two mother of

Repetition is the mother of skills.

Necessity is the mother of inventions.

Innovation process - Divergence then Convergence

It is easy to think that innovation is born out of being innovative. Or simply in the minds of one or selected few.

Well, the initial times - maybe. But for a company to grow, it has to be a build-in capability to be acquired.

Systems and processes have to come into play as a growing business has no way be dependent on only a few smart people.. This is where the company must tap on every soul's to generate the ideas necessary for next level of growth & play.

I recommend adopting the divergence then convergence concept to innovation. It can well be turned into a process where you first diverge to gather as much ideas as possible without shutting off seemingly foolish or crazy ideas. This gives opportunity to build up more ideas from existing ideas.

Only when it's about to be exhausted, convergence should take place. Filtering process is needed here. Ideas can be grouped and those that can be tested or prototyped fast should be given a chance.. adopting fail early, fail fast concept. And of course, done within budget..

Not all innovation processes are the same. Every company will, in the end, end up with their own unique innovation process. This is because the process is very much influenced by the culture, people, practices, industry,.. So no two company will share the exact same process.. But the macro thinking and concept remain the same.

Some more pointers:

Divergence - motivation, teamwork, brainstorming, field trip, ethnography, ideas generation, build ideas on ideas, forums, leverage on Internet..

Convergence - preliminary & staged filtering, criteria, prototyping, testing, market soft launch, reward system, risk mgmt,..

what's next after innovation?

innovation has been the buzz word since abt five years ago.. and i think it will still be relevant for many years to come.. However, i believe a new buzz word will surface that complement innovation well.

Think abt it.. so what if u have many innovations.. your innovation process may work and many ideas were realized and sold to the marketplace making lots of money.. but beware,.. if u're not careful, yr innovations will be copied and stolen - it's so easy these day.. So, u will need to protect them earnestly.. Thus, u will need to know IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) and IPM (Intellectual Property Management). And IP is not just about protection - by registering your patents, trademarks and designs.. It's also about creation, ownership and exploitation - giving a holistic approach.

Very soon, companies will find IPM or IP management becoming more and more important when they realised that increasingly their revenues will be coming from such intangible assets - the output of their highly skilled human capital. All the more they need to pay attention to these IPs - identify them and have an IP portfolio for them which then is aligned to the overall business strategies.

For more info, u may visit IP offices.. every country has one such office. Click here to visit Singapore IP office. IPOS.