Page 237 - DNBI_A01.QXD

214

DEVELOPING NEW BUSINESS IDEAS filing time and on the subtle distinctions between a caveat and an
actual patent application, the US Patent Office awarded Alexander Bell,
not Elisha Gray, the patent for the telephone.

It is vigorously argued in some circles, however, that Gray could have won
the race comfortably, had he not been discouraged by businessmen who
believed that the telephone would never be profitable and had he not as a
result put his design to one side.164 Not so Bell, who defied conventional
thinking in order to break new ground with the telephone rather than
persist with perfecting the existing technology of the telegraph.

the glorious benefit of hindsight The previous examples all
illustrate that the natural tendency of convention to crush innovation
should never be underestimated. After all, the Hall of Shame for
conventional thinkers boasts many famous exhibits, some of which are
catalogued in Table 6.1. Even though doubts exist about the provenance
of a few of the exhibits, the light projected on to the exhibits by the
glorious benefit of hindsight ensures a good display.

Table 6.1 The glorious benefit of hindsight

‘Chicken Noodle News’. Competitors’ description of Cable News
Network (CNN) when it launched
‘Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?’ Harry M. Warner, president of Warner
Brothers Pictures, 1927
‘There is no reason anyone would want a Ken Olson, president, chairman and
computer in their home.’ founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
‘Heavier-than-air flying machines are Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society,
impossible.’ 1895
‘[Television] won’t hold any market it Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century
captures after the first six months. People Fox, 1946
will soon get tired of staring at a plywood
box every night.’ President of the Michigan Savings Bank,
‘The horse is here to stay. The offering market advice to Horace
automobile is only a fad, a novelty.’ Rackham, Henry Ford’s lawyer
Erasmus Wilson, Oxford Professor, 1899
‘I think I may say without contradiction
that when the Paris Exhibition closes,
electric light will close with it and no
more will be heard of it.’

regulations Sometimes blocks to implementation come in the form

of regulations. We saw earlier how regulatory blocks represented major
potential stumbling blocks for Iridium and Federal Express. Iridium