Is the term innovation overused?

Yes!

'Innovation', along with the buzzwords 'synergy' and 'efficiency' have now become such a cliché that they have lost their impact to most people.

However, in an always on world where ideas are instantly streamed from pc to pc and continent to continent, success is short and new products & strategies are copied quicker than ever.

A lot of companies who now claim to be innovative are just doing their job. Adaptation and change are just business-as-usual things that organisations need to do to maintain the status quo.

But still I see companies talk about innovation as something that happens to a single person and not the entire organisation. It's a flash of inspiration, rather than a cultural way of building competitiveness.

Perhaps we need to rethink innovation or come up with a new term for things?