The boundaries in the innovation landscape separate the known from the unknown, they divide the landscape into quadrants of different levels of certainty. Unlike the research quadrant and the disruptive quadrant, the first quadrant (business as usual) is framed by known problems and known ideas. With rules and tools defined and available, this is the realm of comforting certainty, of predictable circumstances.
Research is often characterised as the act of intense and structured search. Though this view is not wrong, it doesn't get to the core of what research is and what it is about. Let's explore.
So far I've charted the innovation landscape along two axes: the demand for problem solutions and the supply of ideas for potential solutions. Today, I'll explore this concept further, focusing on rules and tools: to what extent do we have rules in place and tools available to facilitate and promote the innovation we need?
Businesses, and the economy in general, are embedded in society; they are society's means to organise the exchange of goods and services. Innovation on the other hand always fulfils a purpose, thus creating value for society. Time to look at the institutions through which societies cultivate innovation.
Cultivating innovation is what every business leader must achieve to stay in business for more than just one product cycle. However, innovation is more than business, and the existing writing often misses that essential part of reality: the fact that business is embedded in society. TIme to look at this societal context of innovation.
understanding innovation 