Innovation: top down or bottom up

Innovation only thrives when people have the courage to challenge the status quo; change is difficult to accept even among executives, managers, and experienced discipline professionals. Innovation occurs in many different ways depending upon the industry and the organization´s culture. From an organizational perspective, two types dominate the innovation scene, either top-down innovation (TDI) or bottom up innovation (BUI). TDI stems from fully funded organizational projects; BUI begins with an individual initiative in pursuit of some value-adding activity. Each of these types of innovation requires a different mindset. Innovation as used in this context is defined as follows: INNOVATION = INVENTION + COMMERCIALIZATION OR IMPLEMENTATION. It then follows with the caveat: no commercialization or implementation, no innovation. Innovation is not limited to the technical and marketing areas, to be effective, it must permeate the whole organization; it requires a change in mindset.