Unique — Innovation can be incremental (small step improvements) or radical (a paradigm shift, ie, Nintendo Wii gaming console). So don’t feel you are not innovative because your ideas are not unique. The trick is to leverage existing ideas with a simple creativity tool: “concept extraction”.
New — New to the world or new to you? Did you know that travel is one of the top five ways to be innovative? There are many success stories such as Boost Juice, where the idea for premium juice bars was spotted in the US and taken back Australia, modified and then launched as a successful business.
Good — Innovation has to add value and generally be an improvement. Sony’s product ideas in the early 1990s were constrained until it broke the mindset that the laser disk had to be the size of a dinner plate/LP record. Apparently, the breakthrough came during a meeting with Philips Electronics, when they saw the then new compact discs. Having practical devices that fit in your hand opened whole new range of opportunities.
