Understanding Innovation

Understanding Innovation is the first factor of the series 6 Factors to Improve Innovation in the GCC Region.

Before we move on and dive deeper into the series. We need to understand the theory behind innovation and why it is critical in our dynamic society.

What is Innovation

The word innovation battles with a legitimate definition due to the enormous technological disruption that the world has witnessed over the last century. Nowadays, most people associate the term innovation with technology; however, as we will clarify underneath, the term itself has a significantly more general importance.

Drew Boyd defined innovation as,

“Anything that is new, useful and surprising”.

Drew Boyd

while Paul Sloane simplified it even more as he stated,

“Creativity is thinking of something new. Innovation is the implementation of something new”.

Paul Sloane

As is clear from above, innovation is not linked to the field of technology alone as some people have misunderstood. A person can be innovative in many other circumstances or industries. I.e. creative art such as Van Gogh, performance such as Michael Jackson, writing such as Najeeb Mahfouz, health and philosophy such as Ibn Sina, martial art such as Bruce Lee, and poetry such as Abdulrahman Rafee.

Innovation can occur in your strategies, methods, models, or creations. Parents can practice innovative methods to raise their children; chefs can be innovative in their cooking styles and presentations, while marketers can be innovative in their strategies and executions.

Why Innovation is Important?

Throughout history, innovation was one of the core elements to cope with disruptions or even create ones. When people discovered how to generate fire, their lifestyle and food habit have changed dramatically since then.

The same principle when cars were invented, people don’t ride horses or camels to their offices anymore. Successful innovations are associated with added values, and those values are what make people switch their interest, lifestyle, or even their beliefs.

As Simone Sinek ones stated,

“There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.”

Simone Sinek

This is how we improve societies or present innovations. If we are capable to convince a group of individuals to place stock in our novel idea/implementation, at that point we have effectively accomplished our initial achievement.

Let’s consider the following example based on an article by historyofpencils.com. Back in the 6^th Millennium BC, people noticed the need for a mechanism to record and communicate their thoughts and beliefs. With the available resources back then, they have come with the idea of curving on stones with woods and metals.

At that moment, this was a significant innovation that undoubtedly created a unique set of essential tools and cultural symbols that allowed a social group of people to properly communicate with each other and send their stories and thoughts to the future.

After a few renewable generations, and as a result of cumulative knowledge, people have discovered better ways to write on wax tablets, leathers, and paper using brushes, chalks, and ink quills. It’s been a few centuries later when the Fountain and Ballpoint pens were invented.

This shows us how people have switched their entire writing system every time they experienced a better option that provided them with greater values.

The limitation of big stone tablets and the difficulties in curving with metals and woods led to the use of wax tablets and leathers while the limitations of inks, wax tablets, and leathers led to the preference of using pencils, pens, and papers.

At present, we can produce papers and pens in mass quantities; in fact, we can utilize smart devices and printers to eliminate the use of pens and pencils in the first place.

A recent example endures the visible presence of Cryptocurrency and its associated Blockchain technology. Like any other analog currency, if people did not believe in the concept and there was no consumer demand, obviously the system has not survived.

The examples set out above are to clarify how innovation can create or cope with disruptions from the very beginning of humankind and how it plays a key role in changing people’s behavior and beliefs.

It is crucial to note that innovation is not a simple process; it needs to be backed up with the right foundation, expertise, circumstances, and creativity to turn our concepts into reality.

After understanding the theory of innovation and why it is substantial, the next article will address the concept of parenthood and how it can act as the root cause for raising society’s knowledge base.