Invention vs. Innovation
Malcolm Gladwell wrote an interesting piece last month in The New Yorker entitled "Creation Myth: Xerox PARC, Apple and the Truth About Innovation", which discusses technology invention and innovation and how they are both similar and dissimilar. There is a follow-up intereview on NPR as well.
I'm interested in this because I'm interested in creativity, what are the various forms creativity takes, and how limited in scope our definition of "creative" can be. For many, it's synonymous with "artistic". But in the Gladwell article, he describes a process where ideas or products are re-thought, re-purposed or re-designed by individuals who didn't come up with the idea themselves. Instead of being inventors, they are innovators: people who are able to see a novel use or new market for an existing thing, which may be stagnantly collecting dust somewhere. And I think this is a very real, and very important, form of creativity.
A good inventor isn't necessarily also a good marketer or communicator, and I think this article highlights the importance of both when it comes to technology. Part of my job involves "scouting" emerging health care markets for ideas or products that could have new applications. Reading the Gladwell article has made me think about that process a little more clearly, but also broadly - creativity and innovation has a place in institutions (like health care or education), but also within organizations and communities.
Which do you think you are? The inventor or the innovator... or could you be both?
