The Innovation Pill: Placebo, Panacea or Paradigm?

To be competitive in this changing world, it is necessary to put an emphasis on coming up with new ideas, products, and services that add value. This solution is simply termed as “innovation” by many executives and has become the buzzword not only in the business world but also in all areas including education and politics. The overuse and generalisation of the term “innovation” has led to a loss of understanding of what is really expected of it and what it can deliver to organisations. The word has been overused to the point that most of the discussions have become circular; “in order to innovate we need to be innovative and for us to be innovative, we have to encourage innovation”. The so called ‘innovation cultures’ of many organisations function as a mere ‘placebo’ where there is no actual reinforcement to the cause but provides only a psychological push to the employees who anyway have the DNA to think out of the box. On the other hand many executives see innovation as a ‘panacea’ for all the challenges and inefficiencies encountered by organisations without exploring the contextual reality and the underlying circumstances. Therefore, it is important to know the ingredients, the right dose, uses, misuses and side effects of the ‘innovation pill’ prior to using the same.