Blog
Jul 25
Innovation Competitive Edge Performance Solutions

What Is Innovation?

It is critical that organizations place innovation at the top of their priorities. The best new products and services typically offer innovative solutions or characteristics. If your company isn’t innovating at least in line with competitors, you will soon find yourself without a customer base.

Innovation can be difficult to define because it can apply to many denominators including technology, attributes, characteristics, functions, or other differences. The late University of Toronto professor, Marshall McLuhan, provided a functional definition for innovation that is still used today.

Innovation in Organizations Competitive Edge

According to McLuhan, an innovation:

  1. Enhances something.
  2. Eliminates something
  3. Returns us to something in our past
  4. Over time reverses into its opposite

An innovative idea has a shelf life. The cordless phone was an incredible innovative product, but the smartphone has obviously taken the top spot in current phone innovation. One day a product will take the place of the smartphone, but we have no way of knowing what that item will be. The employees working at Apple, Samsung, Google or maybe even a company we haven’t heard of yet are focusing on innovation in order to be the first to develop the newest trend!

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About The Author

Rick is the President, CEO, and founder of Competitive Edge Performance Solutions, headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina. Rick has over 30 years of experience in management, and over 25 years of training experience. Rick has developed highly effective training materials and models in many disciplines and has taught these sessions all over the United States. Rick specializes in leadership, teamwork, management systems, systematic process improvement, strategy, continuous improvement, project management, performance management, innovation, re-engineering, organizational development, auditing strategies, risk management, executive coaching, and human resources management. Rick has been involved in the writing of many national guidance manuals associated with organizational management, environmental management, Lean Six Sigma, and continuous improvement. Rick is an adjunct professor at a Charleston college. As a professor he teaches management, strategy, communication, quality, auditing, and human resource management courses.