Invention vs. Innovation — It is often difficult to decipher where one ends and the other begins. Invention can be defined as the act of creating a physical or tangible element for a purpose, usually a device whereas S. Maranville’s “Entrepreneurship in the Business Curriculum” defines innovation as “a new idea, creative thought, or new imagination” and the “application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs, or existing market needs.” If invention is the conception of an idea or product (“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk,” according to Thomas Edison), innovation occurs through the facilitation of products, processes or technologies; something new and original that makes a meaningful impact in the market or society. Visualize the invention of the wheel transformed as innovation into Opportunity MER-B, the robotic rover that actively explored the surface of Mars for 14 years.
Where is the marketplace positioned in today’s IT world? If virtual desktops, cloud computing, and machine learning are inventions, what is our innovation? And most importantly, how are IT partners around the globe innovating? Information Technology has morphed from an extreme focus on hardware capabilities to hardware not even being a factor. Or perhaps automating a source-controlled environment to such a degree that a monotonous, manual infrastructure is all but removed and remaining in its place is infrastructure as code (IaC).
Compass Consulting knows the need for innovation firsthand. With our consultative approach, significant in-house talent and experience, and deployment of heavy-duty cloud technologies, clients recognize Compass Consulting as a leader in innovation. There exists no stock catalog or instruction manual for what we do. Every customer presents a new set of needs and challenges. In the words of author and consultant Jamie Notter, “Innovation is change that unlocks new value.”
This is how Compass Consulting tackles innovation: As a part of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the United States Navy required a firm that could develop a fully autonomous system to detect and monitor oceanic events, determine if said events were naturally or unnaturally occurring (i.e. nuclear detonation), then alert the necessary agencies. The undertaking required high fault tolerance, extreme levels of automation, and acute security controls to manage auditing, access and authorization. Rigorous government cybersecurity methodologies (STIGs) were implemented to harden security for software, hardware, and physical and logical architectures to further reduce vulnerabilities. Compass Consulting completed this project on time and within budget. With this level of complexity and innovation, imagine what can be accomplished for your firm.
Contact Compass Consulting to discuss Innovation and your business.
