Innovation is the engine of value creation and improvement of the quality of life of people, societies or companies; and above all in search of sustainable development.

For many, innovation is synonymous with research and development. Therefore, we are going to present a definition of innovation.

“To innovate is to use knowledge, and generate it if necessary, to create products, services or processes, which are new for the company, or to improve the existing ones, thus achieving success in the market”.

(Oslo Manual 1997)

The above definition, leads us to innovate is to use knowledge, acquired or developed, to create products, services and processes and bring them to market. That is to say, it has a business meaning, to satisfy a customer’s need.

Innovation is synonymous with producing, incorporating and exploiting a creation or discovery with commercial success. Which has an effect on economic life (generates profit) and social life by solving a problem or bringing satisfaction or joy. In this way it brings new solutions to problems and thus allows to respond to the needs of people and society.

Innovation is a matter of survival.

In the next 5 years, those who control a market will have revenues from products or services that are not known today. Therefore, it is necessary to catch the pace of innovation. Otherwise every company is doomed to disappear in the medium term. There are many cases of companies that did not adjust their offerings to the changes of innovation and disappeared.

From what has been said so far we can say that:

• It’s not having good ideas
• It’s not just about building technical prototypes
• It is NOT finding an unmet customer need.
• If it is building a new product or service that has received orders; or there is someone who has already paid for it, or is willing to do so.
• If it means having an efficient and repeatable production process, in line with customer expectations.
• If it is to have a business model that generates profits.

Types of innovations

The following are the types and characteristics of innovation:

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