Innovation FACTORYized ???

To Invent is to Create.
To Innovate is to profitably Create.

It is common knowledge that Profitability occurs with the 'Selling Price - Cost Price' differential. Such differential being possible only when there exists a clear value proposition to the buyer that matches the competition if not exactly surpasses it. This has a direct bearing on the share-holder's interest which translates into an anti-gravity pressure on the bottom line.

All this logic translates into delighting the customer, who more often than not seeks gratification in commoditizing the market scenario forcing little or no differentiation on the price front.

Then, how can any manufacturer of goods or a provider of services achieve the proverbial 'Customer Delight' ??

Is Innovating the answer? Perhaps yes. The point here is, with the power of IT in this age, it is not really difficult to engineer, re-engineer, reverse engineer any product/service and quickly bridge the gap of the 'Innovative' differentiator.

Now, are patents a source of respite? Not really. The CEOs of most companies in the semi-conductor, electronics, pharma space spend on an average, 25% of their working time with legal consultants. The point here is, it is not impossible for any competition to maintain wafer thin margins with the bindings of the IP laws and safely match competition. It is after all a play of legal jargons. This we speak of in mature markets; one must remember that there exists a nether world where what one can atmost expect is between a 'healthy dis-respect' to 'hatred' for IP.

In the wake of such threatening scenarios, how do companies serve share-holder interest and generate profits ??
The case in point is, while Innovation is a differentiator, it has a very small shelf life. Principles of Operations Management suggest that any product with a low shelf life needs to be turned around quickly - "larger INNOVATION turnover". But then, Innovation is a concept and not a product. We land up imagineering if Innovation could actually be FACTORYized. Else, how could a company repeatedly delight consumers while meeting the same 'real' and new 'aspirational (some times fanciful)' needs, both at the same time.

Can Organizations define structured ways of uniquely Innovating? Can there be a structured process to foster Innovation among the work-force? Will new set of Organizational values, Organizational restructuring and IT initiatives be sufficient to meet the challenges?? Questions remain.