Innovation and Science Fiction, New Ways for Competitively

Innovation is a term used as an approach to meet the strategies and goals of any enterprise. Prize the innovation lies in the future and how the organization can struggle against whatever external force.

What is innovation?

Innovation, in simple words, is a change that includes something new to a product, process or service. I can say, in synthesis innovation:

• It is a product, process or procedure tangible inside of any organization. A new idea could create a point to start an innovation.
• It is something new to the social context where we want to introduce it.
• It is an intentional, not accidental, neither a routine action.
• It is focused toward to give a benefit to the organization or the society in general.

The Innovation Process

Innovation development is a complex process that integrates several activities as:

1. Identify opportunities and generate ideas. This event needs the study of external and internal elements with the purpose of obtaining the knowledge necessary to make many ideas that allow satisfying organizational or social necessaries.
2. Evaluate ideas to rank. Depends on the organizational strategy and the feasibility to develop and carry out. In this activity, each hypothesis is analyzed and defined the requisites to improve and find which problems and risks faced.
3. Create the initiatives of projects. The team should identify a group of projects to develop and carry out each idea, creating the project's plans and assigning the necessary resources.
4. Execution. This activity allows executing each project plan oriented to convert each suggestion in a product or service ready to use it. The quality assurance is the most important process to make sure that the product or service complies the requisites. Also, before the beginning the next activity, the team must review and complete the transition plan.
5. Implementation and use. When the product or service is ready to use it, the team must carry out the transition plan, allowing the implementation of the product or service and its use by the organization or the society.

Innovation Types

• Product Innovation: It brings a new or improved product or service. To consider it an innovator product or service, this must present differentiate characteristics from the organizational competitors.
• Process Innovation: It achieved through the necessary changes in technics, materials, automate process, procedures, employs, etc., to decrease cost and improve the quality.
• Marketing innovation: It consists in develop and use a marketing process which it was changed to include better ways to design, positioning and to promote to achieve an increase sailing.
• Organizational innovation: It is the improvement of the process, procedures, culture, workplace, external relations and strategic decision, with the intention to enhance results through of raising the productivity or reducing cost.

Science Fiction

The science fiction emerges as a blend of the science and fantastic or fiction ideas, which were not realistic. The science fiction shows some future worlds with advanced technology, and how people act about this technology. Science fiction tries to anticipate concepts and ideas which at present are impossible or are unimaginable, trying to predict a probable future. Nevertheless, imagining a future world is the aim of the science fiction novelist. Some universities in the world, like the University of Liverpool, has courses to develop a curiosity mind for achieving an innovation thinking. Science fiction, science, and technology have an intrinsic relation each other because each one can nourish of the other.

Some great writers of science fiction have imagined a future world with unbelievable technologies devices and gadgets impossible at this era. Today, some of these technologies are available. I can mention, for example:

• The Cellphone. It is the invention created from the science fiction. Martin Cooper, the cellular phone inventor, accepted he got the idea from the Star Trek TV series.
• Personal Computers. When Star Trek was released, computers were biggest and very expensive. The idea that each person in the world would use a computer we very absurd. However, the Star Trek director created the world where computers were fundamentals for any activity in the life and anything.
• Tablets. When captain Kirk signed important subjects, he used something similar to a tablet. Today tablets are an essential part of the business and people life.
• USB Memories. Store, an incredible amount of data in a small device, was something unimaginable in the 60s, though, the crew of the Enterprise used a similar device to store and transport information.

Innovation and Science Fiction

Engineers, technologist, and inventor have felt motivation when they have read books or watched movies about science fiction, and they have created inventions and new technologies based on science fiction ideas. Science fiction takes advantage of some innovations of the scientific and technological advances too, for example, Julio Verne, the author of 20.000 leagues, based this novel on the submarine technology created by Robert Fulton in 1807.

The relation between innovation and science fiction must be considered a commitment, mutual benefit, and co-creation. Must develop a framework to monitoring this connection and involve transformation process, influence, persuasion, and wishes.

Arthur C. Clarke, a Science fiction author, formulated three laws related to the scientific advances:

• When an eminent old scientist says that something is possible, it is almost sure he has the reason. When he states that something is impossible, probably he is wrong.
• The way to discover the limits of the possible is the adventure to the impossible.
• Any advanced technology is imperceptible from the magic.

Isaac Asimov, another Science fiction author, said:

"Science fiction was considered an exercise in the fantasy, but with time we have proved that some themes considered as science fiction it has converted a reality, the humanity has arrived at the moon, has robots and computers working for them."

If an organization wants to innovate, it needs new ideas sustained in new knowledge, comes from the market, team members, environment, science, technology and even from the science fiction. The next image shows this relation to generated innovation:

Images Star Trek Tech is courtesy of Tech News 24h.