Innovation-What's Luck got to do with it?

From Erica Driver at Forrester Research - a fine article on how serendipity(LUCK) may be more important than all the other keys to innovation.

Forrester Information and Knowledge Management: Serendipity: A Critical Innovation Success Factor

Here is a clip from Erica's article:

"As part of the run-up to the Business Innovation Factory summit (BIF-3) currently going on in Providence, Rhode Island, attendees participated in an online social network.On the social networking site, the most common one-word answers to the question “What are 5 keys to innovation?” were rolled up into a tag cloud (see figure). Words that rose to the top of the list included creativity, collaboration, and passion.

But as I sit in the back of the theater listening to the storytellers (they each get 15 minutes of stage time to share experiences they’ve had with innovation or to participate in a short interview) I realize we missed something big: serendipity — fed by sheer dumb luck. According to the Merriam Webster online dictionary, serendipity is the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought after. And luck is a force that brings good fortune or adversity, or the events or circumstances that operate for or against an individual."

While I liked Erica's article, I take issue with her characterization of serendipity as "fed by sheer dumb luck". Louis Pasteur is quoted as saying in a lecture in 1854 "Chance favors only the prepared mind". From my own experiences in founding and managing innovative startups, having a prepared mind enabled me to recognize my luck when it knocked on my door.

Erica's article also features a link to Icosystems founder and Chief Scientist Eric Bonabeau whose company applies complex adapative systems technology to help clients prepare their minds - and create their own luck. Might be worth checking Icosytems out to improve your luck. Icosystem Company Overview

Network Innovation - a lesson from Apple

Innovation | Lessons from Apple | Economist.com: "This approach, known as “network innovation”, is not limited to electronics. It has also been embraced by companies such as Procter & Gamble, BT and several drugs giants, all of which have realised the power of admitting that not all good ideas start at home. Making network innovation work involves cultivating contacts with start-ups and academic researchers, constantly scouting for new ideas and ensuring that engineers do not fall prey to “not invented here” syndrome, which always values in-house ideas over those from outside."

Network Innovation is well described in Wikinomics - with its core principles Open, P2P,Sharing, Global. - Apple appears to have its cake and eat it, violating the key principle of openness, but gaining innovative advantage through adopting other's innovations( think Xerox Altos) and focusing on sleek, sexy,fashionable design.

iTunes is the newest version of Apple's network innovation. Its almost hidden agenda is its insertion as a virus-like component on the Windows platform where, unexpected, it resides as a remorahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remora . iTunes and the soon to be shipped iPhone
are stealth invaders of the Windows platform - where any iTunes enabled device, MAC or PC is "recognized" and connected to share any iTunes content. It is a network innovation of mostly unseen and unexpected scope - imagine an Apple networking widget on every Mac and Windows PC. That's iTunes - and guess where iPhone will connect as a Network Innovation?

Who knew?

iinnovate - an interview with Eric Schmidt CEO of Google.

A major driving force for innovation in the Silicon Valley springs from the entrepreneurial environment of the Stanford campus - here 2 bright Stanford entrepreneurs-to-be interview Eric Schmidt the CEO of Google - worth a listen. As Schmidt says " I come to Stanford to teach because I always learn a lot from my students questions'" There are some great student's questions in this interview with the CEO of one of the most successful entrepreneurships in Silicon Valley history.

iinnovate: a podcast about innovation and entrepreneurship: Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google

The greatest innovations of all time

View the Slide Show The Greatest Innovations of All Time

Business Week's slide show design tells the story visually. An accompanying audio podcast would make the presentation more compelling.