Innovation exhaustion

It is difficult to know where to begin, when you begin to think of innovation.

There is no common definition - one person's innovation is another person's logical line extension.
If they noticed the new product at all (think many new car launches).

Perhaps innovation should be defined by users? It has been stated that innovation is one of the strongest levers to change customer behaviour, and to generate profit. If customers don't change, is it not innovation? Or just not relevant? Does innovation by its very nature have to be relevant? For example, would a car that changed colour when in use be an innovation?

There is a new product failure rate (variably) quoted as 50-90%, with companies spending enormous amounts of money and time investing in 'innovation' at all ends of the spectrum.

Recently it seems there is an (arguable) decline in the rate of innovation in consumer goods, based on my experience and touched upon here. Is this a symptom of the financial downturn or are many organisations realising there is a problem, stopping the wastage but then not knowing how to progress?

Or is it innovation exhaustion - people, companies and industries that have been running so hard for so long with such low success rates and high levels of corporate pressure (and risk aversion - see an antidote from Neil Perkins), that it has become all too much for us all.

So we have decided that for now, we need a little lie down?

Some great examples of some (product) companies refusing to lie low are Help, Slow cow and Sipahh

I have a feeling that this is just a power-nap and the next phase will be when consumer good companies start to 'get' genuinely consumer led innovation.

Flickr photo credit: out_of_rhythm