FEATURE : INNOVATION

True innovation is not about adopting technology for its own sake . It is about leveraging it to create meaningful change and instead of starting with technology , start with establishing exactly where you want to innovate in your business explains

James Bergin at Xero . something intangible and unachievable . But the definition of the word is quite clear : it is the creation of something new that changes something established and transforms the status quo .

According to research conducted by a team led by Larry Keeley , who authored the book on innovation , innovations can be classified into ten different types . Doblin ’ s 10 Types of Innovation was written after examining over a century of innovations that have changed the world , and it includes innovation types like Profit Model , Channel , Product Performance and Product System . Their research also showed that combining types of innovation in different ways leads to a more impactful and successful result .

What is interesting , given our modern fascination with technology , is that none of the ten types are technologies . Rather than being the eleventh type of innovation , technology acts like a catalyst in an innovation process : if applied correctly , technology can accelerate the reactions between multiple types or elements of innovation .

In fact , while jumping on the latest technology is a hobby for some , a fixation on the new and novel can be counterproductive and lead to being stuck in a cycle of short-lived fads . If you think about what was considered cutting edge technology in1990 , it ’ s not really comparable to what we consider to be the same in 2024 .

True innovation is not about adopting technology for its own sake ; it is about leveraging it strategically to create meaningful change . In other words , instead of starting with technology , start with establishing exactly where you want to innovate in your business and figuring out your innovation ambition , and then move on to exploring how technology can help you to achieve that goal .

The key here is to view technology through a capability lens : what capabilities does the technology bring to the fore ? What problems can it help us solve ? How does it enable us to overcome existing limitations ? Do those capabilities allow us to unlock or reach or tackle problems that we have not been able to tackle before ?

Using generative AI and large language models as an example , the developments in this space have unlocked natural language comprehension and understanding . Conversational interfaces have moved from their starting point of being something out of science fiction , to being usable but clunky , to the state we are seeing emerge where they promise to be actually viable and even useful !

What exactly is innovation ?

We often throw the word around without really thinking about it , and that can lead us to mistake it for being

Since the popularity of the likes of ChatGPT , Google Gemini and other conversational AI platforms has exploded , we are seeing more and more of these tools being used in various products and websites . But it is

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