Innovation, Innovation Everywhere

In many organizations including mine :-) there is a firm belief that to survive in a business you need to innovate and, majority of our bosses believe in that. But some times the buzz word innovation can make the basic aim of development of new products and services futile.

I quite like the IBM advertisements on innovation with punch line "Stop Talking, Start Doing". They really capture the confusion and dilemma occurring in the minds of software community people.

In a recent published article in "The Wall Street Journal" describing how car manufactures are creating new ways for drivers to start their cars. Instead of manual keys, more than 50 2008 models feature push-button starters. Drivers of push-button cars still have to carry a small device that emits a wireless signal that authenticates the driver.

I am not at all against new technological advancements, but what exactly was wrong with using a physical key to start a car? The process is familiar, it is easy to transfer a key to another driver, and the process takes about 10 seconds.

Saving 10 seconds is wonderful in today’s hectic world, but there’s a catch. In exchange for saving those 10 seconds, drivers have to make sure they don’t walk away with the activation device in their pocket when they valet-park their car. More importantly, they have to hope that their new key doesn’t run out of batteries or malfunction. While some activation systems include manual keys, using those keys involves following a complicated set of instructions, with helpful owner’s manual advice like “call your dealer.”

As we read in our school days that "necessity is the mother of all invention" is quite true. I believe that innovations are to make our life easier, and its not necessary to innovate/re innovate everything that exist just to impress others/bosses.