Innovation, it is the engine of our economy. Minister Kamp recently indicated that the Netherlands is 'behind' in the field of digital innovation. The EU as a whole would also lag behind in investing in innovation. And last but not least, we also have a moderate 'ecosystem' for financial innovations in the Netherlands, according to a number of major banks. The many bankruptcies in retail are also attributed to insufficient innovative management and a difficult economy. But what exactly is innovation? And aren't we making it way too big together?

Innovation is inventing

Innovate brings change. And our natural response to change is generally defensive. We'd rather not do it, because change is scary. Innovation hangs over our economy like the sword of Damocles. All politicians, managers and entrepreneurs feel the pressure to innovate. We have to come up with new solutions, because innovation is, after all, 'inventing new things'. No, that's not it. It is precisely this view that causes many organizations to be anxious about innovating. The literal definition of innovation is 'to renew'. Completely different from inventing. Renewing processes within your organization already falls under the heading of innovation. Improving your service or your product offering. All innovation!

Dissecting innovation

What we should be doing is dissecting the meaning and application of the word innovation. Because we use the term to describe far-fetched new groundbreaking changes, we make things extremely difficult for ourselves. We all look for the golden idea. Because we cannot find this, we do not innovate. Find the innovations that are important to you in the core process of your organization. You understand that, you can make a difference there. Stay close to home, because that is the fastest way to innovation. There is also a stair model. The first step of the stairs takes you to a new situation. That gives you ideas to step to the second step of the stairs. And so on. It can help enormously to dissect innovation, as mentioned, and bring it back to its core. For example, take a look at the different types of innovations and then determine which one suits your organization best.

Strategic innovation

Strategic innovation is a fairly intense variant. It concerns an innovation within your external business environment. For example, structural changes in the chain. Companies that in the past decided to cut out the middleman and deliver directly to the consumer are a perfect example of this.

Management innovation

This form of innovation focuses on the management structure within your organization. You look at your current management model to analyze where things can be done differently/better. For example, do you really need all those middle management layers? Management innovation is a frequently seen form of innovation in the creative industry. For example, many agencies now work with Agile project management. And they work in customer teams. Specialist teams without management hierarchy, where each team member contributes a specialism.

Technological innovation

Technological developments are cited 9 out of 10 times as the main reason for a company's failure. Whether it is V&D or Perry Sport, the 'rise of the internet' is mentioned as an argument. But technological innovation is much more than that. What to think of the current Virtual Reality hype, or 3D printing. These are all developments that you can apply in various ways within your organization.

Social innovation

Social innovation is a concept that is becoming increasingly prevalent in our society. It is also a form of prosperity. We are increasingly looking at a working environment and corporate positioning that is not only focused on efficiency, but also on social development. Developing self-management is an example of this, but also the entire trend surrounding flexible working. Ultimately, social innovations are mainly intended for a better work-life balance for employees and employers.

Incremental innovation

Does an innovation always have to be groundbreaking? No of course not. The step-by-step innovations are a great example of this. For example, an SME purchasing a new machine to accelerate or improve its capacity. Innovations without great risk, which are hardly recognized by us, but which form the core of the concept of innovation.

Blue Ocean innovation

The most radical form of innovation is to come up with a completely different model. This is very close to actually inventing it. Great 'inventors' of our time are, for example, Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. But such innovations are exceptions. They are often accompanied by a lot of resistance and enormous investments. A perfect example of such an innovation is Uber. Or Napster a few years ago. Innovations that disrupt an entire market.

Which type of innovation will you apply first within your organization?