Not long ago, Huawei's mate x mobile phone launch set off an upsurge in the circle of friends. Almost at the same time, Nubia's flexible screen "wrist" α was also released. These products are so bright that people can see another possibility of mobile phones. So a friend asked, are these products innovative? Can we succeed in the market in the future?

Whether a product innovation or a technological innovation can succeed or not depends on how much value it continuously creates for people and society, and how far it has gone in the search for meaning.

Since the concept of innovation was put forward in the 20th century, its theories and methods have been developed and improved in several camps. In the western countries headed by the United States and Britain, Schumpeter is the originator of innovation theory, and Drucker (innovation and Entrepreneurship) and Freeman (national innovation system) are the representatives of management and economic masters. They constantly develop and improve innovation theory and methods. In modern times, Clayton Chris (subversive innovation), Roberto vigante (meaning innovation) and other stars are springing up Now, the innovation theory is promoted to a new height. The Soviet team headed by genrich achishure put forward TRIZ theory (method of creation and invention), and systematically studied and analyzed how to create and invent, which has strong practical significance.

All kinds of innovation theories and methods have analyzed and studied a large number of innovation cases, focusing on ways and methods, that is, how to have more innovation and creativity. By comparing these cases, we can find that the meaning of innovation is not innate, that is, a technological innovation or product innovation, its original intention may be to solve a problem, may be to compete for products or services, may be a commercial application of new technology, or may be just a creative fantasy. Whether the innovation is intentional or unintentional, the success of the innovation depends on whether it finds the meaning to the individual or the society and realizes its meaning through the system.

So, what kind of path should innovative products and services follow to find meaning? In this paper, meaning refers to "something that makes you feel valuable, especially important or purposeful". With "meaning" as the purpose of innovation, there are generally three levels at the same time: the functional meaning of expressing the actual utility of things; the symbolic meaning of how to make us transmit information to others; and the emotional meaning of expressing the value of behavior. If innovation wants to really succeed, it must strive to explore the third level.

Take Huawei mate x as an example, this mobile phone has its own unique technology and function, but it is not a unique technological innovation. Apple, Samsung and other manufacturers have products with similar technology to be launched to the market. But the real innovation, as Schumpeter said, is "the establishment of a new production function, that is, the realization of a new combination of production factors and production conditions, which has never been before, and the introduction of it into the production system".

Huawei defined its functional attributes "5g" and "folding screen" through the press conference, which occupied the minds of consumers in the early stage. No matter whether 5g is actually put into operation or not, as long as you think of "5g" and "folding screen" when you buy a mobile phone in the future, you will think of Huawei mobile phone. At the same time, Huawei's pricing strategy for the mobile phone clearly conveys the symbolic meaning of identity to others. From the above two aspects, the launch of Huawei mate x is successful, but whether the final product is really successful or not depends on whether it can really reach the third level, that is, whether the mobile phone has the ultimate use experience, and what kind of emotional value it will produce with high-end pricing, function and marketing. Just like apple and Xiaomi mobile phones, similar or even the same technologies have appeared before their success. Through various methods, apple and Xiaomi always focus on their significance and insist on making them the best, and finally become classics.

The key to the success of innovation is to carry out systematic operation and promotion around the significance of innovation. Taking Xiaomi as a typical case, before the launch of Xiaomi's first mobile phone, its meaning was "born for fever". Through close interaction with fans, it improved fans' experience in supply chain and marketing with "focus, perfection, speed and word-of-mouth" and became famous at one stroke. Ofo, on the other hand, is a pity. In the early days of innovative application in the field of bike sharing service, it was boundless, but now it is on the verge of collapse. The main reason is that it did not continuously improve the quality around the meaning, and the excessively rapid expansion of the territory is divorced from the service ability, which is basically lost in the lack of adherence to the user experience.

Huawei has a deep understanding of this. Ren Zhengfei has long pointed out that "the kind of deliberate innovation for innovation and innovation for innovation is the manifestation of our childishness" and "product innovation must focus on business needs. There are restrictions on the innovation of products, and random innovation is not allowed. ". Huawei has spent a lot of money to introduce IPD product integrated development system, which ensures that the annual R & D investment is 15 billion to 20 billion US dollars. It can "not deviate from the main channel" and use it efficiently, which is also the reason for Huawei's success.

In order to reach the other side of the meaning of innovation, we need to innovate with strong obsession. As Gary Hamel said in "innovation starts from the heart, not the mind": "the core of innovation is the desire to reshape the world", jobs "to live is to change the world", and Ma Yun "let the world have no difficult business" and practice it. Most of the time, the flower of meaning has to go through thousands of turns and hard search to see it bloom. "Suddenly looking back, the person is in the dim light." just like computers, Internet, QQ, wechat and so on, it takes quite a while for us to discover the meaning of these innovations to life.

I once heard a wise man share that the meaning of people's life lies in "being, doing and becoming". The meaning of innovation also applies to this framework. It is a lifelong problem for every innovator to find out what kind of "being, doing and becoming" innovative products or services bring to people.