The Most Abused Word In High-Tech: “Innovation”

Memo to high-tech companies. Stop talking about innovation, and instead focus on sustainable innovation. What’s the difference? Glad you asked. Here’s The VAR Guy’s view.

Innovation is what happens every few years at Motorola. Sustainable innovation is what happens every day at Apple.

Still confused? The Motorola RAZR was an innovation. It came. It went. But Motorola didn’t have the appropriate corporate culture and key business processes in place to ensure something new — and something better — was in the pipeline.

Apple, in stark contrast, seems to thrive on sustainable innovation. Just when Microsoft launches Zune to counter the iPod, Apple has moved onto the iPhone. As PC makers continue to introduce lower and lower cost laptops, Apple charges a premium for the MacBook Air.

The VAR Guy isn’t sure what the secret to “sustainable innovation” is. Some researchers say you need business analytics to become a high-performance company that consistently out-paces the competition. Other experts say you need business process management (BPM) in place to free employees up from antiquated, manual tasks.

Ultimately, The VAR Guy thinks sustainable innovation comes from a never-ending quest for greatness. It takes a driven leader (Steve Jobs, Jack Welch,  etc.) who continually raises the bar and demands more from his or her people every year. Often, sustainable innovation isn’t fun. It requires thinking and rethinking your approach to everything. It’s exhausting. But boy, when you deliver the goods it can be satisfying.

Or so The VAR Guy has heard.

Either way, the next time someone hypes “innovation” to you, tell them that’s old news — and ask them how they deliver “sustainable innovation.”