According to Brenna Sniderman, a staff writer for Forbes Magazine, in order to have true innovation, the creative idea must be developed into something useful. A good read here on creativity, innovation, and business.
Without traction, an idea – no matter how good — is like a brand-new pair of running shoes. The potential is there, but it’s not going to make your company any stronger or healthier unless you get up and find the gumption to take action and use it. And turning an idea into a real innovation requires a few steps. The first two stages of innovation are coming up with an idea and promoting it internally. Creative people succeed at the first and fail at the second – the true innovator succeeds at both.
Don’t get me wrong, though; championing an idea is difficult. But the news is better than you might think: according to Forbes Insights’ recent study, “Nurturing Europe’s Spirit of Enterprise: How Entrepreneurial Executives Mobilize Organizations to Innovate,” done in association with ACCA and Ipsos Observer, 71% of European executives noted that they had championed an innovation at least once in the last 12 months – and 84% were ultimately successful.
But there’s a lesson here too: just 23% said their efforts were “easily successful” – the other 61% of those who were ultimately successful faced difficulties on the road to victory. The point? Don’t take no for an answer, at least not at first.
Here is the link to Brenna’s full article, “How to Keep an Innovation from Getting Stuck”.