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Innovators: Better Than Inventors?
The words innovation and invention are technically synonyms of each other, but the two have actually quite distinct meanings. Invention corresponds to the creation of something new which in itself doesn’t necessarily have intrinsic value. Innovation is the adding of practical value to an idea to make something truly useful and different from what existed before. Patents and ideas alone aren’t useful until someone can come up with an idea for how to successfully apply them.
Steve Jobs, for example, led true innovation with the creation of the iPod by combining design, ergonomics and usability into a product that leap jumped the capabilities of existing products.
Tom Grasty, media entrepreneur and strategist, wrote for HuffPost that “if invention is a pebble tossed in the pond, innovation is the rippling effect that the pebble causes. Someone has to toss the pebble. That’s the inventor. Someone has to recognize the ripple will eventually become a wave. That’s the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs don’t stop at the water’s edge. They watch the ripples and spot the next big wave before it happens. And it’s the act of anticipating and riding that “next big wave” that drives the innovative nature in every entrepreneur.”
