Drivers of Innovation

Abstract

Innovation helps organizations to grow. Growth, though measured in turnover and profit, can also occur in knowledge, experience, efficiency, and quality. Innovation is the process of making changes to existing, and it can be radical or incremental, applied to products, processes, or services. It can happen at all levels, from management teams to departments to individual. Various factors encourage and drive an organization to innovate. Each of these drivers demands continuity and learning. These drivers create a sense of urgency to create new organizational goals and generate new ideas for meeting these goals. The term innovation is often associated with products, but can also occur in processes that make products, services, or deliver products and services, including intangibles. This chapter focuses on innovation in the organizational context, describes concepts underlying innovation, and tries to understand the core of the innovation process: What drives innovation in organizations?