Innovation must deliver value

Sometimes when we are almost sure that we have created innovation in what we intend to offer in terms of a product or a service feature, we tend to miss the essence of innovation: value creation.

So when I read the 33 different secrets to innovation in the 'Design for Africa' post, I felt the one thing that can critically alter the narrative of what innovation can be - is the quest for value. So whether innovation can DELIVER VALUE especially in the context of whether there is a potential for mass acceptance in the general direction of the innovation is absolutely critical for financing the innovation, investing human capital to execute the innovation and preparing the society to reap benefits.

Umair Haque wrote an interesting article on how not to innovate evoking us to reflect why we must adopt innovation as a tool to create context and character for our social innovation goals.

One of the ways in which we may be able to bring down global poverty levels to the desired level of Millennium Development Goals with regards to poverty could be fundamentally related to our ability to connect innovation with value creation for poor people ('bottom of the pyramid').

If the idea to EVOKE is to challenge the status quo, then 'value creation' must be pervasive in every new way we tend to unlearn our beliefs, design our new offering (product or service) and reach out to connect the dots of inclusion, transparency and opportunity. Let innovation create context and character. We will know when it does when we can witness the value we derive from it. To judge the potential success of the best ideation process and execution of innovation will ultimately depend to what extent innovation is adopted. Such adoption is contingent on value (both apparent and real) perceived en mass. So value creation makes innovation relevant in the context of social entrepreneurship.