Innovation or invention?

I joined Battle of Ideas at Jaguar Land Rover this week, when JLR opened up two hours of their day of judging and presenting awards for innovation to a debate on what innovation really is. Sitting on a panel with Andrew Nahum, Kerry Kirwan, Tony Harper, Norman Lewis and Chaired by Claire Fox, I gave the view that innovation needs both hard work and focus, but a broad interdisciplinary approach. As a panel we worried that real innovation is becoming rare, that we do not have an innovation culture, that we don't celebrate technology. We worried that innovations in technology are creating lazy brains and resulting in a lack of ambition.

But what was also clear was that technology always cuts both ways. Innovation in the delivery of education (MOOCS), ways of manufacturing (AM and 3d printing) and in frugality and sustainability (JLR's own work on lightweighting and fuel efficiency) really are offering promise. It's good to celebrate technology if that creates an innovation culture - but it is even better to debate it.