Innovation is central to entrepreneurship, as well as progress in any sphere of human life. It may seem that bright ideas are at the core of innovation. Clearly, projects and new products emerge when a brilliant idea is brought to existence. However, people tend to forget that idea is itself a product. An individual develops an idea into some feasible and meaningful concepts that can be further elaborated on. Therefore, innovation is all about people rather than ideas, which will be illustrated below with the focus on the Kickbox project of Adobe.
Mark Randall, a seasoned entrepreneur, along with his team, developed a project named Kickbox that facilitates employees’ innovative activity. Randall stresses that 94% of employees are eager to innovate and work on some projects but fail to achieve this goal to certain constraints. The entrepreneur is right, as everyone would agree with this assumption after a short reflection of one’s own innovative ideas that remained in their head. People are often limited in time and resources, so potential innovators never work on their ideas. At that, the project in question is a good impetus to finally start working on innovations. People receive the resources sufficient to commence real work on projects that can become great ideas and great products.
Randall concentrates on people rather than ideas, and the results of the project show that this approach is effective. People generate ideas, get feedback, and keep improving their products. Randall explains that the focus on ideas presupposes discussions, approvals, and, of course, denials. Importantly, successful ideas that have been denied by some or many can hardly be counted. Many entrepreneurs and innovators have heard that their ideas were strange, horrible, impossible to realize. However, those who did not accept no for an answer kept going and gave consumers outstanding products. People were committed to realizing their ideas, which led to innovation. Hence, there is no abstract ideation that brings innovations, but there are people who work hard and innovate.
Therefore, if a company, especially when it comes to large businesses, declares innovation to be one of its priorities, this organization needs to encourage employees to be active. People produce ideas and develop plans to implement them. Even the brightest idea will remain something unreal and unnecessary without elaborate work and people’s determination. Employees should feel no boundaries when innovating, and such projects as Kickbox is a way to do it. Having an opportunity and feeling a certain degree of responsibility, people create something new and outstanding. Managers should motivate employees to explore their creativity and expand the limits by innovating. Appreciation and rewarding can be regarded as the pillars to support innovation. The focus should not be on an idea because it is a person or a team capable of making it real.
On balance, it is important to state that innovation is concerned with people, not ideas. People generate ideas and ensure their implementation. Individuals’ motivation and commitment define the success of any innovation project. A person has the power to bring an idea that may seem unusual to life and create something important and valuable. Such innovations as cars, the Internet, and smartphone, to name a few, seemed absolutely unrealistic to many. At present, humans cannot imagine their life without these products that make their life easier and more pleasant.