I stumbled over a great article from MITSloan Management Review named 12 Different Ways for Companies to Innovate. The authors ask (and answers) what exactly is innovation?

Many see innovation as synonymous with new product development or traditional research and development, but that is too narrow according to the authors. Business innovation is far broader in scope. The authors define 12 different dimensions a company can innovate along with respect to its (1) offerings, (2) platform, (3) solutions, (4) customers, (5) customer experience, (6) value capture, (7) processes, (8) organization, (9) supply chain, (10) presence, (11) networking, and (12) brand.

I believe that the authors are on the right track. We experience more and more companies broadening their scope in regards to innovation. If you want to beat your competitors you need to be better in all aspects of you value chain.