Fitch gave an excellent presentation further defining the always vague concept of innovation. The presentation broke the concept into two sections: being innovative and actual innovation. The presenter from Fitch defined being innovative as a re-establishment of an existing product or solution. Something that is not totally unique, but a new realization.
An example that he gave was that of a CD player. When the product first came to market, it was a true innovation. There was not a product like it, and it was an improvement on the audio experience above and beyond its predecessors. On the other hand, a product like the Bang & Olufson CD player was innovative in its approach to aesthetics and interaction, but was not a true innovation. This differentiation is something that could be utilzed in a product development plan. By categorizing product initiatives as something that is innovative or an innovation will help to determine the scale of resources as well as a time line for completion. An innovative product can be put in the pipeline for short or near term realizations, while an innovation might be a long term (or open ended) time line. Fitch’s approach is to utilze this differentiation throughout it’s business practice.