Thoughts about innovation from the perspective of an innovator

Dr Sunveer Matadin

Not many know or understand what is meant by the term “innovation”. In simple terms, it is about being clever enough to have a competitive advantage; to be set apart from the rest. However, innovation is not one single “thing” that can be bought, taught or implemented. It is not an idea and it does not come from a single person or department. Innovation is a culture.

Despite popular perception, innovation is not something new. Innovation is basically structured and supported creativity, and creativity has been around since mankind first made tools and weapons to give him the advantage over his enemies and the animals he hunted and competed against for survival. Even today, creativity is just as essential for a company's survival in the global playing field, but where most companies fall short is that creativity remains just that: ideas that never come to fruition.

Imagine a raging wildfire. Instead of associating the wildfire with destruction, take a look at its positive qualities: it is powerful, unstoppable and produces enormous light and heat energy. Now imagine your company’s innovation resources as a raging resource that produces light to see the solutions to any obstacle, and with the heated passion and energy to implement these solutions. This ever-growing resource is fuelled by past successes, passion and confidence. But where would one start?

Let us start with a spark. Innovation can be sparked by anyone in the organisation. What is needed is a culture that allows the spark to turn into a flame. Once one has a spark, that creative idea needs to be supported, otherwise it will die out in an instant, never realising its full potential. Therefore, once one has this spark, one must huddle around it to prevent the winds of negativity from extinguishing it. It needs to be cultivated by being providing with fuel, which will allow it to turn into a tiny flame. This means adding something flammable like tinder, kindling or wood. This will come in the form of something that provides support in the form of funding, facilities and skilled resources.

Once the sheltered flame has been fuelled with kindling, one can provide oxygen by gently fanning the flame. The idea, already fuelled by resources, also needs to be fanned by the company with the gentle breeze of support, encouragement and the removal of the fear of failure. Just as a flame grows into a fire, so too will the idea grow into an innovation.

As the shelter that is protecting the fire is removed, so too does one remove the protection from negativity by implementing the innovation in the environment in which it is designed to thrive and become self-sufficient.

Negativity may be purely unfounded and based on the fear of trying something new, but it may also be based on quantifiable risk variables that may have a valid influence on the success of the innovation. If the idea survives the gusts of negativity, both founded and unfounded, the company can further fuel the innovation with additional resources, support and encouragement until it generates revenue or creates savings to allow it to be self-sufficient.

Both the fire and the innovation have now grown strong enough to function independently. However, just as a single fire does not a wildfire make, so a single innovation does not an innovative company make. The fire needs to spark other fires that grow and, in turn, spark even more fires. So too, the innovation must spark other ideas that grow into even more innovations. In the case of the fire, sparks of tinder are carried in the winds until they land somewhere dry where more tinder turns the sparks into a small flame fed by oxygen.

In the case of an innovative company, the wind that carries the spark of innovation, creativity and encouragement is communication. The success of the innovation and word about the support, resources and even the recognition, both financial and non-financial, must blow through the organisation. This will encourage others with ideas to come forward and share them, knowing that there has been success in the past, and knowing that the company will support them. Each of these ideas, supported by the culture of innovation, will grow into innovations and will, in turn, create opportunities for yet more innovations.

This reinforces the notion that innovation does not come from a single person or department. Everyone is capable of conceiving an idea. Some may have the personality, character and vision to constantly conceive ideas, while others may have knowledge and experience in their field of speciality to conceive a single brilliant idea. Wherever or from whoever these ideas originate, the organisation must ensure that there is a fertile environment and strong support to enable these ideas to develop into end products.

Although a department may not be responsible for the creativity and the generation of all the ideas in the organisation, it must exist as a dedicated support structure. This department must consist of creative thinkers and visionaries, as well as executers and drivers. The department must also have skilled resources, comprising engineers, financial managers, project managers and scientists, and must have access to other departments in the organisation, such as human resources, training and change management. A funding model must also be in place to fund the growth of ideas through investigations, research and development, and prototyping. It is this department that must drive innovation in the organisation. The creative visionaries that lead this department must be blue sky thinkers who must not only generate ideas and solutions, but must also assess ideas that originate from all corners of the organisation. An organisation does not need a dedicated department to drive innovation. As long as a leadership structure is created for innovation with a head and a few managers, this structure can manage the skilled resources that reside in other departments using a cross-functional skills management philosophy. Universities, for example, establish research groups in key focus areas that skilled resources from other departments can join. These research groups focus on innovations within the group’s field of interest and will assess and develop ideas into end products.

Whether a dedicated department is created, or a management is implemented using resources and research groups that already exist, ideas that are considered to be feasible must be developed into innovations under their guidance and with the support of expert resources. A key ingredient that must not be forgotten is the person who conceived the idea. As the department develops the idea into an end product, the creator of the spark must always be involved during the evolution of the idea. This will ensure that the essence of the innovation remains intact and is not diluted or contaminated by those developing it, as they may not have the same vision or passion for the end product.

The openness of leadership to new ideas and inventions, along with their commitment and support to a culture of innovation, will create a platform for innovation to thrive. The leadership of the company also needs to understand that there will be failures and lessons learnt in this environment, and that it is up to them to remove the fear of failure. As long as feasibility studies are carried out for each venture, and the risks entered into are calculated, a strong culture of innovation will ensure that new revenue streams can be created structure within the organisation

and operational optimisation can be realised via cost reductions.

Innovation and creativity require pushing the boundaries of possibility and then testing them against practicality. Doing it the other way round limits the outcome to only what one knows and what one thinks is possible; not what could be.

Sunveer is a qualified engineer with 16 years’ industry experience. He is registered as a professional engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) and holds a PhD in Engineering from the University of Pretoria. During his career, he has sought out projects and opportunities that involve new product development, design, innovation and inventiveness. The products and systems that he has conceptualised, designed and implemented include hardware, firmware and software for control systems, purposebuilt production monitoring systems, including a national command centre, robotics systems and a novel card-based banking product that facilitates the dispensing and receipt of salaries via online payments and ATM withdrawals. Some of these products and systems have won international awards for innovation and others company awards for new product development, innovation and strategy.