Innovation Design and Creativity

Innovation, Design, and Creativity: Which are Possible?

Three principles that are crucial to business development are creativity, design, and innovation. While the terms have been used interchangeably at times, there are distinctions to be made between the three. Nonetheless, for an organization to succeed and thrive in today's marketplace, they need to possess all three. The most important factor when using these terms is that they are applied both internally and outwardly to the customers as expressions of concrete ideas and not used as platitudes. The notions of design and creativity are relatively easy to make concrete, namely by presenting a direction for the style that the product being offered will take (which can include aesthetic changes, manufacturing changes, or organizational changes) and how it will be achieved through the thought processes of the creative team. Innovation is harder to achieve, mainly because it implies foreknowledge about future trends and an ability to change an organization's direction based on consumer need, something upon which many companies have trouble delivering.

In recent years, innovation has become a business buzzword that often gets used without meaning. A recent business article states that "there's a belief that innovation is about great ideas…But in the business context, it's also about bringing a great idea to market, and how to maximize the payback on the investment made in the idea" (Jana, 2007). Therefore, innovation is not simply about introducing new ideas, but about making sure those new ideas will be financially successful. This is a contrast with creativity. Creativity can often include ideas that are guaranteed to fail. It is a more flexible pursuit which can include brainstorming and coming up with ideas that are impossible to achieve, cost-ineffective, or generally foolhardy. It is worthwhile in and of itself, however, because the lack of boundaries that creates these ideas can create excellent ideas as well.

After the creative process has given birth to new ideas, design takes the driver's seat in advancing the idea. Design develops the idea, and in fact, "great design kick-starts change and reboots history creating new ways to live and work" (British Design Council, n.d.). A good designer can weed through a host of creative ideas and see which are feasible and how they can be achieve. They act as an intermediary between the possible and impossible for an organization. Once they have a vision for what idea works, they create a model of how it will work and what needs to be done to make the idea a reality.

Innovation is that last step; it is "taking a creative idea and bringing it to fruition" (McLean, 2005). This is often the most nebulous concept, because it relies on remaining idealistic about a product while also taking into account practical concerns. There are also challenges that stand in it's way: "To bring an idea from concept to market, it must be recognized for its potential; it must receive funding in an environment of scarce or at least competing resources; and it must overcome potential obstacles such as technology challenges, competitive pressures, and a variety of other obstacles" (McLean, 2005). So innovation is most often where the process falls apart.