Innovators
Being innovative is a state of mind. Innovator is within us. We just need to break down conventional wisdom and enhance a set of best and next practices to harness innovation.
Innovation is about figuring out better ways to do things. Innovators can think differently and solve problems in alternative ways. There are many ways to innovate; and there are different types of innovators. So "innovator" gets classified several different ways depending on the lens — here's a map of the main typologies:By Role in the Innovation Management Cycle (Diffusion of Innovations)
The classic framework — who adopts when:
-Innovators — venturesome; tolerate failure; source of new ideas, but socially distant from the mainstream
-Early Adopters — respected opinion leaders; the bridge between novelty and mass market
-Early Majority — deliberate; adopt just before the average person
-Late Majority — skeptical; adopt under peer pressure or necessity
-Laggards — tradition-bound; last to adopt, if ever
By Organizational Position
-Entrepreneurs — start new ventures around an innovation
-Intrapreneurs — drive innovation inside an existing organization, using its resources
-User Innovators/Lead Users — customers who modify products for their own needs (open-source software is full of them); the research showed users pioneer many major innovations
-Corporate Explorers / Corporate Venturers — internal teams building new business models, often semi-autonomously
By Type of Innovation They Pursue
-Disruptive innovators — target overlooked segments with cheaper/simpler offerings, then move upmarket (Christensen)
-Sustaining innovators — improve existing products for current customers
-Radical innovators — create new markets/categories (the telephone, the smartphone)
-Incremental innovators — continuous small improvements
-Architectural innovators — recombine existing components into new systems
-Frugal/Jugaad innovators — high-impact solutions under severe resource constraints
By Openness of Approach
-Closed/proprietary innovators
-Open innovators — use crowdsourcing, ecosystems, platforms; inbound and outbound flows of ideas.
-Collaborative innovators — cross-company or cross-sector partnerships
-Community innovators — bottom-up, community-driven solutions
By Motivation
-Commercial innovators — profit-driven
-Social innovators — solve societal problems (education, health equity)
-Mission-driven/impact innovators — blended value: financial + social/environmental return
-Scientists / researchers — discovery-driven, often publishing rather than patenting
By Cognitive Style (less formal, but widely used)
-Visionaries — see future possibilities others miss
-Tinkerers— learn by building and breaking
-Synthesizers — connect ideas across unrelated fields (innovation as recombination)
-Challengers — question assumptions and push against incumbents
-Facilitators — make others innovative rather than innovating alone (design thinking coaches, innovation managers)
Useful Distinctions
-Pioneer vs. settler — the first mover often isn't the winner; early adopters and fast followers frequently capture more value
-Innovator ≠ inventor — innovation requires implementation and adoption, not just a novel idea
-Individual vs. ecosystem innovator — most innovation is team/system-level, even when an inventor gets the credit.
Being innovative is a state of mind. Innovator is within us. We just need to break down conventional wisdom and enhance a set of best and next practices to harness innovation.
