If you are thinking of writing an innovation pitch, or preparing one in your head, there is one thing that deserves your attention. You should very well expect few people in the audience (or more) who believe in some common myths about Innovation. Breaking these myths even before you start your pitch would be a good idea. As a bonus, you get to make a good impression in front of your audience too!

We have tracked down 3 very common myths we found (They kind of perfectly apply for BRAC too) and put up Sir Ken Robinson‘s Response to those (With few article suggestions of course)!

1. I am not ‘Innovative Enough’ : Everyone has profound creative powers, but one needs to develop it. People tend to be most creative at the age of 3-4 years, till our schools kill it. As Sir Ken Robinson compares it with literacy. “It’s like literacy. Every child knows how to speak. But they don’t know how to read and write. It is because there’s a set of cultural skills you have to acquire, that you do have to be taught. You don’t have the capacity to innovate doesn’t mean you don’t have the ability. You need to put yourself in the right culture to turn your natural ability into a capacity.”
2. Creativity is for a ‘Specific Department’ : If you do things that improve how you did things yesterday, that’s innovative. If others can benefit too from following what you did, definitely that’s innovation. “Walmart never invented anything, it was their process and supply chain that did it. Starbucks never invented coffee, they created a culture that went with it. Except they invented the ‘7 dollar coffee’!”
3. Innovation=Invention : Inventions are great. Kodak is a company known for inventing kodak camera, roll films and digital camera too. Kodak did make money off of the digital camera patent, billions in fact, until it expired in 2007. But by the time the company embraced digital, it was too late. Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012. [This article from the World Economic Forum is a must read ]Sir Robinson says “Kodak taught people to take photos. They allowed people to by that technological marvel for couple of dollars, that taught them a new way of life, that now is in the museum. Kodak has filed for bankruptcy, not because people stopped taking photos. People still take photos. Even more, irritatingly more photos. They went out of business because they didn’t adapt and put all their money in the films. Because it was a company funded by chemists, based in chemistry. They invented digital photography but didn’t bet on it. Their competitors who did have outlived Kodak.”

For more inspiration from Sir Robinson, check out this youtube video.

Masrura Oishi

Masrura Oishi is an over-thinker and procaffeinator. In her free time, she pretends to be a philosopher and does some development work for BRAC Social Innovation Lab. She invests her insulin pumped energy into reading, writing, traveling and living!