What makes great innovation? Boat Builder Awards 2022 to spotlight the very best
The Innovative On-Board Design Solution award sponsored by Fusion, recognises the most creative innovations our industry has to offer - but what exactly is innovation, and why do some innovations stand out? IBI explores the concept with Arjen Jansen, a lecturer at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.
If you had to name a standout innovation transforming our industry of late, most money would be on the hydrofoil. Candela has undoubtedly been one of the most successful in harnessing such technology with its C-7 and C-8 electric hydrofoils, earning the Swedish builder the accolade of joint winner – along with Sunseeker for the brilliantly conceived design of its 65 Sport Yacht SkyHelm – in the Innovative On-Board Design Solution category at last year’s Boat Builder Awards in Amsterdam.
Innovation has become one of the major buzzwords – we think we know it when we see it, but what exactly is innovation? IBI put the question to Arjen Jansen, a lecturer at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. One of the world’s leading design, engineering and technology learning establishments, its 3,000 students are taught a vast array of design disciplines from new apps for mobile phones to complete aeroplane interiors. “Anything you see around us could have been designed by one of our students!” Jansen tells IBI.
So what is innovation
"You can probably find 20 or 30 definitions of the word,” says Jansen, who has lectured on the subject in Japan. “An innovation is something new that adds value to people – makes people happier or their life easier – if it’s new and doesn’t add value, why bother?"
Jansen explains: "We see it as a triangle – the three points being 'Technology', 'Business' and 'Human'. Anything the students design needs to be a viable business proposition – it needs to fit in a business proposal. If we can’t make money out of it, there’s no point. It needs to be desirable too; consumers need to want to use the new product. It should solve a user’s problem and it should be feasible. We’re not dreaming about stuff. It’s in this triangle you need to find the sweet spot, which we call Viability, Feasibility and Desirability."
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According to Jansen there are four different levels of innovation, the level most people and companies are working on, being Incremental Innovation. “You take a TV. We used to have big Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT), then -I believe it was the late 80’s- Sony introduced a flatscreen. Essentially using the same technology; products become a little bit cheaper, better for the environment, you get a remote control etc.
Then you get the next level; Product Innovation – in the case of TVs it would be the LCD screen – a different type of technology used for the same function.
