Not everything is a Eureka! moment

In 1928, when Alexander Fleming arrived at his laboratory and stumbled across a mysterious mould spreading over his petri dish, he began a journey of discovery. While many often perceive Fleming’s discovery of penicillin as a ‘Eureka!’ moment, it can be problematic to view innovation in this way. Here, Helen Blomqvist, Vice President Product management and R&D at Sandvik Coromant, explores the real journey towards innovation.

The story of the world’s first antibiotic is a well-loved tale because it is often told to depict an idealistic take on discovery. A genius mind unexpectedly encounters a moment of epiphany and, just like that, medicine is transformed. The reality of innovation, however, is different.

Prepare to fail

Instead of viewing innovation as a sudden sparking moment, it is more useful to see it as structured problem solving. The path towards innovation often begins with a problem —whether that’s, a customer problem or a challenge the wider society faces or inefficiency in your team.

Without identifying the challenges you, your customer, or the industry faces, the innovation risks existing without purpose. By evaluating why an innovation needs to happen, the creator can be sure that it will make a positive impact.

Identifying hardship shouldn’t only be done during the initial phase of innovation. While it’s not always easy to open up about difficulties, the road to innovation often results in a number of failures — and instead of attempting to hide failure, companies should recognise its importance.

Recently, Sandvik Coromant announced the launch of its latest innovation — the CoroDrill? DS20. An industry first, this indexable drill concept is capable of producing hole depths up to 7xD, which causes three times more bending on the tool than what is achieved with previous versions of the drill part.

Creating the CoroDrill DS20 wasn’t smooth sailing. The first prototype caused the drill to crash, creating more of a mess than a Eureka moment. Needing to obtain the perfect cutting force balance, and with no room for error, the team was in the pursuit of perfection. There were many failures along the way, but with every prototype, each test and loop, something was learned. The challenge was finally resolved by developing and fine-tuning new software to calculate cutting force balance that simulates parameters — an innovation in itself. Without the failing prototypes, seven years and many stages of development, the success of the drill would have been impossible to achieve.

It takes time

Just like the CoroDrill DS20, innovations rarely occur in an instant. Alexander Fleming may have discovered penicillin in 1928, but it wasn’t until 15 years later that the miracle drug came into widespread use. The truth is, innovation is a structured process that involves the identification of a challenge, engineering a solution and then bringing it into the wider market.

The next big thing is probably already several years old, maybe even decades, if you measure from its initial conception. Taking a brilliant idea and turning it into an innovation takes time, but being able to take this innovation and transform it into a mass produced, marketable product is where the real work lies. After all, it wasn’t Fleming who brought penicillin to market.

Headspace

Employees who are put in charge of innovative teams can feel overwhelmed when they need to combine their regular assignments with their innovation duties. As a result, this can stifle their creativity.

It’s vital that employees have the opportunity to carry out exploratory work, without it impacting their everyday responsibilities. In fact, one of Google’s policies encourages its workers to spend 20 per cent of their time working on projects that they think will benefit Google, but are outside of their usual tasks. This 80/ 20 rule is something we also apply at Sandvik Coromant, allowing employees to spend time testing their ideas and carrying out exploratory work.

However, while time for this exploratory work is important, businesses shouldn’t forget the value of learning on the job and working in the field is also an ideal location for new ideas. Employees need both time for their minds to run freely and without pressure, but they also need to sink their teeth into their own work and have access to the tools that will help them create innovations that are specific to their projects.

Our tendency to romanticise innovations can often cause us to misunderstand their true meaning. While most engineers and scientists don’t exclaim ‘Eureka!’ after they have an idea, it doesn’t mean they aren’t changing the world. Contrary to the common narrative, the path towards innovation involves challenges, structured problem solving and hard work.