Everyone is talking about innovation. We need to be more innovative...innovation is the key to success...but how? In this article, we will detail how to turn innovation into revenue and your organization into an innovation engine. Innovation is the art and science of applying knowledge in new ways. Your organization may innovate new processes, new products, new business models, and more. Innovation results in intellectual property including product and process and method.

The question then, is how to capitalize on innovation. To turn intellectual capital into revenue, you need social capital and financial capital (the old fashioned kind) and motivation. In other words, you need people and money...but not just any people and not just any money. That brings us to the missing element...Motivation. Motivation comes from many sources and is wildly different between any two people. When selecting your social capital (to include your financial capital) each individual’s motivation must be taken into account.

For established organizations, this same entrepreneurial model applies. For example, suppose that some brilliant person within your organization has an idea for a new product, or perhaps a process improvement. If you are like most businesses, nothing happens. But if your organization is an innovation engine, this idea’s story will play out quite differently resulting in vastly improved product, process or method and more revenue for the organization.

Each organization has unique human capital that can translate into intellectual capital. Social media will give you the tools to create the social capital required; and your organization (or another) is the financial backer. Create an environment for innovation and be prepared to reward and capitalize on that innovation. The advantage will be yours, and it will be global.