Lemuel Lasher, Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer, CSC
Innovation is about execution. There
are plenty of good ideas floating around, but they won't be turned
into innovation unless we can execute them.
Too many discussions about innovation
tend to get stalled by debates over definitions. Definitions can be
useful, but getting into debates about them isn't. What matters is
whether it is important to the customer and whether you can deliver
it.
A big supply of creativity is also a
good thing to have, but creativity by itself isn't enough.
Creativity is one element of innovation, but what counts is the
application to solve a particular problem. Without the application
of creativity to a real problem, and without the execution, you
have a lot of creativity but no innovation, and hence no value to
the customer.
Looking at the question from the
perspective of the services industry, a more practical approach may
be to ask what customers want when they ask for innovation. What
they want may not meet many people's definition of innovation, but
it is what their service providers have to deliver.
The most important question is, "What
business or mission problem am I trying to solve?"
Innovation in the services industry has
to be driven by demand, not supply. Companies don't want innovation
for itself - they want solutions to business problems so they can
enhance their business performance.
