On Friday 11 February I organised the Creative Green Forum as part of the Green Innovation Platform. An interesting discussion about the definition of innovation started between one of the speakers and the audience. One participant claimed that innovation was a lonely activity; many of the greatest ideas had been produced in glorious solitude. The answer came with a nice reversal:

‘Invention is turning money into ideas while innovation is turning ideas into money.’

The former can indeed be done alone, but commercialising your ideas is a whole different story. It requires participation from many stakeholders, is multidisciplinary in nature and involves connecting many ideas to the original one, as the first idea is not more than raw material. This is definitely not a lonesome endeavour.

So innovation is the opposite of invention.

I like these oppositions. They bring clarity. During the same Forum two other oppositions became clear showing the innovation gap between Asia and Europe.

From producer driven to consumer driven

Many Asian firms want to enter the high-added value markets of Europe. And therefore they need to innovate and find products that appeal to European consumers. The biggest firms already do so, but most export-oriented SME’s struggle. They are typically production-driven and with increasing competition, tougher legislation in their overseas markets and shifting consumer tastes their carefully crafted position is being jeopardized.

But creating higher added value products requires opposite business models. A dramatic 180 degrees shift from production to consumer driven is needed. So these firms face great challenges because consumer concerns suddenly enter the chain. It’s not anymore about who can offer the lowest price, it’s about who can combine these concerns into an appealing value proposition for the consumer. (On purpose I do not say product, because the value proposition, presented through the product, is more than just the product. Hence the higher added value on your product.) This requires a reversed approach to the chain involving closer cooperation and higher trust between different partners in the chain.

Green products are not special but normal

During the same seminar several companies also asked for EU-incentives on Green Products to ease sales. Again, the answer for these came with a reversal: ‘Green products are treated like normal products. It’s non green products that increasingly are taxed because of their environmental burden.’

So unless Asian SME’s start to innovate the opposite way, the doors to the high ended value markets will remain closed.