Forget all theories about innovation… except those born of experience
Start-upper, co-working, hackathon, bootstrapping, co-creation — all these anglicisms and neologisms have invaded thinking about innovation, most of the time concealing genuine intellectual poverty. Yet the torrent of words generated by discourse on innovation seems more unstoppable than ever. The number of "innovation expert" consultants offering their advice to companies keeps growing. There is no doubt about it: we are witnessing a true inflation of vocabulary and concepts to describe one of the most fascinating phenomena of our era.
Yet it seems essential to maintain a sense of proportion — to separate the wheat from the chaff and, in doing so, to return to fundamentals in order to escape the pull of passing fashions. Because in everything we read and hear on this subject, whether in the media or at various professional events, we have the impression that there is an enormous quantity of theoretical abstraction that — most of the time — rests on no concrete experience and is consequently inapplicable.
Many times, we have written columns to share our perspectives on the subject. The most recent, for example, addressed the principles to follow when setting up an innovation department. But it is essential for us to emphasise that we draw our theses from experience, not the other way around.
And that is what makes all the difference. Many presentations on innovation one hears today rest on no concrete experience. Their authors often have no practical track record and content themselves with compiling theories accumulated through their reading. For us, on the contrary, it is essential that an innovation theory be drawn from professional experience, and that the author advocating it be able to justify each of their claims through case studies drawn from projects they have themselves successfully led. If there is a genuine culture of innovation, it is on the ground that it is acquired.
To put it another way: "you learn to innovate by innovating." The question then arises as to whether this is still a matter of learning, or simply of putting things into practice. Take the common idea that "the key to innovation is open-mindedness." It is impossible to remain creative without it. These words remain empty until one has experienced this truth. One must accumulate experiences in order to reinforce this open-mindedness — and it is as they watch projects unfold that the apprentice innovator truly grasps what this concept means, eventually drawing on it without even noticing. It is by confronting the challenge of the uniqueness of successive projects — each with its own differences and particularities — that our apprentice innovator can forge genuine competencies and verify whether they are capable of remaining "open-minded, whatever the project" — a healthy freshness that will enable them to be creative in any circumstances.
Another commonplace of innovation: effectiveness. As one often says, a project is worth nothing until it has been brought to market. And the history of technology is full of examples of brilliant innovations that came too early or were never able to capture market interest. For example, everyone knows that Bill Gates was the first to have the idea of commercialising a tablet with Microsoft, but it was Steve Jobs who knew how to launch it at the right moment with Apple, enabling it to find the path to success with the general public. This example illustrates that there is no theory capable of determining with certainty that any given invention or new technology meets all the criteria to be brought to market. Certainly, one can draw rules, compile statistics, rely on principles — but once again, a good innovator will be one who, having worked through a certain number of projects, is able to say whether a particular project is likely to succeed and be worth developing. This is a competency that can only be acquired through experience — at the cost of some trial and error, but above all of success. It is also undoubtedly one of the reasons why, during recruitment, an engineer should place greater emphasis on highlighting their experience than on their theoretical knowledge.
For all these reasons, it seems to us more necessary than ever to advise those who ask us "how do you innovate?" with the following answer: "Trust the theory — but make sure it is genuinely grounded in experience."
