Comments on: talks – invention, innovation & business models

By: Creating value through new connections « Innovation « Innovation Leadership Network

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 05:32:51 +0000

[...] does a really nice talk on the invention of the computer and he has posted the slides on this blog. While he uses the story [...]

By: Where do valuable innovations come from? « Innovation Leadership Network

Where do valuable innovations come from? « Innovation Leadership Network — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:41:06 +0000

[...] does a really nice talk on the invention of the computer and he has posted the slides on this blog. While he uses the story [...]

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 27 May 2009 05:06:34 +0000

Not quite sure what to make of this, but the slideshow has been featured on the front page of the Business & Management section on slideshare!

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 27 May 2009 00:34:33 +0000

Thanks Marco! I wouldn’t call every innovation an invention. The way I frame it is that innovations are always the actualisation of an idea, but inventing is usually coming up with a ‘thing’ of some sort, so it’s definitely more restricted.

I hadn’t run across that work by Meadows before – thanks for pointing it out. I’ll give it some thought…

By: Marco

Marco — Tue, 26 May 2009 11:41:43 +0000

Tim,

I agree with your position that innovation is not the same thing as invention. An invention is not necessarily an innovation. But I am not entirely sure if an innovation is necessarily an invention. (I guess this will depend on how broad your definition of “invention” is?)

The second point is also important and striking. It seems that a whole lot of people are resistant to change *when change matters* (i.e. when it can potentially lead to a “phase shift” in the system).

The Monty Python illustrates nicely how the counterintuitive (counterintuitive for businesspeople) act of embracing rather than resisting such change can be beneficial. (And that “resistance is futile” – to quote one famous alien race).

Donella Meadows has said all of this before, many years ago (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_leverage_points). She also notes that people are very good at spotting such phasing-shifting changes yet they always end up doing the exactly wrong thing.

It is a mystery why no one has paid sufficient attention to this.