a.k.a - What with all the
noise?

Whats with all this noise about innovation all over the IT landscape?

(See here and here and here for some examples).

I was browsing the net and saw this theme come up again and again in various contexts. It does'nt matter whether it is an IT services company (Infosys, EDS, IBM etc) or a product company (IBM, HP etc) - they all seem to be keen to be associated with the word :

innovation

Why? If I understand it correctly, all these folks are trying (desparately) to be seen as serial innovators and that leads me to the following questions:

1. What does being a serial innovator mean? (for that matter, what does being an innovator mean?)
2. Can companies (or people) force themselves (or learn) to be innovators?

I just wanted to get the opinion of folks across the globe to this and maybe eventually get a better idea as to what the noise is all about.