The unexpected: The
discovery of Penicillin as antibiotic. Alexander Fleming was studying Staphylococcus
at that time. However, he accidently observed a phenomenon that Staphylococcus’s
growth had been stopped because of Penicillin. This unexpected discovery
changed Fleming’s path of research, and many other scientists’ path. This
unexpected event is the source of many innovations, such as the isolation of pure
Penicillin and the way to mass produce Penicillin as a medicine.
The incongruity: I
really find the source incongruity gives me a hard time to come up with an
example. It seems that many innovations are related to both incongruity and new
knowledge. It is true that with the born of some new technologies, people
started to look at things differently. However, I want to argue that some
innovations are truly generated on incongruities and then people would look at
the problems and find solutions. The innovation of credit card and checks is my
example. The reality at that time was that people had to carry certain large amount
of cash if they wanted to buy something expensive. The reality that was ought
to be was that people should be able to carry a small volume of something that
could be traded. The incongruity led to the born of checks and then cards.
Process need: this
source of innovation is very common. In manufacturing industry, this kind of
innovation can be spotted everywhere. The developments of almost everything
acquire process need. The web interface became more and more user friendly
because people have the needs of better using experience. The updates of many
smartphone applications because of customers have continuous needs on better
functions and son on.
Change in industry structure
and market structure: There were times when a company would produce everything
it needed by itself. Later, companies began to outsource part of their business
or partnered with other companies. The increasing competitors and changing
market were the source of this structure innovation.
Demographic: I come
from a country with 1.4 billion populations. The innovations of how to better
serve this huge number of people is quite common. How to better use the space
is a big issue. Innovation on construction technologies to build higher
building and innovation of parking building are all innovation derived from
demographic source.
Change in perception,
mood and meaning: The example I have for this source is that people’s
perception on environment. In past, people didn’t care about environment and
limited resources. But later, when people realized how precious our planet is,
people started to innovate, such as clean energy.
New Knowledge: new
knowledge is definitely a main source of innovation. New materials such as
plastic are created. With time went by, different plastic were invented based
on different need. Innovation based on plastics can’t be numbered.
Menting, I found your example for demographic innovation very interesting because it is not something I would have instantly considered. Usually when I think of innovations within demographics, I think changes in healthcare, product devlopment and services. I guess I usually think of developments that are targeted more to the individual. Your example demonstrates the need for quick and continuous adaptation to an existing technology (construction)that is forever being tested as the population increases and space becomes more and more limited.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Carmin on the "demographic" example. This was interesting to me as well because it's one that relates to your own experiences which vary from other countries/locations.
ReplyDeleteI can appreciate the reflection on the "incongruity" example and the difficulty in identifying the presence of this type of innovation. I had similar trouble and also commented on Tianming's blog to better understand his points on this topic. After thinking about this more, I wanted to suggest another example to see if it's a good fit:
The earlier laptops were much more convenient than having a desktop, however, they still tended to be bulky. The evolution of cell phones to smart phones allowed us to have something much smaller, but it would often be too small to view certain documents, videos, etc. The creation of the iPad resolved the incongruity between too small and too big.