ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some key issues, some key distinctions, and some uncertainties, before outlining various processes. While some have over-dissected innovation, others have veered too much towards the opposite direction, either using the word but ignored the process, or deliberately mixing the terms invention, innovation and creativity. The success of an organisation, its culture and the way it prepares itself for the future can promote confusion. A related criticism has been that the distinction has been made imprecisely, because that which is really incremental has been viewed as radical. Knowledge about a new non-technological area can relate to the environments in which the innovation must exist, or to new operating procedures. The distinction between continuous improvement and innovation is operationally important in organisations, yet some remain unclear about it. Innovation is narrower or more focussed, because judgement about risk affects the choice about when and where to innovate.
