The Fall Of Business Empires - Development, Innovation & Invention

Invention and innovation is paramount to progress in business, and therefore the fuzzy concepts of creativity and also strategy are praised.?

First of all, development is a step further than these two concepts. An invention is nothing without some means of making it reproducible and reliable, and that is the difference between innovation and development - development brings innovation to life.

However having something producible is not in itself enough, you have to make production scalable, reliable and efficient - then drive down costs and drive up quality. So here comes implementation and execution.?

All elements are interdependent - without innovation, development will run out eventually, and without development there can be no implementation and execution.?

Seen from a historical perspective, naturally innovation and inventions are the starting point - and it is mere prosaic capitalistic hunger for profit, which more or less automatically delivers the rest.

However, this is not so straightforward. Most inventions and innovations in their basic form arise from coincidence, and then it takes deliberate effort to think of and think out practical applications of the basic concepts.?

Just inventing the steam-engine does not give you cheap mass-produced clothes. First the concept of the steam engine needs a workable implementation, then it needs refining in numerous iterations to make it reliable enough to be used in a cotton-factory and to drive looms adapted for mechanical power.

This process of refinement is as important as the original concept.

The same goes for fostering the creative process in a company and the work on strategy.

Because innovation, creativity, and strategy are very complex undertakings, the responsibility for good work in those areas are typically expressed but not followed up, and when they are indeed followed-up, then lack of results are easily defended by timing or partial progress - i.e. the situational setting changes, the environment facing the firm is different, good ideas have been produced and the pragmatics are just a few weeks away, etc. Then a new strategy is devised or work on a new innovation is pursued, and responsibility for achieving the goals set prior are abandoned or postponed.

In addition there is a feedback loop from the implementation of the innovation in development, i.e. working out how to use the idea in practice, that will result in revisions and improvements of the idea, and even so radical changes, that it will in fact be a new idea; and then that is innovation. This feedback will be present throughout from innovation to mass producible product. This also muddies that waters as to what drives performance in the progress.

Setting clear responsibility, following-up on performance, and drilling down in the details of what were the driving elements in a successful innovations process, which actually led to lasting marketable and profitable products, that is as indispensable as it is hard work.?

No quantity of white-board meetings will accomplish this. It requires diligent investigation into the details, and enough cool nerves to acknowledge that the real innovation process was not reproducible.?

In addition there is a need for a schizophrenic disposition, so that one can both follow-up in a systematic and structured manner, as well as let the creative process flow, which requires both a loose environment, time, non-productivity, as well as structure and framework. I.e. the ability to simultaneously be rational and emotional, with a lot of waiting for inspiration on top.

However for most larger corporations responsibility and truth matters not, only who can take credit - politics, coalitions, irrationality, suboptimization, feelings get a legitimate role in the functioning of the organization. Real work that creates value will be less prestigious and interesting, and therefore innovation diminishes over time, until defeat is total and bankruptcy imminent.?

It takes time for a big tree to fall, and for corporations sometimes decades, however without innovation they will fall. Copying what other new entrepreneurial businesses invent will only postpone decline. The decay can take many years for a large business empire, however only monopoly or innovation can prevent that fate.

Read more about creativity and innovation in the book: