Role of Innovation in Project Delivery

Without innovation, countries across the world would have struggled to enhance or sustain their economic growth, their living standards, their international competiveness and their infrastructural development (OECD, 2005). Meanwhile, it should be pointed out that the definition and application of the term innovation are largely context-based. It is for this reason that innovation does not technically mean the same thing to both manufacturers and service providers (DTI, 2007). It is also for the same reason that the term is specifically defined by various sectors to suit their individual operations. OECD (2005) has therefore categorised innovation as being technological and non-technologically in nature, adding that the nn-technological aspects of innovation are those that are, for example, organisational and marketing segments of a company. Be that as it may, both OECD (2005) and DTI (2007) are all agreed that innovation can be described as the implementation of a novel or reasonably enhanced product (which could be good or service) or a novel marketing or organisational approach or even a new process in business-related activities, company's management system or company's external relations policy.