Innovation has its roots in disruptive change and the desire to shatter the status quo and reassemble it into something fresh and undreamed of before. Innovation results in new products and services that have never been commercialized, or breakthrough inventions that are born in a laboratory connected to a research and development department. Innovation, which happens every day in every organization around the world, is spurred by people who strive to improve a product design, manufacturing process, or administrative procedure, or to find a creative new way to deliver a commercial product to people looking for higher functionality and quality and lower cost.
A close look at the iconic product developments in history reveals that these new products grew out of existing technologies applied in revolutionary and richly inventive ways. Although Henry Ford did not invent the automobile, his vision created a company known and admired for its advanced technologies and products. Ford and his leaders developed innovative manufacturing processes, and these processes gave birth to an industry that defined success in the industrial economy. Thanks to Ford, industry would never be the same, would never see itself as fixed and final. It would innovate constantly.
Innovation in business must exist collaboratively with current business products and service offerings. All organizations are challenged to meet their financial goals, which determine the process of planning. To accurately predict sales, products costs, sales and marketing expenses, quality, and profitability is difficult because of the need for constant change. The challenge within any enterprise is to make sure that sufficient funds are available to support disruptive change and innovative development.
