- The History of Change is Social Innovation
- The Future of Change is Social Innovation
To understand these two comments that underpin the existence of Total Executive and the knowledge portal we provide executives and their staff, we must first provide a couple definitions;
Innovation - The commercialisation of an idea/invention(1)
Social Innovation - Innovation developed through collaboration with community/society(2)
These definitions are considerably simplified from the definitions provided by Wikepedia below. However, I believe it is important to simplify the definitions right down to theire core - so their full impact on change can be understood.
Let's first take the impact of innovation on change...
If Innovation is the commercialisation of an idea or invention, then this means the idea or invention may have existed for years, even decades.
However, it is not until someone comes along and commercialises the idea or invention - ie use it to create something that produces a return of value (not necessarily a $value/profit it could be of community value), that the act of innovation has been achieved.
Thereby, the idea or invention may have existed for years, though it is only at the point of commercialisation - ie innovation - whereby 'change begins'.
Now let's consider the impact of social innovation on change...
If social innovation is innovation developed through collaboration with community/society, this implies that the act of commercialisation has involved more than one person.
Therefore, a social innovation must have a much more significant impact on change, than an innovation alone - as the number of people involved is considerably more.
It is therefore, given the definitions above, that I believe the history and future of change will continue to rely on Social Innovation.
With this in mind, Total Executive has been created.
Our knowledge bank provide resources to aid discussion and argument on the cornerposts of our portal:
- Leadership
- Sustainability (All levels - not purely 'Green')
- Responsibility and CSR
- Technology and Communications
These are underpinned with the belief that knowledge, coaching and mentoring via the fantastic minds we have within our executive community will produce social innovations that will help with the changes our planet will require into the future.
We bring you our first newsletter in April 2010.
We look forward to hearing how you are fostering and developing relationships across sectors into the future.
References:
1) Wikipedia define Innovation as:
Innovation is a new way of doing something or "new stuff that is made useful".[1] It may refer to an incremental emergent or radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations. Following Schumpeter (1934), contributors to the scholarly literature on innovation typically distinguish between invention, an idea made manifest, and innovation, ideas applied successfully in practice. In many fields, such as the arts, economics and government policy, something new must be substantially different to be innovative. In economics the change must increase value, customer value, or producer value. The goal of innovation is positive change, to make someone or something better. Innovation leading to increased productivity is the fundamental source of increasing wealth in an economy.
Innovation is an important topic in the study of economics, business, entrepreneurship, design, technology, sociology, and engineering. Colloquially, the word "innovation" is often synonymous with the output of the process. However, economists tend to focus on the process itself, from the origination of an idea to its transformation into something useful, to its implementation; and on the system within which the process of innovation unfolds. Since innovation is also considered a major driver of the economy, especially when it leads to new product categories or increasing productivity, the factors that lead to innovation are also considered to be critical to policy makers. In particular, followers of innovation economics stress using public policy to spur innovation and growth.
Those who are directly responsible for application of the innovation are often called pioneers in their field, whether they are individuals or organisations.
2) Wikipedia define Social Innovation as:
Social innovation refers to new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that meet social needs of all kinds - from working conditions and education to community development and health - and that extend and strengthen civil society.
Over the years, the term has developed several overlapping meanings. It can be used to refer to social processes of innovation, such as open source methods and techniques. Alternatively it refers to innovations which have a social purpose - like microcredit or distance learning. The concept can also be related to social entrepreneurship (entrepreneurship isn't always or even usually innovative, but it can be a means of innovation) and it also overlaps with innovation in public policy and governance. Social innovation can take place within government, within companies, or within the nonprofit sector (also known as the third sector), but is increasingly seen to happen most effectively in the space between the three sectors. Recent research has focused on the different types of platforms needed to facilitate such cross-sector collaborative social innovation.[1]
History
Social innovation was discussed in the writings of figures such as Peter Drucker and Michael Young (founder of the Open University and dozens of other organizations) in the 1960s.[2]. It also appeared in the work of French writers in the 1970s, for example Pierre Rosanvallon, Jacques Fournier, and Jacques Attali [3]. However, the themes and concepts in social innovation have existed long before that. Benjamin Franklin, for example, talked about social innovation in terms of small modifications within the social organisation of communities [4] that could help to solve everyday problems. Many radical 19th century reformers like Robert Owen, founder of the cooperative movement, promoted innovation in the social field and all of the great sociologists including Karl Marx, Max Weber and Émile Durkheim focused much of their attention to broader processes of social change. However, more detailed theories of social innovation only became prominent in the 20th century. Joseph Schumpeter, for example, addressed the process of innovation more directly with his theories of creative destruction and his definition of entrepreneurs as people who combined existing elements in new ways. In the 1980s and after, writers on technological change increasingly addressed the importance of social factors in affecting technology diffusion[5]
Recent developments
The idea of social innovation has become much more prominent with ongoing research, blogs and websites (such as the social innovation exchange) [6], and a proliferation of organisations working on the boundaries of research and practical action. Several currents have converged in this area, including:
- new thinking about innovation in public services, pioneered particularly in some of the Scandinavian and Asian countries. Governments are increasingly recognising that innovation isn't just about hardware: it is just as much about healthcare, schooling and democracy. [7] [8]
- growing interest in social entrepreneurship.[9]
- business, which is increasingly interested in innovation in services.[10]
- new methods of innovation inspired by the open source field.[11]
- linking social innovation to theory and research in complex adaptive systems to understand its dynamics.[12]
- collaborative approaches to social innovation, particularly in the public sector.[13] [14]
A recent overview of the field highlighted the growing interest of public policy makers in supporting social innovation in these different sectors, notably in the UK, Australia, China and Denmark.[15] A focus of much recent work has been on how innovations spread [16] and on what makes some localities particularly innovative.[17]
History of Social Innovation and territorial development
There is another extensive literature on social innovation in relation to territorial (or regional) development, which covers: first, innovation in the social economy, i.e. strategies for satisfaction of human needs; and second, innovation in the sense of transforming and/or sustaining social relations, especially the governance relations at the regional and local level. A combination of both the modes provides a comprehensive approach to innovation in social and economic dynamics within territories. In Europe, from the late 1980s, research on social innovation from a territorial perspective was initiated by Jean-Louis Laville[18] and Frank Moulaert[19] and has been going on since then. In Canada CRISES initiated this type of research. The first large scale research project to work on territorial innovation analysis was SINGOCOM Social Innovation, Governance, and Community Building a European Commission Framework 5 project (2002-2004), that offered wide ranging discussions on Alternative Models for Local Innovation (ALMOLIN).
Some noted scholars
- Akhtar Hameed Khan
- Jean-Louis Laville
- Frank Moulaert
- Geoff Mulgan
- Michael D. Mumford
See also
- civil society
- post fordism
- social entrepreneurship
- Specialisterne
- sustainopreneurship
- Young Foundation
References
- ^ Nambisan, S. "Platforms for Collaboration", Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2009.
- ^ see for example Gavron, Dench e ds Young at 80, Carcanet Press, London, 1995 for a comprehensive overview of one of the world's most successful social innovators
- ^ Chambon, J.-L, David, A. and Devevey, J.-M (1982), Les Innovations Sociales, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris
- ^ Mumford, M.D. (2002) Social Innovation: Ten Cases from Benjamin Franklin, Creativity Research Journal, 14(2), 253-266
- ^ notably in the writings of Christopher Freeman, Carlotta Perez, Ian Miles and others
- ^ www.socialinnovationexchange.org
- ^ Innovation in the Public Sector an overview of thinking about innovation in the public sector, published by the UK government's Strategy Unit in 2003
- ^ Ready or Not? published by The Young Foundation in 2007 about the need for public sector organisations to innovate
- ^ see for example Nichols; Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford University Press 2007
- ^ design companies article by Forbes magazine about how companies are innovating in the way they offer services
- ^ Innovation in open source article by harvard business school about innovation in open source
- ^ Westley,Zimmerman and Patton; Getting to Maybe;Toronto, Random House 2006
- ^ Nambisan, S. "Transforming Government through Collaborative Innovation", IBM Center for the Business of Government, April 2008
- ^ James A. Phills Jr., Kriss Deiglmeier, & Dale T. Miller "Rediscovering Social Innovation", Stanford Social Innovation Review Fall 2008.
- ^ Mulgan, Ali, Tucker; Social innovation: what it is, why it matters, how it can be accelerated, published by Said Business School, Oxford, 2007
- ^ various studies by Greg Dees and others and the study published by NESTA In and out of sync: growing social innovations, London 2007
- ^ Transfomers published by NESTA, London, 2008
- ^ Laville, J.-L. (Ed.) (1994) L’économie solidaire, une perspective internationale, Desclée de Brouwer, Paris
- ^ Moulaert, F. and Sekia, F. (2003) Territorial Innovation Models: a Critical Survey, Regional Studies, 37(3), 289-302
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