I'VE GOT THIS IDEA

"It is always brave to say what everyone thinks."

Georges Duhamel (1884-1966) French writer

And with the reverse being true, much more challenging to say what no one thinks.

But that is the burden of innovation.

HOW AS MUCH AS WHAT

"He gains everyone's approval who mixes the pleasant with the useful."

Horace (BC 65-8) Latin lyric poet

Note to engineers: How something works is every bit as important as what it does. 

A parachute will get a person from an airplane to the ground but that doesn't make it the preferred method of descent for most.

DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION

"The greatest conqueror is he who overcomes the enemy without a blow."

Chinese proverb

There are numerous examples of this in business.

Apple's iTunes and various iDevices disrupting music playback equipment manufacturers and the music industry in general.

Vonage and similar companies offering Wi-Fi telephone services, disrupting traditional landline telephone service.

And maybe even Space X disrupting government space exploration.

What enemy will your company overcome without a blow?

ONLY WHAT YOU SEE, ONLY WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW?

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend."

Henri Bergson (1859-1941) French philosopher

You can also reverse this (the mind comprehends only what the eye can see), and considering both you should understand the main obstacle to innovation.

When you only see what you already know, and when you only know what you can see, you live in a very limited space.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

"I start where the last man left off."

Thomas Alva Edison

Late 19th/early 20th century American inventor

Very little is completely original; your improvement of what already exists is progress.

I CAN'T WAIT TO SHOW YOU!

"The mind conceives with pain, but it brings forth with delight."

Joseph Joubert

18th century French moralist

We enjoy sharing what we worked hard to create.

What does that say about what is easy to do?

I Have No Illusions About That

"It is respectable to have no illusions, and safe, and profitable and dull."

Joseph Conrad

Late 19th early 20th century British novelist

And in business, not always profitable.

If you're not envisioning (which can lead to illusion) you're not evolving and if you're not doing that at some point you're gone.

The Rusty Brain

"Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright."

Benjamin Franklin

18th century American statesman/inventor/philosopher

This isn't just about the physical.

It pertains to the mental as well.

Is Everything Old, New Again?

"All cases are unique and very similar to others."

T.S. Eliot

20th century American-English poet, playwright

Look for completely new ideas.

Create new variants from that which already exists.

Which works best for you?

Sales and Profit: Chicken or the Egg?

"Our inventions mirror our secret wishes."

Charles H. Duell
Late 19th Century Commissionaire US Patent Office

Too many business people focus on the sales and profit they hope will come from innovation and invention.

If those are their "secret wishes" they are missing the point.

Sales and profit are the result of successful innovation and invention. Invent and innovate product that fulfills the secret wishes of others and sales and profit will follow.

What are your secret wishes?

Innovation: Managing Today/Inventing Tomorrow

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."

Albert Einstein

I agree. Imagination is the precursor to new knowledge; that which does not currently exist but soon will because someone was imaginative enough to invent something not yet known. But the trick is to balance time spent thinking about the future versus acting on what is already known and that's not easy to do. Because most feel comfortable dealing with what they know, management's job is to get them to venture out of their comfort zone to see what could be.