When I [Sharon Dotan] attended the Canadian Innovation Exchange (CIX), I heard a wonderful keynote by Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and a passionate advocate for innovation.
So what exactly is innovation? We usually think of innovation as an “Aha!” moment (as Oprah would say) that an individual has. We think of Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone. We think of Thomas Edison and his many patented inventions (well over 1,000). But is this the reality of innovation? Buxton says no.
Most of Edison’s patents in fact, were simply improvements made on an original idea thought up and created by others. Innovation is a team sport! And to be innovative, you need to stack your team with great individuals that bring a variety of skill sets from across the board. Think of hockey – you can’t just have all the top goalies on your team and expect to be a winning team – no matter how good all those goalies are, you’ll still have a losing team without good forwards and defensemen.
To read the full, original article click on this link: MaRS Blog – Innovation and Commercialization in Canada » Blog Archive » I is for innovation
Author: Sharon Dotan
