What’s the recipe for that breakthrough product? Innovation or invention? Hard-core originality or smart thinking on your feet? Read on to discover more about making ‘all the difference’.

We are not talking about Adam here; we’re talking about our permanent need to be ‘original’—all the time! “Who wants to do what has been done before, except, of course, when it can qualify as ‘inspiration’ Annu Malik ishtyle!”

I have found our obsession for originality to be the single reason for creative paralysis. Designers, geeks, artists… everybody is inflicted. Cameron Moll says, “Pablo Picasso, the first living artist to be featured in the Louvre, influenced the artistic world in a uniquely original way. So why is he known for saying ‘Good artists copy, great artists steal’?”

“Picasso hardly meant that great artists steal popular designs whose original source is known to everyone,” says Wes George, writer for The Mac Observer.

“What Picasso did mean was that great artists rummage through the great junk heap of lost, bypassed and forgotten ideas to find the rare jewels, and then incorporate such languishing gems into their own personal artistic legacy… Picasso implied that great artists don’t get caught stealing because what they appropriate they transform so thoroughly into their own persona, that everyone ends up thinking the great idea was theirs in the first place.”

My own belief is that waiting for the right ‘inspiration’, just to be original, is rather unviable in today’s fast-paced business world. Disclaimer: I am not advocating plagiarism or anything of the sort—far from it! All I am saying is that while trying to be original is a good thing, there is also potential in being able to ‘combine existing IT tools, ideas and practices in a different way’, simply because the context has changed.

Most of us believe that doing something that’s been done before is not fashionable. It is our wish to be different, get noticed, build an image, become famous—all the trappings of worldly success, and therefore our need for originality. Hence the question, “Is originality really a prerequisite for identity? Can just being different or doing something new ensure value?” The answer perhaps lies in understanding the difference between being different and making a difference! Ah, and being able to make a difference is quite another thing.

So you may have guessed already: what I’m leading up to is that the real need to be able to make a difference, is for us to be innovative, not necessarily original.

To paraphrase from Jack and Suzy Welch’s “Winning: The Answers”:
“Luckily, there are two ways to innovate, and together, they can deliver a real knockout punch.
The first … discovery of something original and useful—a new molecule, a breakthrough piece of software, a game-changing technology.

But there’s a second, less glorified way of innovation that is just as effective. It is the continuous, aggressive improvement of what you already sell, or how you already do business.”