If you step back and look at the history of innovation practices, it quickly becomes clear that there isn't just one type of innovation problem and that there isn't one 'best' innovation practice.  Over the last 50 years, a series of different approaches to innovation have been developed, each tailored to the major creative challenges of the day.  

This report, developed for the START Network, explores opportunities for pushing beyond conventional innovation support models.  Leveraging hands-on insights from the DEPP Innovation lab initiative in Kenya, Jordan, Bangladesh and the Philippines, it challenges what may seem to be an obvious assumption … that doing more for humanitarian and development sector innovation requires direct investment in programs that support innovators in their work.

How do you assess the health of an innovation program and its ability to generate impactful and successful innovations?  If you're a commercial investor, over time the financial return of the selected investments may be a satisfactory proxy for the investments you've made.  

A lot of people, even those trained in the field, think that innovation is just one set of practices.  That's not the case.  How you do innovation depends on the kind of challenge you face.  And as a result, over the last 70 years, three very different methodologies have been widely adopted.  Today a fourth approach, Ecosystem Innovation, is emerging in response to the need to tackle complex and fast moving challenges in business and the world around us.