Innovation is Everyone's Cup of Tea

An innovation is conversion of a new idea into value addition or in simpler terms, profits. An idea that looks great in the laboratory but fails in the market is no innovation. Innovation is not complete until it shows up in the financial results.

Innovation is different from invention. An invention is a bigger thing, an idea which is often converted into a tangible outcome, such as a product or a system.

In comparison, innovation need not be that big. You don’t have to be an Albert Einstein to think and implement an innovation in a process, practice, product part or product feature.

Constant innovation keeps the customer interested and coming back. To attain such a leadership position, where customer pays a premium to buy a product, a company needs to inspire and recognize innovations.

As a rule of thumb, “industries should target around 20% of sales from innovations - new products / services or significant improvements to existing ones”.

Here are some examples of award winning innovations worth reading.

In a company, producing canned food, managers were discussing customer complaints. Customers were annoyed, as they sometimes received newly packed but empty cans. An observation of the automatic production line revealed that the machine putting food into the open can on conveyor invariable missed one in 10000. A brainstorming session ensued and a young worker put forth a simple suggestion to place a high rpm fan just after the stage where food was put into the can, on the conveyor. The fan just blew off the empty can from the conveyor, preventing it to be packed empty.

Executives in a toothpaste company were brainstorming ways to increase their sale by 10%. A bright executive suggested that increasing the diameter of the tooth paste tube’s orifice by 5% would fetch them the desired result.

American astronauts were troubled as their pens started leaking due to zero gravity in space. Millions of dollars were spent to invent an ink which would not leak in space. Russians simply used pencils.

Indians are world famous for playing politics and pulling each others’ legs. A company exporting Indian crabs, innovatively saved money by not placing lids in large cans packed with live crabs, no awards for guessing why….?