Understanding Innovation & Its Sources

Peace upon all;

This is a very important topic indeed. Coke`s, Ebay`s and Amazon`s of the world are far and few between in our part of the world.

The author, hopefully unintentionally, forgot to give credit to Peter Drucker, a leading Management and Innovation guru of this century. The sources of innovation mentioned here are from Mr. Druckers book, Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Practice and Principles.

This is definitely a science we need to master...again!. Afterall, muslims were the greatest innovators of their times. Learnmore at www.muslimheritage.com.

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In this connection, would like to heartily recommend Norbert Wiener`s
Invention: The Care and Feeding of Ideas

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Bilal - Nice article!! A few comments:

You seem to have given all the emphasis for innovation either on industrial factors or, what I would call, ``micro factors``. You have not put much emphasis on ``macro factors``, which in my opinion breed innovation. For example you talk about ``flash of genius`` as one factor for innovation. But why doesn`t this ``flash`` occur more often in Pakistan or Thailand or Brazil?

I believe innovation does not happen in a vaccum. There has to be a supporting process and instituitions in place to `make` and reward people for being innovative. The US Patent office in Washington DC is one such example. It is there to provide protection to the innovators.

Creating a society that values freedom of thought is also an important factor. Innovation requires `thinking out of the box` - something not valued in totalitarian and dictatorial societies like Pakistan.

Economics and resources also play a key role in innovation. An economically advanced society is far more likely to breed innovation.

And finally, as they say ``necessity is the mother of invention`` - even among the poorest societies, individuals manage to find innovative ways to improve their lot. The underground canal system in Afghanistan (before it was severely damaged by US bombardment) is one such example.

Cool! Very interesting indeed...