Understanding Innovation: From Incremental to Revolutionary

Innovation is what companies strive to accomplish with products and services. Every company has smart people and AI to drive innovation. I would argue that innovation alone is not enough to remain competitive.

I was attending a career day for a company that was presenting their RFI/RFP. And the PhD that led the discussion said that “we are looking for revolutionary tech and that being innovative was not good enough”. That phrase has left an eternal imprint on my person. I’ve always strived to be innovative and an out of the box thinker, but this new phrase “to be revolutionary” changed how I viewed the world.

My new “way forward is to strive to be revolutionary. Granted not all tech nor ideas can be revolutionary. However, while trying to be revolutionary you will be at a minimum innovative.

In this age of AI, I asked Gemini to elaborate on revolutionary vs innovative. The Gemini response follows:

While “revolutionary” and “innovative” are often used interchangeably, they describe different magnitudes and types of change:¹

Innovative refers to the introduction of new ideas, methods, or products.² It implies creativity and fresh approaches, often leading to improvements or advancements. Innovation can be:

• Incremental: Small, continuous improvements to existing products, processes, or services.³ This is often called “evolutionary innovation.” Think of successive iPhone models with slightly better cameras or processors.
• Radical: A more significant departure from existing norms, introducing something distinctly new.⁴ This might create new markets or significantly alter existing ones.

Revolutionary, on the other hand, describes something that causes a sudden, fundamental, and far-reaching change, often completely overthrowing or transforming existing systems, industries, or ways of thinking.⁵ A revolutionary change is disruptive and creates a new standard, making previous methods or products obsolete or significantly less relevant.

Here’s a breakdown of the key differences:

• Degree of Change:
  • Innovative: Can involve both small, gradual changes (evolutionary) and more significant, new introductions (radical).⁶
  • Revolutionary: Always signifies a radical, transformative, and often disruptive upheaval.⁷
• Impact:
  • Innovative: Aims to improve, refine, or introduce something new within an existing framework.
  • Revolutionary: Aims to completely redefine or replace the existing framework.⁸
• Risk:
  • Innovative: Can range from low to high risk, depending on the degree of novelty.⁹ Incremental innovation is generally lower risk.¹⁰
  • Revolutionary: Often involves high risk due to the unknown nature of the complete transformation.¹¹
• Examples:
  • Innovative (Incremental): A new car model with better fuel efficiency, an updated software feature, a more efficient production process.¹²
  • Innovative (Radical): The first personal computer, the first digital camera.¹³
  • Revolutionary: The invention of the internet (transformed communication, commerce, information access), the printing press (transformed knowledge dissemination), the steam engine (transformed industry and transportation).

In essence, a revolutionary change is a type of innovation, but not all innovations are revolutionary.¹⁴ A revolutionary innovation is so impactful that it fundamentally alters the landscape.¹⁵