About technical innovations Development technical innovations Negative sides of the technical innovations

Technical Innovation
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   About technical innovations
   
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   Development technical innovations
   
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   Negative sides of the technical innovations
   

We are often talking about “innovation” and “digital innovation” (or “technical innovation”) in particular, when it comes to tech startups. It has, unfortunately, become a cliche, and now “innovation” is devoid of meaning. I’ve been trying to put some meaningful analysis of the “innovation landscape” and to classify what is being called “innovation”.

And the broad classification I got to is “technical innovation” vs “process innovation”. In the majority of cases, tech startups are actually process innovations. They get existing technology and try to optimize some real world process with it. These processes include “communicating with friends online”, “getting in touch with business contacts online”, “getting a taxi online”, “getting a date online”, “ordering food online”, “uploading photos online”, and so on. There is no inherent technical innovation in any of these – they either introduce new (and better) processes, or they optimize existing ones.
And don’t get me wrong – these are all very useful things. In fact, this is what “digital transformation” means – doing things electronically that were previously done in an analogue way, or doing things that were previously not possible in the analogue world. And the better you imagine or reimagine the process, the more effective your company will be.
In many cases these digital transformation tools have to deal with real-world complexities – legislation, entrenched behaviour, edge cases. E.g. you can easily write food delivery software. You get the order, you notify the store, you optimize the delivery people’s routes to collect and deliver as much food as possible, and you’re good to go. And then you “hit” the real world, where there are traffic jams, temporarily closed streets, restricted parking, unreponsive restaurants, unresponsive customers, keeping the online menu and what’s in stock in sync, worsened weather conditions, messed up orders, part-time job regulations that differ by country, and so on. And you have to navigate that maze in order to deliver a digitally transformed food delivery service.
There is nothing technically complex about that – any kid with some PHP and JS knowledge can write the software by finding answers to the programming hurdles on Stackoverflow. In that sense, it is no so technically innovative. The hard part is the processes and the real-world complexities. And of course, turning that into a profitable business.
In the long run, these non-technical innovations end up producing technical innovation. Facebook had nothing interesting on the technical side in the beginning. Then it had millions of users and had to scale, and then it became interesting – how to process so much data, how to scale to multiple parts of the world, how to optimize the storage of so many photos, and so on. Facebook gave us Cassandra, Twitter gave us Snowflake, LinkedIn gave us Kafka. There are many more examples, and it’s great that these companies open source some of their internally developed technologies. But these are side-effects of the scale, not an inherent technical innovation that lead to the scale in the first place.
And then there’s the technical innovation companies. I think it’s a much more rare phenomenon and the prime example is Google – the company started as a consequence of a research paper. Roughly speaking, the paper outlined a technical innovation in search that made all other approaches to search obsolete. We can say that Bitcoin was such an innovation, as well. In some cases it’s not the founders that develop the original research, but they derive their product from existing computer science research. They combine multiple papers, adapt them to the needs of the real world (because, as we know, research papers often rely on a “spherical horse in vacuum”) and build something useful.
As a personal side-note here, some of my (side) projects were purely process innovations – I once made an online bus ticket reservation service (before such a thing existed in my country), then I made a social network aggregator (that was arguably better than existing ones at the time). And they were much less interesting than my more technically innovative projects, like Computoser (which has some original research) or LogSentinel (which combines several research papers into a product).
A subset of the technical innovation is the so called “deep tech” – projects that are supposed to enable future innovation. This can be simplified as “applied research”. Computer vision, AI, biomedical. This is where you need a lot of R&D, not simply “pouring” code for a few months.
Just as “process innovation” companies eventually lead to technical innovation, technical innovation companies eventually (or immediately) lead to process improvements. Google practically changed the way we consume information, so it’s impact on the processes is rather high. And to me, that’s the goal of each company – to get to change behaviour. It’s much more interesting to do that using never-before-done technical feats, but if you can do it without the technical bits (i.e. by simply building a website/app using current web/mobile frameworks), good for you.
If you become a successful company, you’ll necessarily have both types of innovation, regardless of how you started. And in order to have a successful company, you have to improve processes and change behaviour. You have to do digital transformation. In the long run, it doesn’t make that much of a difference which was first – the technology or the process innovation. Although from business and investment perspective, it’s easier for competitors to copy the processes and harder to copy internal R&D.
Whether we should call process innovation “technical innovation” – I don’t think so, but that ship has already sailed – anything that uses technology is now “technical innovation”, even if it’s a WordPress site. But for technical people it’s much more challenging and rewarding to be based on actual technical innovation. We just have to remember that we have to solve real-world problems, improve or introduce processes and change behaviour.

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Technical Innovation is the process of implementing new ideas, related with practical knowledge or experience, into a productive process.
Technical innovation results in lower production costs or greater value added. Lower production costs can arise from better production processes. Greater value added can arise from new features or higher quality.
After applying a productive method during a long period of time, organizations and business finds opportunities of improvement.
Differences between Technical Innovation and Technological Innovation
Technical innovation places emphasis in the application of practical knowledge (or techniques) into a particular discipline or function. While Technological innovation places emphasis into the application of scientific knowledge into productive processes.
Technical innovation usually is an incremental process that comes from the experience gained through the fulfillment of a productive process during a period of time. Technical innovation doesn’t depend on the advancement of science. In regard to technological innovation, scientific discoveries usually lead to technological innovation.
Generally, people whose work is close to productive processes is responsible of technical innovation, while technological innovation usually is more related to the academic and scientific field, in comparison with technical innovation.
Importance and Management of Technical Innovation
Technical innovations gives competitive advantages to business and can also result in benefits to the consumers, because of lower prices or better products.
When technical innovation is a systemic feature of an organization, it is an important strength of a company that, in the long run, can position a business as a leader in a sector.
An example of good management of technical innovation is the Japanese car maker Toyota. Toyota empowered it’s employees with tools and permission to solve issues as they occurred and to share the solutions with management. Changes in management of technical innovation resulted in a continuous flow of small increments of productivity and efficiency. Toyota became one of the most successful car makers in the world.
Management of Technical Innovation in Toyota is based on 2 fundamental principles:
Continuous improvement: all the employees are involved in technical innovation, from the CEO to the assembly line workers.
Go and see: to really understand a situation, you have to go to the ‘real’ place where things happen: it can be a factory or a sales hall. It means also to go and see how consumers behave in real world situations.
Summary and Conclusions
Technical innovation is related with the application of practical knowledge into a productive process. Technological innovation is the application of scientific knowledge.
Technical is an incremental process. The long term impact of technical innovation is the result of a sum of many small improvements in efficiency and productivity.
When technical innovation is a feature of a particular company, it becomes a strength of that company. Managers should seek process and systems that favor technical innovation in all business areas.
Technological innovation is an extended concept of innovation. While innovation is a rather well-defined concept, it has a broad meaning to many people, and especially numerous understanding in the academic and business world.[1]
Innovation, refers to adding extra steps of developing new services and products in the marketplace or in the public that fulfill unaddressed needs or solve problems that were not in the past. Technological Innovation, however focuses on the technological aspects of a product or service rather than covering the entire organization business model. It is important to clarify that Innovation is not only driven by technology.
Technological innovation is the process where an organization (or a group of people working outside a structured organization) embarks in a journey where the importance of technology as a source of innovation has been identified as a critical success factor for increased market competitiveness.[2] The wording "technological innovation" is preferred to "technology innovation". "Technology innovation" gives a sense of working on technology for the sake of technology. "Technological innovation" better reflects the business consideration of improving business value by working on technological aspects of the product or services. Moreover, in a vast majority of products and services, there is not one unique technology at the heart of the system. It is the combination, the integration and interaction of different technologies that make the product or service successful.
If the process of technological innovation is formalized (typically within an organization: a company, a public entity, a think tank, a university, etc.) it can be referred as Technological Innovation Management (or Technology Innovation Management - TIM). The "management" aspect refers to the inputs, outputs and constraints a "Manager" or team of "Managers" are responsible to govern the process of technological innovation in a way that aligns with the company strategy. In a context where Technological Innovation is not to be guided along known paths within the organization, the wording and concept of Technological Innovation Leadership is preferred. In many occasion, especially in start-ups and new ventures, the Technological Innovation is performed in an unknown context. The boundaries and constraints of the Technology at work are not precisely know. Hence it requires leaders and not managers to give the vision and coach the team to explore the unknown part of the technology.
What are the hottest technological innovations at the moment? As it turns out some will be pretty obvious, while others might surprise you.
In the following article, we've collated some of the most interesting and potentially revolutionary tech-innovations currently either being researched or developed. 
RELATED: 15 NEW TECHNOLOGIES THAT WILL MAKE YOUR 2020 MUCH MORE INTERESTING
What are the newest technologies coming our way?
Here are some of the newest up and coming technologies for 2019 and beyond. This list is far from exhaustive and is in no particular order.
1. AI coming of age is, um, coming!
AI has been on the receiving end of massive financial investment over the last few years. According to Forbes, 80% of enterprises are now investing in it or are planning to expand AI investment if they already are. 
This influx of money has given rise to some serious innovation in deep learning. With all this cash flowing around, many tech experts believe AI will really "come of age" within the next few years. 
2. Internet at the speed of lightning
The appetite for faster and faster internet connection is really pushing the technology forward. Businesses and private users are constantly demanding ever quicker response times and the industry is responding. 
With lightning-fast internet speeds just around the corner, it should be transformative for many aspects of our lives. Should it be achieved, it will increase the efficiency of workers and will provide reliable communication tools for companies that rely on remote workers.
This is where 5G might be able to change the world as much as our "regular" internet did several decades ago. That's if it doesn't kill us all first, of course.
3. Life-enriching smart tech will change the home
Source: IE
More and more of our lives are becoming integrated with smart tech. Our homes being no exception. 
Demand for ever better smart home appliances and home entertainment systems are changing the way we socialize. Whether for better or worse, today is just the tip of the iceberg.
Current trends seem to indicate a greater demand for more control over the way we are entertained in the home from tech. One area that may be something to watch is something called flexible viewing surfaces. 
These promise to be able to curve around any environment will change home entertainment and advertising beyond all recognition. Watch this space. 
4. Dextrous robots might be with us very soon
Computers and robots are dumb. Very dumb indeed.
If their work environment changes even slightly outside their preprogrammed procedure and the whole production line could come to a grinding halt. This is where improving robotic dexterity offers an incredible opportunity for more flexible automation.
While it may be possible to program robots to figure out how to grasp something by "looking" at it in the future, current research is trying to make them learn how to do so through a trial and error process.
One example is a project called Dactyl, that has taught itself to flip a toy using it's "fingers."
5. Brain-computer interface is almost here
Innovations like Elon Musk's Neuralink could make the mouse and keyboard obsolete in the future. Work in this area is continuing apace and promises to allow us to control computers just by thinking. 
We'll let you decide if this will be revolutionary or not to you working and daily life.

6. Swallowable medical devices are on the way

Small, swallowable devices are currently being developed that can capture images of your guts without the need for anesthetic. They can even be used in infants and children. 
Once fully developed these little medical devices will revolutionize how medical professionals diagnose and monitor some very serious diseases. This will be an incredibly powerful tool for things like cancer and intestinal disorders like environmental enteric dysfunction.
7. Custom cancer vaccines could be a reality soon
Thanks to scientific developments like the Human Genome Project, personalized medicines and vaccines could be just around the corner. One interesting application for this is the possibility of developing personalized cancer vaccines. 
This might sound a little far-fetched, but it is hoped that medical professionals could soon train your immune system to identify and destroy cancer cells. This, if achieved, could make cancer a thing of the past. 
8. Fancy a cow-free burger?
Source: Impossible Foods
Meat is a vital part of a healthy diet, so we are told, but it comes with a small problem - an animal needs to die. Developments are in motion to provide the world with animal-free meat.
Whether lab-grown, 3D printed or plant-based, alternatives that provide the same nutritional value as proper meat could soon be a reality. It will also offer a means for mankind to reduce dramatically our collective appetite for meat's impact on the planet. 
9. An end to sewers is on the way (hopefully)
Developments are afoot to push forward with "eco-friendly" toilets that do not need a connection to a sewer system and can treat waste on the spot. Not only will this be revolutionary for cities of the future, but it will bring much-needed sanitation to many parts of the world that currently lack this "luxury". 
Philanthropists Bill Gates has been running a competition called "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge" to find suitable, viable prototypes for this. Many submissions are actually quite promising and once self-contained, self waste metabolizing systems will benefit mankind and the environment for the better.
10. GANs - Generative Adversarial Networks are on the way
GANs, or Generative Adversarial Networks is one of the latest developments in neural networks could be the future. Invented by Ian Goodfellow, this class of machine learning basically sets two neural networks against each other to solve a problem.
Given a set starting condition, the two networks battle it out in a usually non-zero sum game to find a solution to something. These have been described by some as "the coolest idea in machine learning in the last twenty years"
Applications for this technology include generating artificial images, modeling things, improving computer games and many more. 
What other examples of technological innovations are there?
Apart from the ten highlighted above, there are some other interesting technological innovations out there. These include, but are not limited to things like (credit to MIT) : -
- 3-D metal printing
- Artificial embryos
- Sensing cities (smart cities)
- AI for everyone
- Instant foreign language translation
- Zero-carbon natural gas
- Genetic fortune-telling