Creatives and deliverers join together in collaborative innovation. While creatives provide ideas and vision, deliverers execute plans and support them. Backers, partners, and supporters also play a crucial role in the innovation team to make the process possible. Throughout history, notable innovators had innovation teams to help make them successful; Leonardo da Vinci, Marie Curie, and Steve Jobs all had valuable sidekicks that helped them achieve remarkable breakthroughs. The greatest success is seen through collaborative innovation where creative innovators and deliverers work together.
Innovation is a team effort, so it is unfair to recognize the solo innovators without being able to identify the sidekicks, the partners, and those who make innovation possible.
Sometimes they assume the form of backers as they help to invest in projects. Other times they become protectors, defendants of ideas, supporters, and promoters of visions. Sometimes, they make the idea happen in the market through their technical or scientific knowledge; sometimes, they take the form of engineers, lawyers, designers, marketers, or makers. No matter what, their role is as vital as that of the creatives, as they support their partners to concentrate on delivering their vision.
Those who deliver can be understood as the executors, in which one of their main characteristics is that they can work "within the box." They are excellent at converting a vision or a goal into results and establishing specific tasks to achieve a particular objective.
Among the characteristics of deliverers or executors, we can find that:
They can execute logical, detailed, and data-based plans;
They have advanced analytical and planning skills;
They are attentive to details;
They have disciplined execution skills.
In this group, we could classify most executive directors of successful companies. Some professional administrators are better equipped to climb within companies and often replace the "creative" founders, who are better known for their discovery abilities.
But also in this group, we had to consider this deliverers that work backing up every process:
There would have been no Leonardo da Vinci without the Sforza family backing him up on his ideas and projects, providing the safety and context for him to concentrate on his creations; it’s almost impossible to mention any outstanding innovator in history without someone on their side helping out along the way!
Marie Curie always had the support of her husband, Pierre, despite his refusal to be recognized for the Nobel Prize. Or there’s (Jo) Gezina van Gogh-Bonger, through whose efforts and vision we now know the talent of the creative Vincent van Gogh. Or there was Steve Wozniak helping Steve Jobs to materialize the idea of the Macintosh computer, and then Apple.
Among those deliverers, we can find the backers that made them possible; what would be of Gaudi without Güell? Would he have been able to concentrate on the Sagrada Familia? Many more examples can be mentioned.
In conclusion, we can understand the profile of an innovator by understanding what is behind the innovation team. We must understand the connections between those with the ability to think like designers or be "creative" and those with the power to deliver. Innovation will only exist if both entities are involved in the same process with the same dedication. In other words, it is only possible for innovation to occur if the abilities visualize and fulfill are combined. If implemented correctly into the market, vision comes together with knowledge!