Robert Tucker, the President of the Innovation Resource and Author, has been analysing the ways of innovators and innovative companies for over two decades today.

Tucker said that innovation is about coming up with an idea and bringing it to life.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18’s exclusive interview with Robert B Tucker:

Q: The big question is what really is innovation in the sense that you are using it. Is it invention?

A: I define it very simply as coming up with ideas and bringing them to life. So, when you come up with an idea and bring it to life successfully, you are essentially innovating. When you come up with a new product idea, a new service idea or a new process behind the scenes to cut cost, it becomes more efficient. To manage and motivate differently is also innovation.

Q: You are saying that innovation is not the preserve of the R&D and marketing department of companies, it is something that can go across the organization?

A: Absolutely, the old definition was that it is R&D. Unfortunately, that sort of relieves everyone else of the opportunity and the responsibility to create value and to innovate. That is the sea change that is occurring across the world today. We are asking for innovation from every department, functional area, manager and from every individual.

Q: Are these traits to be able to innovate the same as being able to think creatively?

A: There are some people, who are specialists in just coming up with ideas. But they do not have a clue or the skills to bring those ideas to life. You have to have a special set of skills to do that and they are kind of uncommon skills. But to come full circle and to derive that value, to create something for the customer, you need people who are really creative and maybe need a little help implementing the idea.

June 2007, the world waited in awe as Apple finally launched the iPhone. It was perhaps the smartest ever product from Steve Jobs’ stable, that left millions of gizmo lovers mesmerised. But the iPhone success is not a new phenomenon with Apple. Innovation for this hardware major is a way of life, whether it is the iMac or the iPod. Imagination and niche technology are its twin growth drivers and a product innovators Mecca.

Q: For instance- the iPhone is now the latest gizmo from Apple. Would that be a product innovation?

A: That is a breakthrough product already. I just read that they sold a million units. A process innovation would be Toyota’s production system-Kaizen. It came just in time and there are a lot of elements and constant improvement. And the customer never sees that; they just know they are buying a quality vehicle. So, process innovations are equally valuable, needed and necessary, but they are behind the scenes.

Strategy innovation is the third category we focus on. A good example of that in India, would be a brand-new business model of Air Deccan. It is taking some existing ideas, benchmarking other countries, other low cost, no-frills airlines; but bringing that to the people of India and enlarging the market. They are giving people a choice of going by plane at a very low margin. They know they are not going to get top flight Air India service necessarily, but that is a value for them.                 

Q: How do you ensure that the innovations are not one-off and the ability to innovate is not a random incident? How do you ensure as individuals, that we realise that we need to innovate? What are the few things that we can do to create this attitude?

A: When I worked with companies like IBM, Nokia, Satyam and many others as a coach, consultant and adviser; I basically said that look for a process for innovation. People are so incredibly busy today; they are running at a frenetic pace.

Thomas Friedman wrote, “The world is flat”. That flat world is running flat out. So, if you don’t have innovation on the agenda, it probably won’t get done. If you are depending on happy accidents to drive innovation and growth in your company, forget it; it won’t happen.

Q: Give us a few tips that make us more open or create a process for ourselves to being innovative or to come up with innovations?

A: There is an elaborate sort of process, so let me just break it down. What we find in these 23 companies that we studied is that they are getting systematic, are embedding innovation and are introducing idea management systems, so that no good idea gets lost or falls in the hands of competitors. They are becoming much more customer centric.

Q: Is there something that they do to finehone this ability?

A: It is a funny thing. The most creative executives, that I have studied and interviewed, have an elaborate personal process. If you say how do you get ideas, how do you regenerate when you are feeling burnt out, they have got specific answers and have a process. For e.g- Doug Greene, CEO of New Hope Communications, takes every month a Doug Day. He said that every month he has an appointment with himself; without any mobile, technology or meetings. It is a day where he just goes off for a walk to a quiet restful place. He takes out his idea notebook and starts doodling. He says that he gets more ideas on a Doug Day, than at any other point and he owes his success to it.

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