Managing innovation - creating value from ideas

Two timing innovation

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Multiple  independent invention is surprisingly common — there have been many  research studies highlighting the pattern. Examples include the blast  furnace (invented independently in China, Europe and Africa) and the  crossbow (invented independently in China, Greece, Africa, northern  Canada, and the Baltic countries). 

And they reveal an important home  truth about how innovation actually happens. It’s not the Archimedes  moment, a flash of inspiration given by the Gods at bath time.  Instead it’s a process of hunting, of being open and aware of opportunities as  needs and means converge.

The  idea of ‘closeness’ is key here — as things mature, knowledge  accumulates so we get to a tipping point where something is bound to happen somewhere. Like crystallisation the supersaturated liquid is  ready, it just needs the seed — a speck of dust or some other impurity  and the crystal starts to form.

As this podcast explores...

You can find a transcript here

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