Beyond the drawing board
Innovation doesn’t come from a flash of brilliance, but is about hard work and perseverance
In 1978, the British design engineer and inventor James Dyson sought to make vacuuming more efficient and came up with the idea of a cleaner that did not require bags. This is creativity. However, it took him five years and 5,127 design attempts to develop a properly working bagless vacuum cleaner. This is innovation.
Creativity is coming up with a new idea. Anybody can do this. By contrast, innovation requires the development and implementation of the raw idea into something useful that creates value in society. Some innovations are more radical or more disruptive or more valuable than others. But they all require much more than inspiration – hard work, perseverance, the willingness to take risks and the tenacity to keep trying even when things go against you. And whereas creativity is more of an individual attribute, innovation is increasingly becoming a "team sport".
We usually celebrate and honour inventors and their creative ideas. But it is the innovators among us who deserve the praise. They are the ones that go beyond the drawing board and change the world.
