Peter Drucker’s seven sources of innovation

It seems that every time I find a web reference for Peter Drucker’s seven sources of innovation, the web site dies. So after yet-another site going the way of the dodo, I’ve decided to record them here, in this blog, so I at least have a stable thumbnail definition to point folk at.

Peter Drucker’s seven sources of innovation:

  1. The unexpected. The unexpected success, failure or outside event.
  2. The incongruity. The difference between reality as it actually is and reality as it is assumed to be or as it “ought to be.”
  3. Innovation based on process need.
  4. Changes in industry structure or market structure that catch everyone unawares.
  5. Demographics. Population changes
  6. Changes in perception, mood and meaning
  7. New knowledge, both scientific and nonscientific.

If you want more detail, then get the book Innovation and Entrepreneurship.