Innovation is Not an 'Idea', It is the 'Means' to Change the World

Often I find that people confuse the definition of innovation and a 'good idea.' These two terms are far from the same thing. I meet many people who have an 'idea' (some better than others), yet entrepreneurship is about building a business that solves a customer's problem — not the idea alone. Innovation is the execution of an idea, bringing the idea to life. It is the building of an enterprise, system or process that improves the world. The idea alone cannot change the world.

There seems to be an increasing conversation about the state of entrepreneurship in Australia. The conversation will often revolve around 'What are the stopping points for success?' and 'Where are the opportunities to excel?'

A story map was recently shared with me showing the Top 12 Cities for Female Entrepreneurs. Unsurprisingly the exciting numbers are in the USA, with Chicago trailing only NYC as the #1 hub for fast growing companies on the Inc. 5000. In the windy city you will find that 30% of start-up founders are women, which is wonderful news. Boston, arguably the new “tech capital” of the world, is behind by only by 1%. With more than 5000 startups, interestingly we are seeing Israel as a hub of innovation — with 20% of startups founded by women. The assistant minister for Innovation a couple of weeks ago announced he was headed to Israel himself to “scour the high tech powerhouse for inspiration for the government's innovation agenda.” We are learning as much as we can from countries like Israel, with a population of 8 million people, but when will the ‘Lucky Country’ make its debut on the list? What are our challenges in getting there?

Many of the conversations I am having at the moment are about the excitement we all share in the startup world and around innovation — conversations recently at the BSchool B-LAB, a fascinating dialogue with Julio de Laffitte from The Unstoppables, through to Women in Tech discussions with Tanya Plibersek. But there are still many stopping points. Big banks are saying all the right things about investing in startups and there have been some great things happening in this space, but how can we give entrepreneurs permission to shine if the processes and stopping points are simply too hard to overcome? Growth can be ad hoc and challenging if the founder is constantly worried about cash and working capital, i.e. money to be able to deliver on customer demand.

Change and progress no doubt involves investment from both the private and the public sector. But if you take a look at the Innovation Australia website, the creativity and energy usually attributed to this space is simply not where it needs to be. It looks like any other government page. The most recent papers produced for the government do not speak volumes of their attention to the topic of ‘inspiring entrepreneurship,’ though I and other entrepreneurs are keenly awaiting the impact of the new federal leadership. The Innovation Australia Board seems to provide an ‘innovative’ suggestion on a range of topics, but doesn’t necessarily look at examples of entrepreneurial innovation that I am seeing wherever I travel.

It would be unfair to say there has been no progress. The appointment of Wyatt Roy MP represents a great opportunity. Not only is he of the generation of the ‘up and coming,’ he is the face of announcing government grants in the entrepreneurial space — 20 Aussie companies are the latest to benefit from $7.3M in commercialisation grants assistance under the Australian Government’s Entrepreneurs’ Programme.

Not a lot of women founders are on this list, but let’s not get too caught up in what we haven’t done — or why this is so. We do need to power ahead. And this will require a co-operative approach and clever investment from both the public and the private sectors.

You cannot change the world without the means.

Pictured: a great Australian innovation now available in 16 countries around the world - The Heg. This is me showing off the product in Woolworths — I won't give up my day job :).

Naomi Simson is the founding director of Australian online tech success story RedBalloon and Redii. She has written more than 950 blog posts at NaomiSimson.com, is a professional speaker, author of Live What You Love & Ready To Soar and is one of five “Sharks” on TEN’s business reality show Shark Tank 9.00pm. Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook