Relevant Innovation is Key to Business Success NOT Shiny and New

I was reading an article by Gabor George Burt (the author of Slingshot) on Mashable this morning and… like all morning content reading… sparked ideas for this post. The post titled, Why the Best Innovations Are About Relevance, Not Invention, is about the idea of innovation being an vital ingredient in the success of any organization or business. Here is an excerpt from the post:

As Virginia Postrel once remarked: “The most successful innovations are the ones that we stop noticing almost immediately.” The boldest innovations achieve this integration not by being market driven — fulfilling existing demand — but by being market driving — creating new demand and advancing the way people live.

We have heard this before… remember Blue Ocean Strategy? What is interesting in Virginia’s comment is the “stop noticing almost immediately” concept. I don’t know about you… but I think of innovation as life shattering… STUPENDOUS… creative genius… but maybe that is exactly what she is trying to say. Innovation in the marketplace creates a new demand that changes the way people act and live towards an existing brand.

In his article… George makes the comment “successful innovations were not brought about by outright inventions but rather by reconfiguring existing technologies.” This is an extremely important point to remember in the world of business development, marketing, and communication.

At MindFrame, we are taking an existing idea and completely changing the way people think about donor relationships, digital direct response, mobile giving, and social media. It is not about creating a BRAND NEW tool to create demand or a new widget to radically shift the paradigm of the constituent or the client.

It is about the integration of tools and ideas that create true innovation. You don’t have to create something new. You have to create some relevant.