Innovation Inspiration

For this month’s News You Can Use, we’ve gathered headlines about ways to inspire innovation:

• Several Forbes contributors have recently touched on the topic of innovation. Janie Curtis wrote The Barriers to Innovation, And How to Break Through. The article discusses the role innovation plays to the health of the U.S.’s economy, and it defines what may be hindering U.S. companies from competing in the global environment. Curtis writes that while U.S. companies place a high priority on innovation, it often ends up being manifested in small tweaks on current products rather than significant, life-changing innovations. She recommends a few tweaks in how we go about innovating to surge the country forward.

• Another Forbes contributor, Jonathan Vehar, wrote The Missing Keys in Your Quest for Innovation. The article notes that in order to promote innovation, one must have a set of tools, a range of skills, and a certain mindset. An effective toolset is critical—effective techniques include reframing the challenge, phrasing problems as questions, and rapid prototyping. An innovation skillset is a framework which allows you to use your tools, knowledge, and abilities to accomplish your goals. And an innovation mindset is the fundamental operating system. The author states that without all three, you’ll be missing out on innovation.
• Innovation expert Kaihan Kirppendorff wrote Why the Future of Innovation is in Ideas, Not Products. The article uses the shift in Asia as an example—where the economy is bursting with self-made entrepreneurs. While innovation has typically come from the creators of new products, a new generation of innovators knows that great innovations are ones you can’t see. Kirppendorff describes what he calls is the key to Asian businesses that see abnormally fast growth: the “fourth option.” This is a concept, not a new product, which creates disruptive power. These new ideas will lead to a change in behavior and eventually will allow you to do something different and new. Therefore, he says, the greatest innovations can’t always be held in your hand or slipped in a pocket.
• Two lists were published of the best places in America for innovation. The United States of Innovation: Ranking the States (and a District) for Innovation by Fast Company reveals which states have the most thriving startup communities and entrepreneurial activity. USA Today’s 10 Great Places to be inspired by Innovation highlights ten places which have fed America’s successes by its innovators and inventors, thus fueling the country’s growth. Find out if you’re in a place that will allow you to be inspired by innovation.