. This way, you will find newer modes of discovering what was previously discovered. To creating new stuffs from old. To extracting new ideas from classic ones. When we say innovation, its not just the ability to create solutions from nowhere but to create them from seemingly old things, only creativity was applied to them.
The box is the normal way of dealing with things. It is what every one does because it is the common notion. It is what most people don’t want doing but have no other choice but to go with the flow. It is said to be the assumptions that the majority takes. Thus, the only best way to deal with this assumption is to go against with it. Be aware though that once you do, you have to be firm with what you have set out o do. Often, going beyond the box means scrutiny, ridicule and unbelief from other people. And these very things make an innovator.
You can call innovation as something close to being wild, crazy and extremely foolish. But these fellows here do not suggest that they often fail. In fact, many of the craziest ideas helped zoom a product or two in the market.
Take for instance some of the greatest achievements that rooted from crazy innovations. Take not though that some people would eagerly tell you that these are products of mere luck or just the natural consequences of interwoven events. They may come from unexpected occurrences but the fact that people who initiated the innovations took the risks of using changes for a seemingly inappropriate stuff is something that deserves admiration.
Ford realized the potential of the automobile market through the failure of Edsel. Thus, the birth of the Mustang. Another good example is the way things are anticipated. Everyone knew in 1970’s that population would boom and that people would go after prioritizing education in the near future. But only Japan took action to create new technologies to support these future changes. Thus, they created robots to supplement for the needs. We may view things differently now because we are already in the actual situation as seen before but during those days, this idea of creating robots is something that was often dismissed, if not laughed at.
While innovation has a general concept surrounding it, it still has various issues to resolve through its many types.
One type of innovation is process innovation. This deals with bringing benefits through changing some of the already-established processes involved.
Product innovation, on the other hand, is the type that resolves innovation through creating new products from old ideas or new products from new ideas, depending on how the initiator deals with the condition. This is true with Motorola RZAR mobile phones which did not only bring new phone models into the market but also created a new niche.
Additionally, positioning innovation is the type that changes the branding of a certain product through switching.
Lastly, the Paradigm Innovation is the type that changes things radically through catering needs by turning something into another thing that is more feasibly good in the market.
