Many technologists think that advantageous innovations will sell themselves, that the obvious benefits of a new idea will be widely realized by potential adopters, and that the innovation will diffuse rapidly. Unfortunately, this is very seldom the case. Most innovations in fact diffuse at a surprisingly slow rate.

Let’s go back to the innovation metaphors that I was talking about yesterday – light bulbs versus shovels. Edison is famous because he invented the light bulb, right? That’s why we always use the light bulb as the symbol of innovation. One problem: at least 23 other people invented working light bulbs before Edison did. Twentythree!

Why does Edison get credit for the light bulb then? Because he was the first one to build power stations and distribution cables so that everyone could use his light bulb. He did it by paying people to dig up New York to put in the copper wires to carry the electricity from his Pearl Street Power Station.

This story reinforces a few conversations that we’ve been having here recently:

• Edison’s key innovation was actually in the business model. He built a fundamentally different place for himself in the value network. Instead of waiting for others to build the infrastructure needed to get his idea to spread, his company built what they needed. Edison gets the credit because of the shovel, not the light bulb.
• Second, to get his idea to spread, Edison had to get people to unconnect (literally) from their existing value network (gas lighting), and get them to reconnect to his new value network (electricity). The gas industry didn’t just sit by and watch the electrical cables get laid – they fought it all the way. The first 23 teams to invent light bulbs didn’t fight this battle – but Edison’s team did. The network that you’re trying to tap into and the strength of connections within it determines how quickly your new idea can spread.
• Finally, I can’t think of a better illustration of why idea execution is more important than idea generation. If all that matters it the idea, we’d be talking about one of the other 23 teams that invented a working light bulb, not Edison’s.

If that doesn’t convince you of the supremacy of the shovel over the light bulb, I don’t know what will!

(pictures from Global Edison)