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Bruce Nussbaum: INNOVATION IS DEAD.

By Allan Chochinov - January 2, 2009

in Design Business

Whoa? Bruce Nussbuam, arguably the most effective and dedicated proponent of the term "innovation" ever, dropped an I-Bomb on Wednesday (the last day of 2009!) by declaring the word dead. Here's the start:

"Innovation" died in 2008, killed off by overuse, misuse, narrowness, incrementalism and failure to evolve. It was done in by CEOs, consultants, marketeers, advertisers and business journalists who degraded and devalued the idea by conflating it with change, technology, design, globalization, trendiness, and anything "new." It was done it by an obsession with measurement, metrics and math and a demand for predictability in an unpredictable world. The concept was also done in, strangely enough, by a male-dominated economic leadership that rejected the extraordinary progress in "uncertainty planning and strategy" being done at key schools of design that could have given new life to "innovation. To them, "design" is something their wives do with curtains, not a methodology or philosophy to deal with life in constant beta--life in 2009.

And what does he nominate to take its place? Well, that's what links are for.

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Ricardo Ramalho

15 years ago

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Couldn't agree more!
For quite long I feel the same way!
Design looks like a fashion victim, abused and overused...with no sense at all!
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Scotty

15 years ago

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not only did EVERY student in my first ID class use the word to describe their EVERY project when they made only mere cosmetic changes IMO. but the company that made the hairnets used by the cooks at a job of mine had the slogan "innovation by dedication". HAIRNETS!! RIP buddy :(
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Mark Senninger

15 years ago

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Hear! Hear! I couldn't agree more.
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