In this paper I will be exploring the social benefits of innovation. I will firstly describe some of the major innovations humankind has experienced and the social benefits that this has resulted from these innovations using supporting material such as Enfinger and Stevens (2006), BBC (2006), Mitchell (2001) and Cerf (2006). Secondly, I will explore how these innovations came to be by applying design theories as described by Liedtka and Ogilvie (2011), d.school (2013), Dunne and Martin (2006) and Berger (2009). Thirdly exploring what social benefits could occur in the future from innovation with reference to Tidd and Bessant (2013), IDEO (2013), Seelos and Mair (2005), Chesbrough (2010), Normann and Ramirez (1993) and Chesbrough and Teece (2002). I’ll finish with a conclusion summarising the ideas presented in this paper.

Our society wouldn’t be where it is today without innovations. There have been many innovations from very early tool making, to being able to control fire, to language, to the creation of the wheel, to farming and beyond. This paper will focus on three major innovation humankind has experienced and these are sewage, the car and the internet.

“Sewers are an important part of our society. They serve to promote public health, protect the environment, and support economic growth in our communities.” (p. 2, Enfinger and Stevens, 2006). The sewage system allowed for humans to able to live in large urban settings such as cities in a sustainable manner. Most people don’t think regularly about the cities’ sewers systems in their everyday lives but without these systems the modern society wouldn’t exist.

 

Figure.1: Construction of the London Sewers in 1850s

 

Many cities have taken great feats to put a sewage system into their growing urban places. This was the case in London, UK in the 19^th century, were the River Thames was an open sewer and there were multiple break-outs of cholera which killed over 10,000 people. There was a need for a solution and the decision was to create a sewer system (Figure.1). The London Sewers have been called an engineering triumph (BBC, 2006). The social benefits of sewer systems have been multiple because of sewers allow for modern society to grow.

 

Figure.2 – Within a Single Lifetime Source: Science is Awesome

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The car is another innovation that has allowed humankind to live and develop in modern society. Although Henry Ford did not invent the car, he was the one who made if commercially accessible to the every-day person. The social benefits have been allowing people freedom of movement, a faster way of traveling distances and the ability of individuals to be self-reliant for transport (Mitchell, 2001).

The innovation of the car has led to other innovations in our society and one of these innovations being space exploration. As seen in Figure.2, the image shows two photos that are just 100 years apart. This shows the innovation of the car led to the further developments in our society.

One of the major tools and innovation the world uses today is the internet. The internet was created in 1969 under the name ARPANET in the USA by several universities. It has grown billions of users every day and with the world’s economy relying on the internet. The internet allows people to connect with other people and ideas. This innovation has allowed for multiple great achievements and innovations to occur for our society (Cerf, 2009).

All innovations come from thoughts and ideas that are held by people. For these thoughts and ideas to become actual innovations with social benefits, the person or people have to go through a design process. There are many approaches and methods for the design process and these are some that used:

Liedtka and Ogilvie (2011) consider the design process as four questions with ten tools. The questions being What is? What if? What wows? and What works?.  Then ten tools are Visualization, Journey Mapping, Value Chain Analysis, Mind Mapping, Brainstorming, Concept Development, Assumption Testing, Rapid Prototyping, Customer Co-Creation and Learning Launch (pp. 21 – 23). This shows there is an in-depth process for design and innovation creation that needs to be undertaken. Liedtka and Ogilvie (2011) also propose the idea that “Design starts with empathy, establishing a deep understanding of those we are designing for.”(p.6). This idea shows that the design process need to be person-centred and with great consideration with their wellbeing and current situation.

 

The d.school (2013) based in Stanford has D.Mindsets that guide the design process and these main ideas are Show Don’t Tell, Focus on Human Values, Embrace Experimentation, Bias Toward Action, Radical Collabroation, Be Mindful of Process and Craft Clarity. They have a five step system that includes stages Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test (pp. 1 – 5). These processes and ideals set up the designers to be empathic, open to new ideas and aware of the context they are working in. This was key for the three innovations previously explored to be successful and producing as many social benefits as they have. The d.school (2013) presents a method for innovation that is called Interview for Empathy (p. 10). This is to gain a deeper understanding of someone’s thoughts, emotions and motivators. This demonstrates clearly that the designers need to have great consideration of the people they are designing for.

Dunne and Martin (2006) present the idea of design thinking in our modern business practices and the possibilities for this to change how the system works. They suggest that active listening is missing currently from business practices and there is a need for change. They also consider the need for attitude changes surrounding the ideas of design and innovation. Dunne and Martin (2006) argue that design education is needed in higher education settings and this in turn will innovate the business practices.

 

Figure.3 – The three gears of design

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Berger (2009) presents the idea from Bruce Mau that “’Anthropology and ethnography are essential parts of our work,’…” (p.101). Our work being design work. This idea is about gaining a deep understanding of our society and empathising with them to design something that they themselves may not be aware that they need. . Berger (2009) also quotes Henry Ford as saying: “If I’d simply asked customers what they wanted,…they would have said ‘a faster horse’’(pp. 100 – 101). Thought for an idea to become reality there is a need for a third element other than empathy and ideas conception: namely strategic business design. Berger (2009) presents the three gears of design and suggests this is how ideas become reality (Figure.3).

Technology has been rapidly developing over the last century as demonstrated in Figure.2. The future will hold changes for innovation and the social benefits that come with these innovations. Not all things will change and all of the key design principles as discussed early will still apply. Some of the technological changes has already influenced and change the innovation process. What will happen in the future in innovative ideas and its social benefits will hopefully change our society for the better. There are many ideas on what will occur and these are some of them:

Tidd and Bessant (2013) suggest that true innovation doesn’t occur with just individual involved but it occurs with multiple people with multiple view-points and ideas. Collaboration is key for innovation to be successful and to have true social benefits to our society. The Power of Group Creativity (p. 300) is a suggestion that a group of people have more fluency and flexibility with their idea generation. Theses means the group will come up with more ideas and also with different ideas. Tidd and Bessant (2013) state innovation is now a networking task and it “…is being played out on a global stage but with an underlying networking technology – the internet – which collapses distances, places geographically far-flung locations right alongside each other in time and enable increasingly exciting collaboration possibilities.” (p.300). They do warn though that our current systems and cultural practices don’t always support the idea of being a global village. Some organisations are taking on board these ideas and creative innovative teams of people from different backgrounds. IDEO is one of these organisations and with IDEO being the world’s leading innovation company they understand there is a need for multiple viewpoints and ideas to create successful innovate ideas become tangible (IDEO, 2013).

There has been new social innovations that has been occurring that have been challenging “…the status quo and our conventional thinking about what is feasible.” (p. 243). This has been coming from individuals and groups who are recognising needs and wants of others that are not being met by corporations or government and that are taking action. These types of innovations do have direct social benefits to them because they are meeting a social want or need. Seelos and Mair (2005) suggest that these innovations are often based on the sustainable development (SD) goals. They also suggest that there new opportunities for involvement from corporations and industries to these new social based innovations.

Organisations will need to make changes to their business models to enable for these partnerships with these innovations. Chesbrough (2010) discuss the opportunities and barriers and how business models effects this. They suggest that organisations adopt an experimental approach to their business model but there is a risk of failure as well. There also a need for a cultural change within organisation for them to accept this new business model. Also there is a new for all parties to active during the innovation process including people the innovation is aimed at.

Normann and Ramirez (1993) discuss how business models can enable customers who are normally passive consumers to become active. They present the case study of IKEA and suggest that their customers don’t consume the value of the organisation but create it. This is a form of collaborative innovation through an innovative business model that allows all parties to be active in the process. This approach also allows for organisation to have a deeper understanding of others which in turns creates better innovation results. There is a risk of having too many parties collaborating at once on innovations and especially if these projects are based on a virtual setting. People need to be aware of this and have the design principles in mind when starting an innovation project. (Chesbrough and Teece, 2002).

In conclusion, there are many innovations that have great social benefits and also some innovations lead to other innovations with even greater social benefits. The design process must be empathic towards to people and embrace their needs and wants. There is also a need to have a deeper understanding of people. Innovations will continue in our society with exciting and positive social changes and benefits.

 

Reference List

BBC (2006) ‘London Sewers’, BBC, Date Accessed: 6^th November, 2013 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/sevenwonders/london/sewers_mm/index.shtml >

Berger, W. (2009) ‘Glimmer: how design can transform your life, and maybe even the world’, Penguin Press, New York, pp. 99 – 125

Cerf, V. G. (2009) ‘The day that the internet age began’, nature, Vol. 461 No. 29, pp.1202 – 1203

Chesbrough, H. (2010) ‘Business Model Innovation: Opportunities and Barriers’, Long Range Planning, 43, pp. 354 – 363

Chesbrough, H. W. and Teece, D. J. (2002) ‘Organizing for Innovation: When is Virtual Virtuous?’, Harvard Business Review, pp. 5 – 11

d.school (2013) ‘bootcamp bootleg’ Institute of Design at Stanford, Stanford, USA

Dunne, D. and Martin, R. (2006) ‘Design Thinking and How It Will Change Management Education: An Interview and Discussion’, Academy of Management Learning and Education, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 512 – 523.

Enfinger, K. L. and Stevens, P. L. (2006) ‘Sewer Sociology: The Days Our (Sewer) Lives’, ADS Environmental Services, Huntsville, Alabama

IDEO (2013) ‘About IDEO: What we do’, IDEO, Date Accessed: 6^th November, 2013 <http://www.ideo.com/about/>

Liedtka, J. and Ogilvie, T. (2011) ‘Designing for Growth: a desidn thinking tool kit for managers.”, Columbia Business School Publishing, Chichester, West Sussex.

Mitchell, F. (2001) ‘Your place in time: twentieth century America.’, Journal of American History, 88.3

Normann, R. and Ramirez, R. (1993) ‘From Value Chain to Value Constellation: Designing Interactive Strategy’, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 71, No. 4, pp. 65 – 77

Seelos, C. and Mair, J. (2005) ‘Social entrepreneurship: Creating new business models to serve the poor’, Business Horizons, Vol. 48, pp. 241 – 246

Science is Awesome (2013) ‘Within a Single Lifetime’, Elise Andrews, Date Accessed: 2^nd November, 2013 <https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=661014913930184&set=a.465299380168406.106666.465298390168505&type=1&theater>

Tidd, J. and Bessant, J. (2013) ‘Managing innovation: integrating technological, market and organisational change’, 5^th Ed., John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, West Sussex, pp. 299 – 325