Change, Innovation, and Transformation all play a synonymous role in the growth and development of any sector, these three are interconnected and work hand-in-hand towards ensuring sustainability.

 Transformation occurs when Innovation comes to play, while Innovation is birthed due to the need for Change. Change is a deliberate attempt or an action directed towards making something different in form, quality, or state: it is the fact of becoming different, change can also be classified as a paradigm for fostering growth and development of any kind. According to William Pollard on “Change“

“without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement; Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable “.

Change is a constant law of life, and in other for change to occur, there must first be an awareness and then an acceptance according to Nathaniel Branden. We must be aware of our environment, by looking into areas that need improvements and advancements, also there is the need to gear ourselves towards proffering solutions to the problems that need some form of technical ability and creativity skills in solving them, and that’s when acceptance comes in, we take it upon ourselves to see that such landmark of improvements and advancements is actualized. At this stage innovation comes to play its role in making it happen.

 Innovation is simply an act of introducing something new. It is the development of something that is different from existing forms, innovation is what make changes happen. According to Li Kegiang,

“changes call for innovation, and innovation leads to progress”

 Innovation plays a very important role in ensuring continuous and rapid development,

“Innovation is the engagement of the mind to effect change”

 Innovation does not only come from ones independent thought towards an existing issue, but a collaborative effort among persons of different fields who are very skillful in what they do, therefore in other for innovation to take place, various levels of research must be carried out and this cannot be done by a single individual, and that’s a strong reason why expertise from different fields relating to the subject area that requires change must be engaged to see through its fulfilment and execution.
 According to Margaret Hefferman, “for good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, and debate”. Thus, the need for a collaborative effort cannot be overemphasized, and this also reminds me of Don Tapscott perspective on ‘collaboration’, in his thought ” ‘collaboration is important not just because it’s a better way to learn, the spirit of collaboration is penetrating every institution and all our lives; so learning to collaborate is part of equipping ourselves for effectiveness, problem solving, innovation, and life-long learning in an ever changing networked economy “.
 Innovation brings about change in structures, routines, and produces a more effective way of doing things, Innovation is a breakthrough in knowledge, it brings out the extraordinary out of the ordinary. Any attempt to innovate, is an attempt to cause a unique and noticeable transformation and evolution.
 Transformation on the other hand, is an act, process, or instance of transforming or being transformed completely or essentially in composition or structure. Transformation is also a change in condition. Innovation serves as an opening door to transformation, and transformation sees to the growth and development of a thing or any sector of a country, According to Leon Kass,

” innovation is indeed important to economic growth and the enhancement of human possibilities “

The transformation gotten from innovation ensures rapid economic growth, and the enhancement of human possibilities such as creativity, skills and productivity, and according to Julia Gillard, “our future growth relies on competitiveness and innovation, skills and productivity”.
 In other words, change, innovation, and transformation are important vehicles for actualizing growth, development, and sustainability, any country or business that has achieved a noticeable growth and development over the past few years have learned to master the art of change, innovation and transformation.
Therefore we must embrace change, because it is bound to happen, and also learn to be  innovative so as to bring about a transformation in structures, routines, behavior, and forms, in other for growth and development to occur.
So today I welcome you to a world of possibilities birthed with change, innovation, and transformation.
Thanks for reading!

Akin-Femi Ade

Image Credit: Huffington Post