Breaking Innovation Boundaries: Being Late Often Wins

The early ( design ) bird gets the ( innovation ) worm so the saying goes, but what about when scarcity isn’t the case?

The reality behind the design and innovation game can come from two different view points when ” success ” factors are evaluated in terms of 1st ever ( and as often supported by patents and trademarks ) and scale ( as often supported by easy access to capital ) focuses and each are very different. The value is then who can get innovation X approved by as many world government patent offices ( and at a substantial cost so to protect said innovation ) vs who can get innovation X into the hands of as many people as humanly possible – and now with Ai via the use of non-human hands. Some may even say that this is a who has deeper minds and/or deeper pockets situation. Both interestingly are correct.

In research completed with an international cast of practicing innovation experts from ” Innovation in International Markets “ we see some of the most startling notations regarding the clear idea that scarcity ( often the entire driving factor of economics ) is not the same for innovation or even invention. The ” race ” to be first ( and thus publish – thus securing copyright and possibly trademark rights ) has been usurped by the internet and internet search engines plus the requirements to disclose all key operating functionalities for patent assignment ( and the incredible costs to secure such legal protections ) is often a game of cat and mouse. It’s research & design & development + patenting vs just do it ( with possibly the same costs as the above ) and with said profits ( thus being a market leader for a specific period of time ) then re-investing, doubling, tripling, or putting even more “down” into said innovation effort with the explicit hope that a larger, after the fact, late entrant, does not just take over. Marketing it seems often slices and dices any innovation effort which can’t afford to defend against the above and especially with today’s Ai based, auto-commenting, auto-posting, and auto-interaction social media systems.

What can then be done? How is riding a wave that is already in motion of more interest then finding waves in the 1st place to firms on the cutting edge of “new” and when design is the differentiating factor ? The reality is that it all comes down to access to users and the ability to easily reach them. In the end, the more difficult it is to reach new users, to work with them to try and then adapt to a demand that is in the process of being created then becomes the underlying factor for success and the innovation game then becomes the largest fish gambit. Information processing from a state, national and international level dictates ” success ” far faster than capital or even ideas. Breakthroughs then often come down to who can reach more, the fastest and easiest. This was not the case in the pre-internet years past, and will most likely be the case in the post-common use everyday robots future we are rapidly innovating towards.