“If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it” -Albert Einstein
Innovation is a big buzzword nowadays. It is supposed to be the key to success, the path to fortune and the answer to all our problems- even the ones we didn’t know we had. Everyone, from IT companies and startups, to schools, businesses, big industries, and entire economies, wants in on the action. So what is innovation actually? We could say we have been innovating since the day we were gifted our human brains, since we are continually discovering or making something new in every arena- be it in science, technology, music, art or literature. People may have used different names for it in different eras, calling it magic or imagination, or a vision or contraption. Maybe during the Industrial Revolution they might have called it “continuous advancement”.
The fact is that we are born innovators. But two factors have made it more relevant now than ever before:
- We have reached the end of the Industrial Age where there is relatively little need for manual or routine work.
- Almost everyone everywhere has access to the same, high-quality information because of the Internet.
The truth is that innovation will stop being just a fashionable word, but become an essential commodity for survival in the fast- approaching future.