Innovation, it seems, is everything that it’s cut out to be. Done right, it can take a company, government or country from mediocrity to greatness. But innovation doesn’t come easy, and in some industries, the road to innovation is a long and arduous one.
Take the pharmaceutical industry for instance, which according to Franz Humer, Chairman of Roche Holding, needs about 20 to 25 years from the germination of an idea to the “possibility” of a medicine. Suffice to say, “enormous amounts of money” are also required, as it takes “north of a billion dollars” to develop a new drug today.
“We do not understand the human body; we’ve got to do experiments on 15,000 people before we know if a drug works,” says Humer, who was a panellist on ‘Leading Innovation’ at the INSEAD Leadership Summit Middle East held recently in Abu Dhabi.
“Part of innovation is failure; there is more failure in innovation than there is in success. If I look at our 10,000 scientists who work for us, their chance of ever participating in creating a successful product is zero -- but it is more important for them to determine what doesn’t work than to find what works.”
To read the full, original article click on this link: Innovation; Arab world
Author: Insead Knowledge
