What is exaptation? How it can help you to innovate?

Nature is a great opportunist and innovation specialist.

It knows how to create new things with existing resources.

One of the mind blowing idea on innovation that I have learnt in the recent times is exaptation.

What the heck it is?

Exaptation is described as a shift in the function of a trait during evolution. The use of a biological structure or function for a purpose other than that for which it initially evolved.

Confused?

Let me give you an example.

Bird feathers were initially grew for temperature regulation but later were adapted for flying.

Though feathers are indispensable to bird flight, they were not originally planned for this purpose.

Here evolution has re-used or borrowed an existing feature for a new purpose when the right circumstances arose.

?In 1982, Stephen Jay Gould and Elisabeth Vrba gave a name to this phenomenon: exaptation

Exaptation is not limited to just evolutionary biology: it describes a pattern on innovation.

If we observe the technological progress, we can notice new inventions are always repurposed.

Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web as a platform for scholars to share their thoughts, but in the course of time it became a network for shopping, social and professional networking, watching movies and other things.

In his book “Where Good Ideas Come From” Steven Johnson says, Innovation thrives on reinventing and reusing the old.

He presents an example of how Johannes Gutenberg saw an innovative use for a 1000-year-old invention: the wine screw press that used to squeeze the juice out of grapes. Using this ancient technology and his knowledge of metallurgy, Gutenberg created the world’s first printing press.

Here is another example.

Nairobian cobblers produce rubber sandals out of car tires.

Corning Inc., originally named Corning Glass Works, utilised its long-standing expertise and innovations in glass technologies to produce pioneering research in fibre optics, which altered the world of telecommunications.

Joseph Lister, the father of modern surgery, reused carbolic acid (at the time used for treating sewage) for a new function - antiseptic, which reduced post-surgery mortality from 40% to 15%.

Think of everything that we use today - cars, two-wheelers, phones, watches etc., We pushed them beyond its original purpose of the invention.

Exaptation in action.

For entrepreneurs, exploring great ideas, exaptation seems to offer a framework for innovation.?

The key question to ask is -?What existing product categories and their features can be reused for new purposes?

-------------

For more insights on marketing and innovation, visit

https://www.rajeshsrinivasan.com/insights