CLIPPINGS

Commercialization of technology is a complex process. As Joel Mokyr remarked in Lever of Riches, “The essence of technological progress is its unpredictability.” Throughout history, surprisingly little innovation has been the result of an orderly system of research and development. Genius, knowledge, luck, fear, greed, desire, spontaneity, serendipity, irreverence, and persistence are among the motivators of technological progress. Although much has been written lately on the importance of design as the bridge between technology and people, it is not clear that management understands how to manage the dynamics of innovation to ensure the continual generation of meaningful ideas. In this era of rapid change, with customers demanding tailored goods and service, continuous innovation will be a matter of business survival. Although many of us share the misconception that innovation results from steady progress from research to development to production, in reality the process of innovation is most often nonlinear, unsteady, and unpredictable.