ORIGINALLY POSTED AUGUST 1, 2005 BY KURT P. LEYENDECKER
Innovation: that is the new name of the game in the corporate world. Old stoic companies, such as GE and Proctor and Gamble, have seen the light: cost cutting and efficiency, although important, will not win the day if the products and services a company offers do not resonate with their consumers. Managers are being given design training. Top MBA schools are rushing to offer design courses and in some cases starting design schools. At least these are the proclamations of the August 1, 2005 BusinessWeek “Get Creative” special report.
What I found most interesting about the series of articles was not what was written but what was not. I did not see a single mention of inventing, inventorship or inventors. Perhaps, this because these are dirty words in the corporate world that conjure up images of the absent minded genius toiling away in his garage or basement amid a bunch of what many of us would call junk. I hate to break it to these guys, but design is just a new fangled word for invention.
The articles emphasize creating and fostering a culture of creativity, but they fail to mention that there are thousands of good ideas available from independent inventors, or should I say independent designers, all across this great land. I wonder when companies are going to wake up and realize the wealth of great ideas and products available to them for mere pennies on the dollar through the independent inventor if they were just willing to take a look. Sadly, however, the age of the independent “designer” has not yet arrived. Many, if not most, larger companies will still not look at inventions developed outside their corporate walls until a patent has been filed. And even then, they rarely actively seek out such new product ideas.
Ponder this: who is likely to come up with the next great consumer product? The 100 or so highly educated designers who are on the payroll of company x or the tens of thousands consumers nationwide that regularly come up with meaningful improvements to products they regularly buy and use? Is a single salaried designer really better than a hundred consumers? You decide, but keep in mind many of those hundred consumers are also highly intelligent and highly creative whether or not they are highly educated as well. Will companies ever realize that their consumers are a great source of new product ideas?
Well, I believe the truth is companies have started to realize the value of the independent inventor. It is the Business Week special report that is a bit dated. GE and PG may be looking inwardly for design ideas just when their competition is beginning to realize the value of looking outwardly to you: the often maligned but resilient independent inventor. Case in point: I have been noticing more and more advertisements in Inventor’s Digest Magazine of late from major corporations soliciting new product ideas. I don’t recall this being the case only a couple of years ago. In the current issue, Kraco Enterprises, Inc. and Dial Corporation both have advertisements.
Maybe, the dawn of the golden age of the inventor is on the horizon, BUT just don’t expect BusinessWeek to herald its coming anytime soon. Anyhow, take a look at the “Get Creative” issue and tell us what you think.
