Seeking innovation...Why?

I have been thinking about innovation and the development of the idea pipeline one needs to take ideas to reality by applying innovation techniques.

But I got to thinking, why do people seek "great" ideas? Why do companies seek "great" ideas? What are the underlying motives?

For people it may be the desire to seek fame and fortune. It also may be a sense of pride to create an idea and bring it to life. There are many levels of "great" ideas that people seek and develop.

Companies, however, look for great ideas because they are trying to make money and hopefully grow. There are many many books on the topic of innovation, here are just a "few"

...wheeeewww and those are just one's with the word innovation in title!

Almost all of them say innovation is what is needed to make more money, to grow, to be ahead of the competition. Several of them try to define an innovation process. Based on what I read and learn, many compnaies say they are innovative and use innovative techniques and tools. But What I have yet to discover is if the innovation came first then the great products or did the products come first and they did really well (fate?) and the spin is "innovation".

Can you make an innovation process or do you create an innovative environment, get great people and see what happens?

p.s., Want to see many more books on innovation? Check out AmazType (I blogged about this 25 Mar 2005)=> AmazType using the word innovation.

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