No more innovation #1

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May 09, 2023

Welcome

You should be proud of being the first or the only one reading this when I posted it. All the rest reading it later, welcome, and thank you for being here.

About me

My name is Manos Koukouvios. I am Greek and very proud of the Greek Start-up ecosystem. I work for a venture studio as their Digital innovation lead. I like talking a lot, and that got my wife tired… So now I write a lot.

No more innovation

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Innovation is one of the most used words in business.

Please take a few seconds and try to define innovation…

Ok, according to the merriam-webster Dictionary, innovation is

a new idea, method, or device

OR the introduction of something new.

I believe that everyone would agree with the above, but if asked to elaborate, they will add their twist… a word, a phrase, something that will bring it close to what they do.

The word innovation has been used so much that it is nearly a no-go for anyone trying to innovate when describing their work.

In this newsletter, we will try to build a community with people who value true innovation. We will explore topics and ideas around it, talk to iconic persons, learn, explore, and maybe push the boundaries of our comfort zone.

The title is “no more innovation” because innovation never stops, and people working in it will push the frontiers of what we know and improve our lives. But, on the other hand, everyone insisting on describing their work as innovative most of the time are not great innovators.

Would you stick to using the word innovation if you could be sentenced to life in prison?

The word innovation was not always associated with good, but it was always associated with change.

But what happens when change is not welcome?

History has the answer, according to historian Benoît Godin and his great work on the project called: The Intellectual History of Innovation.

During England’s 16th and 17th centuries, an era where religious Puritanism was mainstream, being called a “True innovator” was a significant accusation.

A snippet from his article called:

Meddle Not With Them That Are Given to Change’: Innovation as Evil

The conflicts led to using innovation as a category for the unorthodox, deviants, and transgressors of norms or heretics. Burton accused no less a personage than the Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud of innovating in doctrine and discipline, contrary to the established rule. He used the category ‘innovation’ as a polemical weapon against his enemies. His opponents produced (just as controversial) answers to Burton’s charges, using their arguments to call for censure by the High Commission, which led to Burton’s imprisonment.

I guess we are not putting anyone in jail anytime soon, but it highlights with beauty the value of context.

Should we ban it?

According to author Scott Berkun, we should limit the use of the word, and as he masterfully argues, true innovation is a double edge sword and not what we have in mind when we use it as a substitute for “cool.”

From his article Stop Saying Innovation – Here’s Why

It’s the solving of the problem that gives ideas power, not an adjective slapped onto Powerpoint slides or into job titles.

Innovation is empty without context.

Copywriting is hard. Staring at an empty slide while trying to create a sales deck or a website that will showcase the value of your offering is challenging.

That often leads to using words like innovative, disruptive, transformative, and revolutionary to describe a feature or a product that is not any of the above.

When you are planning to use world innovation, I strongly recommend doing so with context. For example, instead of saying, “Buy innovative product X,” say, “In Product X, we introduce Y, Z.. changes (that we consider innovative). Are you ready to innovate with us?”

When you do so, be ready to answer what is your definition of innovation?