1. There will always be competition
We live in a world with over 7.4 billion people, which is why, no matter how creative and innovative is your company, there will always be someone or some company working on an idea that will replace yours.
In other words, innovation is only a temporary source of competitive advantage and does not necessarily generate added value to your services or products.
Take the example of airlines, who by implementing self-service kiosks managed to serve a greater number of people, with a smaller number of employees. However, since all the airlines could access that technology, those who benefited most were the travelers who could purchase tickets at lower prices.
Similarly, the advantage that innovation can generate can be obsolete to subsequent innovations.
2. If you can think of it, then there is tech to make it happen
It is much easier to buy technology than to buy ideas.
Behind every great idea, there are people, a team that managed to carry them out. Moreover, only people are able to create and foster a culture of innovation in an organization.
Innovation does not come from technology, but from a culture of innovation. The foundation of a culture of this type is not in technology, but in people and their ideas.
Although for some, innovation is equated to technology, and only scientists and engineers could bring new technologies to life. Innovation can occur in many avenues that have little or nothing to do with technology, engineering, or science.
Some innovation is based on insights about services, processes, or business models. Let's take the example of Apple, a technology firm that doesn't innovate around technology - more around user experience, linkages and partnerships, and content.
3. People are unique
When we talk about people, we are highlighting the intellectual capacities that make them unique.
Every day more and more tasks are successfully being automated. However, many experts in the field have agreed that this automation will always depend on some way of human interaction.
Take the example of Toyota which has begun to replace robots with people to be more efficient. This is because they have seen how some of its car models have had to be called to be reviewed by manufacturing problems.
"We can not simply depend on the machines. That only repeats the same task over and over again," project lead Mitsuru Kawai, TOYOTA told Bloomberg.
Clearly, when facing adversity, people are able to adapt faster than any machine.
As raised by the director of the Media Psychology Research Center, Pamela Rutledge "there are things that robots can never do, including tasks requiring creativity, synthesis, problem-solving, innovation..."
In that vein, an organization can only develop its full potential for innovation when they place people in the center of the process of generating ideas. This strategy allows the organization to have a proactive approach to problem-solving. Given that people are the only ones capable of generating this culture in a company.
Finally, It is really important to understand that despite all the technological developments, we can lose our humanity, it is what makes us special.
Technology today allows you to schedule emails to congratulate your mother and watch the game of your son live over the Internet, but still, no technology can replace a hug, or heal a broken heart.
