What does “innovation” mean in the entrepreneurial context?

If we want a down-to-earth definition, innovation is the production of something new. That is to say, it is not just about having a new idea, but also about making it concrete, implementing it, producing it. We are talking in particular about novelty to generate value, to bring new ideas to the B2C ( business to customer ) or B2B ( business to business ) markets, to review the processes or procedures of an organization...

Absolute innovation is very rare and it is not limited to technologies. It is relative to the context of each company. What is innovative for one will not be for another. Organizations can do process innovation, business model innovation, managerial innovation or strategic innovation.

Why is it important for businesses to innovate?

Because if they don't, they die. We live in an extremely volatile world, accelerated by technology, in which consumers have increasingly complex expectations about the product or service, its environmental impact, its social effects, its ethical aspects... In addition, they are increasingly unfaithful to brands and eager for new things. To remain relevant in your market, you have to continually adapt to their needs and expectations. Not innovating as a company is almost a form of suicide.

However, organizations with a traditional model struggle to put innovation at the forefront...

Indeed. We have had examples of companies that thought they were all-powerful and failed to evolve. I am thinking of Kodak, the automobile industry, Research In Motion. There is also Target, which did not know how to adapt its model to the Canadian market and experienced a major failure.

There is a whole section of our economy, the world of SMEs, which is lacking in innovation. There is important work to be done with these small and medium-sized organisations in order to support them in this process.

The danger is that the discourse on innovation in business is maintained, but we have difficulty taking action because we do not understand what an innovation process is. We sometimes have the impression that it will fall from the sky. However, innovation requires an organized, structured and managed process.

Where to start?

I am often asked what the secret recipe is. The starting point is simply to do it (innovation) and therefore to engage in this process by investing time. The crux of the matter, more than economic resources, is to invest time. To ask yourself the question systematically and regularly. To engage in projects, even modest ones, and to evaluate yourself constantly. To get there, you need help in order to have clearer ideas in the context of your own organization.

Isn't innovation the domain of the entrepreneur? Shouldn't research and development, giving value to one's company, making it grow be in the DNA of every entrepreneur?

I am convinced of it. The role of the entrepreneur is to trigger innovation within the organization. However, it is often necessary to put a person (an intrapreneur) or a department responsible for innovation, because it is important to have a ball carrier.

Increasingly, at HEC Montréal, we see innovation as a basic skill that is not strictly reserved for the entrepreneur, but also for the manager who must cultivate these questions to think outside the box and ensure the development and survival of his organization.

How? By investing in constant monitoring of products and markets and of our customers to listen to their needs. By going into the field to question customers and their uses, to understand the irritants. Also by encouraging customers to dream, to fantasize about what the product or service could be, in particular, to recognize their current needs and anticipate their future needs…

Don't you think that the word "innovation" is overused in the business world these days?

Certainly. It has become a symptom of the acceleration of our economy. That is why we must talk less about it, and why we must do it! We must move towards action, towards concretization.

This is the innovative mindset that must be cultivated. Project yourself and imagine your company in five years, for example: who will be my best seller? What will be my risky products? What will be my new markets? What will be my usefulness for my customers and what will be my new sources of value creation? These questions are innovation triggers…

LAURENT SIMON

Laurent Simon, PhD., is a full professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at HEC Montréal, and co-director of Mosaic, Creativity and Innovation Hub at HEC Montréal. For over fifteen years, he has been developing courses and training in creativity management for innovation and regularly speaks on these topics to private and public organizations in Montreal and internationally. He is also co-scientific director of the Summer School in Management of Creation in the Society of Innovation Montreal-Berlin-Barcelona . He has published some twenty scientific articles and contributed to several books on issues of creativity and innovation management.