Innovation in Full Sentences

How people use the term “innovation” can vary a great deal. Too often, the connotation of the innovation gets distorted by “partial sentences.”

After reading a view of Whirlpool Corporation’s journey with innovation since 1999 in the book Strategic Innovation, we are reminded how the term innovation itself can take on subtle, but importantly different connotations, depending upon whether innovation is thought of as a “noun,” “verb” or “adjective.”

For example, in the case of Whirlpool Corporation, at least as described in Strategic Innovation: Embedding Innovation as a Core Competency in Your Organization by Nancy Tennant Snyder and Deborah L. Duarte, the word innovation is being used to describe an organizational quality, character or “competence”—an organizational “adjective.” This orientation to innovation is about innovativeness—a characteristic and orientation of the organization and enterprise—which Whirlpool has attempted to “embed” in its culture.

In contrast, others (Clayton Christensen, James Utterback, et al) approach innovation primarily as an economic “noun,” leading to an interest in and emphasis on embodiments, particularly those value propositions that have significantly higher profit margins and/or change the basis of competition. This orientation to innovation emphasizes innovations—new value propositions that bring new value to customers and/or users.

Still others use innovation primarily as an entrepreneurial “verb,” leading to an interest in and emphasis on actions that encourage successful development of new, embryonic value propositions, into robust, profitable businesses. This orientation is about innovating—doing the right thing at the right time to accelerate the development cycle and shorten the time-to-market (or break-even, positive cash flow, profitability, market share) and even discover a new, emerging need before it is generally recognized.

This leads many to think about who the actors are in the “sentence” of innovation. This is the people side of innovation—entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, champions, mavericks, mentors of mavericks, midwives, sponsors, gatekeepers, etc.—the “subjects” who are involved in making the innovation come to life.

As innovation practitioners, when we reflect upon our experiences, some emphasize the subject of the sentence—i.e., who is innovating—while others emphasize the predicate of the sentence—i.e., how is the process being conducted and what is being conducted “on” (the object, or the ‘innovation’).

Neither one of these perspectives is necessarily better than the other. However, it may make sense to be aware of the differences and to speak (and think) in complete sentences when it comes to innovation in general. It may help in nurturing innovations that work•.


This article was originally published in Innovating Perspectives in January 2004. For this and other back issues of our newsletter, please visit our website at innovationsthatwork.com or call (415) 387-1270.