I agree that collaboration is important, and that more needs to be done to encourage it.

Innovation is something the managing classes (in fealty of the ruling classes) would like a lot of, but who also do the most to prevent it from happening.

There would be a lot more innovation if there was a lot more collaboration rather than competition. Unfortunately, our mainstream economy is focused on being competitive rather than being co-operative.

and

Glad to hear that from you, Tim

I guess what I didn’t get was that “novelty” in this case referred to the distinction between incremental vs disruptive innovation (I am a big Christensen fan). Now #18 makes perfect sense (and it’s right on the money).

I really appreciate the time you guys took to help me out.

Sorry for replying late to Matt’s question. Fortunately, Tim’s preliminary indication was right.

In brief: Incremental innovation (‘doing it better’) requires a different approach than more radical innovation (‘doing it different’).

Here’s my view a bit more in detail:

Incremental innovation is typically based on direct customer integration. Requirements are “pulled” from the market / customers, leading to ideas for the improvement of already existing products, services and processes. Customers typically look for what they already know and what helps them to get their jobs done better. As the requirements are mostly pre-defined in this case, the solution can be realized straightforward and as efficient as possible. The innovation process is primarily data-driven and can access experience from the past.

More radical ideas in turn are outside of the spectrum of what the market knows and is used to. Based on design- or technology-driven approach, visions are created by the innovator about what the market would adopt if it was offered. These visions are “pushed” into the (potential) market by making proposals. When the market adopts the proposal it has a high potential for market disruption. The entire process is more intuition-based as data from the past do not exist (yet). Radical innovation is often linked to a change in business model and value network.

Good reads in this context:
http://timkastelle.org/blog/2010/01/design-driven-disruption/
http://www.business-strategy-innovation.com/2010/02/radical-innovation-is-proposal-not.html

Hope this helps for some clarification.

Regards
Ralph