Innovation and Business: The Affiliation

On December 02, 2010 in General

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Innovations have redefined our lifestyles. There have been so many products in India that have vanished over the years only to be replaced by something new. Black and white films, alarm clocks, typewriter, fountain pen, etc have been slowly and inconspicuously edged out. For a short time, electronic typewriter came in to replace the conventional typewriter but with the advent of computer, typewriters have completely gone out of vogue. Same thing happened to alarm clocks. With cellphones, alarm clocks have been almost wiped out of the scene. The list can go on and on. Innovation is becoming more consumer driven. A whole new generation of consumers expect products and services to be there when they want them, whether it is tech-savvy youngsters checking out the latest gadgets at electronics stores or dieters scouring the supermarket shelves for low calorie foods. Nike® + iPod™ Sports kit is an exemplification of customer driven innovation. The Nike®+iPod™ Sports Kit is a device which measures and records the distance and pace of a walk or run. It consists of a small accelerometer attached to or embedded in a shoe, which communicates with either the Nike®+ Sport band, a receiver plugged into an iPod nano®, or directly with a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th Generation iPod Touch®, iPhone 3GS™ or iPhone 4™. If using the iPod™ or the iPhone 3GS™, iTunes™ software can be used to view the walk or run history. Gym fitness enthusiasts and runners with its use can co-create their own fitness experiences and share it with similar others.

Today’s world is technology dominated. Competition is ruthless and this is another reason to cogitate an invention which might be an improvement of an existing product. Moreover, competitors can be very ambiguous. This can be elaborated by citing some very innocuous examples. In case of cameras, which brand would we anticipate to be the highest seller? The obvious guess would be Sony®, Canon® or Nikon®. But actually, it’s Nokia® whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cell phones. The reason behind this is that cameras coupled with cellphones are outnumbering stand alone cameras! Let us consider another example. In case of music, who would be expected to be the biggest in music business in India? The common guess would be HMV Sa-Re-Ga-Ma™, which is incorrect. The answer is Airtel®. By selling caller tunes (that play for 30 seconds) Airtel® makes more than what music companies make by selling music albums (that run for hours). Incidentally, Airtel® is not in music business and is actually, a mobile service provider. Google’s® Android and Apple’s® iPhone is another illustration of unobvious inventors and competitor. This is because Google® and Apple® are IT companies and not mobile companies. Detection of this type of competition is difficult which makes it tougher to beat. These unobvious competitors have made life scary for companies as they are unpredictable. This has been another trigger to innovate. An exemplification of this is Bill Gates who declared “internet is a fad!” and then turned around to bundle the browser with windows to bury Netscape®.

As the saying goes, “Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity and not as a threat”. Without change there would be no opportunity for creativity and progress leading to no innovations and inventions. The perspective that today’s innovation is sufficient for tomorrow is disdainful. To innovate and invent is incessant as it is the spark which leads to amelioration of society.

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