SOWPub Small Business Forums - The first computer I ever saw (innovation in business)...

I remember when I was still in school, back in the early 1980s, my school had one computer. The great thing was, you could book this computer during lunch time!

I'd sometimes book the computer with a friend. The computer was an Apple II!

It had a two-color monitor (a "green screen" as they called them, because the only colors were black and green). You could play a game called "Sabotage," where you could shoot down parachutists who were trying to destroy your base.

That was my first encounter with a computer!

The point I want to make is, what Apple did back then was incredibly innovative. Before Apple came out with their first computer in the 1970s, your choice was to either get a mainframe computer for millions of dollars, or put together a computer kit!

Apple was the first to create and sell a computer which was "ready-to-go" and affordable to the ordinary person!

The "Apple I" computer actually had a case made out of wood!

I mention this because I've been recently reminded of the importance of innovation in business...

Peter Drucker (who founded the practice of management consulting) said...

"Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two–and only two–basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs."

However, "innovation" is not just "high-tech" innovation. It can also be innovation in creating a new kind of food (like the recent "cronut," a cross between a croissant and a donut), a more efficient process, or even teaching new knowledge, or in a way it hasn't been taught before (such as maybe by holding a webinar on how to grow orchids).

Here's a cronut!

Innovations are happening every day, both the "big" ones we all hear about, and "little" ones that happen in the background, but enable businesses to compete and grow...

I think Drucker's right on the money - every business should focus on both marketing and innovation, to improve their own processes, products, and services as well...

Just a few thoughts...

Best wishes,

Dien