Chapter 1: The Innovation Imperative
Innovation matters – the logic is simple, if we don’t change what we offer the world and how we create and deliver them, we risk being overtaken by others who do. At the limit it is about survival – and history is very clear on this point; survival is not compulsory.
Innovation is strongly associated with growth. New business is created by new ideas, by the process of creating competitive advantage in what a firm can offer. Virtually all of the economic growth that has occurred since the 18th century is ultimately attributable to innovation. One person’s problem is another’s opportunity and the nature of innovation is that it is fundamentally about entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship: the skill to spot opportunities and create new ways to exploit them is at the heart of the innovation process. Entrepreneurs are risk-takers, but they calculate the costs of taking an idea forward against potential gains if they succeed in doing something different – especially if that involves upstaging the players already in the game.
Innovation is driven by the ability to see connections, to spot opportunities and to take advantage them. Equally important is the ability to sport where and how new markets can be created and grown. Innovation isn’t just about opening up new markets, it can also offer new ways of serving established and mature ones. Innovation can also be found in services!
Innovation offers huge challenges and opportunities for the public sector. Pressure to deliver more and better services without increasing the tax burden is a puzzle likely to keep many civil servants awake at night. It doesn’t happen automatically, it is driven by entrepreneurship: a potent mixture of vision, passion, energy, enthusiasm, insight, judgment and plain hard work which enables good ideas to become a reality. The power behind changing products processes and services comes from