Page 137 - ENTREPRENEURSHIP Innovation and entrepreneurship

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The Bright Idea

Innovations based on a bright idea probably outnumber all other cate-
gories taken together. Seven or eight out of every ten patents belong
here, for example. A very large proportion of the new businesses that are
described in the books on entrepreneurs and entrepreneurships are built
around “bright ideas”: the zipper, the ballpoint pen, the aerosol spray
can, the tab to open soft drink or beer cans, and many more. And what
is called research in many businesses aims at finding and exploiting
bright ideas, whether for a new flavor in breakfast cereals or soft drinks,
for a better running shoe, or for yet one more nonscorching clothes iron.
Yet bright ideas are the riskiest and least successful source of
innovative opportunities. The casualty rate is enormous. No more
than one out of every hundred patents for an innovation of this kind
earns enough to pay back development costs and patent fees. A far
smaller proportion, perhaps as low as one in five hundred, makes any
money above its out-of-pocket costs.
And no one knows which ideas for an innovation based on a bright
idea have a chance to succeed and which ones are likely to fail. Why
did the aerosol can succeed, for instance? And why did a dozen or
more similar inventions for the uniform delivery of particles fail dis-
mally? Why does one universal wrench sell and most of the many oth-
ers disappear? Why did the zipper find acceptance and practically dis-
place buttons, even though it tends to jam? (After all, a jammed zipper
on a dress, jacket, or pair of trousers can be quite embarrassing.)
Attempts to improve the predictability of innovations based on
bright ideas have not been particularly successful.
Equally unsuccessful have been attempts to identify the personal
traits, behavior, or habits that make for a successful innovator.
“Successful inventors,” an old adage says, “keep on inventing. They
play the odds. If they try often enough, they will succeed.”

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