decline photo Photo by 準建築人手札網站 Forgemind ArchiMedia [CC]

If businesses can’t and don’t want to be innovative, what does this mean for innovation consultancies? More specifically: How can I sell innovation?

This is a follow-on from my previous post on how most businesses are probably not able to become more innovative because of their nature and the prevailing conditions.

The analogy I used was: bakeries exist to provide busy people with fresh bread. Despite many good intentions to make good food from scratch at home, the nature of our lives prevents most of us from actually doing this.

So what does this mean for innovation consultancies?

Many innovation companies are focused on teaching businesses to become more creative. They do this through creativity programmes, workshops, mentoring and culture change programmes.

Traditional service providers (like designers, lawyers, process improvers etc) provide innovation through the delivery of their services. They use innovation to add value to their work. But they are unlikely to attempt to consciously teach their clients to be creative.

I have done both types of innovation work in my life. The question for me is: Which one makes a more significant and sustained impact to my clients? Which one gives me the most satisfaction?

Do I care more about teaching businesses to be more innovative? Or helping businesses solve problems more creatively through working with me in some outcome-oriented capacity?

Any thoughts?