Page 122 - ENTREPRENEURSHIP Innovation and entrepreneurship

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Source: New Knowledge 115

Indeed, until all the knowledges converge, the lead time of a
knowledge-based innovation usually does not even begin.

II

WHAT KNOWLEDGE-BASED INNOVATION
REQUIRES

Its characteristics give knowledge-based innovation specific
requirements. And these requirements differ from those of any other
kind of innovation.
1. In the first place, knowledge-based innovation requires careful
analysis of all the necessary factors, whether knowledge itself, or
social, economic, or perceptual factors. The analysis must identify
what factors are not yet available so that the entrepreneur can decide
whether these missing factors can be produced—as the Wright
Brothers decided in respect to the missing mathematics—or whether
the innovation had better be postponed as not yet feasible.
The Wright Brothers exemplify the method at its best. They
thought through carefully what knowledge was necessary to build an
airplane for manned, motored flight. Next they set about to develop
the pieces of knowledge that were needed, taking the available infor-
mation, testing it first theoretically, then in the wind tunnel, and then
in actual flight experiments, until they had the mathematics they
needed to construct ailerons, to shape the wings, and so on.
The same analysis is needed for nontechnical knowledge-based
innovation. Neither J. P. Morgan nor Georg Siemens published their
papers; but Shibusawa in Japan did. And so we know that he based his
decision to forsake a brilliant government career and to start a bank on
a careful analysis of the knowledge available and the knowledge need-
ed. Similarly, Joseph Pulitzer analyzed carefully the knowledge need-
ed when he launched what became the first modern newspaper, and
decided that advertising had to be invented and could be invented.
If I may inject a personal note, my own success as an
innovator in the management field was based on a similar
analysis in the early 1940s. Many of the required pieces of
knowledge were already available: organization theory, for
instance, but also quite a bit of knowledge about managing
work and worker. My analysis also showed, however, that