Impacts of Innovation
Innovation is big business.
Thomas Edison's Lab in Edison, NJ
"...Thomas Edison, had the right idea: "Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility and utility is success," he told his associates in perhaps his most important invention -- the commercial laboratory. "We can't be like those German professors who spend their whole lives studying the fuzz on a bee," he said. Generating ideas is important, but it's pointless unless there is a repeatable process in place to turn inspiration into financial performance."
A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan. The Game Changer: How Every Leader Can Drive Everyday Innovation
But! Our innovations have ecological, social and economic impacts.
How will your useful and unique product/process/system be used by individuals, corporations, municipalities, markets, countries and the world? Your idea may make lots of money for a company (apple ipod), create an ecological nightmare (plastic grocery bags), or solve a public health problem (lifestraw).
What are your dreams (or fears) about innovation? How do you see your ideas changing the way things are done and what is possible? Do you feel that economics and market forces are the final determinants of innovative good? Over what time span do we measure the benefits and consequences of innovation? Who should be held responsible for anticipating and mitigating possible side effects and long-term effects? How do you define and measure your bottom line?
Thomas Edison is correct in that a quality product is one that sells. It cannot just be a coincidence that a product is purchased often without it possessing desirable qualities that execute its job well.
My innovation dream is to see designers taking the best parts of previous designs from an eclectic set of sources and combining them to form one object. In this way, the only way to move is up because each new model will only be better than the last. I want to see a constant path of improvement, not one step forward for every three steps back. There is a saying that goes "the customer is always right." In our capitalist society, this is true; most consumers search for the best possible product for the best price.
Companies such as Macintosh and Nike are leaders in their area, however, their manufacturing managers choose to refrain from creating the best possible design. Why? Because they have to save the next improvement for the next model of the shoe or the next ipod. They rope their consumers in with their prestige and take advantage of their money. Constantly I hear of people complaining about not having the required software to run the newest ipod or not having the additional accessories needed to operate the product. In this way, consumers are unknowingly walking into a situation where they have spend far more money they were originally aware of. I want to see designers work with their companies to produce the best possible product with all the necessary attributes included to serve their faithful consumers and treat them how in the manner they deserve. The rate of improvement will only increase at a faster pace and this system will contribute to the so called "democratic" market economy America emphasizes to other countries around the world.
Posted by Shaan P Hassan on October 02, 2008 at 05:39 PM EDT #
The quote from Thomas Edison that has stuck with me from Marvin's lecture was that Edison said he was proud of the fact that none of his inventions were created to destroy. That's where I see innovation, and that's where I hope to situate myself in the designing, creating, innovating experience. To me, innovation and designing aren't just about creating a product--a physical thing that can be touched, priced, or manipulated. The larger picture of innovation is the effect of stepping forward. It's making an improvement that directly benefits people and the world, and it indirectly benefits by educating, inspiring, and opening the doors for others to follow. Innovation doesn't have to be designing a more energy-efficient toaster oven, it could be solving unequal food distribution around the world. I don't know if I'll be creating actual things with my innovation process, but I do know that I will be doing good. If my work results in harm, then I will have failed the design process.
Posted by Katie Hill on October 04, 2008 at 05:44 PM EDT #
Who decides the success of an innovation, a design if you will, better than our economy. Gas prices go up, innovation in alternative fuels and transportation becomes a multi-billion dollar industry, virtually over night. Often times great innovations come about due to a great economic flux, and this, in my oppinion, is where your draw the line between being noble, and being greedy. In today's market a single innovation can easily be marketed, distributed, and sold to millions of people worldwide, creating a phenomenon that affects people, animals, trees, even the atmosphere. This is where resposibility comes in. There is no code of ethics that defines a designer, no judge to hold him (her) accountable for a design that, while innovative and ingenous, has the potential to harm millions. Over 3/4 of a million sea birds and marine mammals die from plastic deibris each year. Often times the cause of death is that, extremely innovative, plastic six pack holder. Naturally, soda companies went crazy after they found out they could package cans for mere fractions of cents, and began pumping out can holders as fast as they could. It took several years for large deaths in birds and mammals to begin showing up, but even as they have continued to rise, drink companies continue to pump out this simple, innovative, natural disaster. Who is held accountable here? Is it the man who threw his garbage out the window of his car? Is it the company that bought the idea, manufactured the product, and sold it? Is it the designer who didn't have the foresight to see what his (her) product might do? I don't think I would have foreseen these problems, and I don't know what the answer is. Whenever innovation becomes competetive, things will be overlooked. This is eternal, but knowing this, the designer must ask himself (herself), where do I draw the line?
Posted by Zack Hodgin on October 06, 2008 at 12:43 PM EDT #
The idea that economics and market forces are the final determinants of innovation is purely a modern one. If you look to the history of innovation it is clear that these forces are not final determinants at all but merely the impetus for modern western society?s ?commodity fetishism??the belief that by buying a certain object the consumer can change his or her life in some important way. Of course utility is important but to say that ?Anything that won?t sell, I don?t want to invent? is a bit extreme. What if Leonardo da Vinci had felt that way about innovation? He had no buyers for his designs but he kept anticipating. To me that is what innovation is about?anticipating. With that comes responsibility on the designers? part to consider possible benefits and consequences. Although, not all consequences can be foreseen because once the idea is birthed it has its own life, you can attempt instill purpose, but ultimately the world at large will have its own impact on that design or innovation.
Posted by Lydia Hermansson on October 07, 2008 at 09:13 AM EDT #
My fear for innovations now and in the future is that designers wont think sustainably. They will think about the money they will make now but not how it will harm maybe not other humans but animals or the earth. It took Thomas Edison so long to innovate the incandecant bulb because he wanted it to be perfect. He took his time to make sure that it would sell and be useful for many many years. And it has been, there really havent been any protests by earth's rights or animal rights activists claiming that we are evil for using the light bulb becuase it was designed susatainably. The thing that has stuck with me is that before he died, he wanted to begin researching the electric motor to put into cars. We are still trying to do that almost a century later but we still cant make it so that it has minimal impact on the future. This is hard becuase well over half of the U.S. elcetricity still comes from coal, and there arent enough rivers to support dams to supply electricity to the whole U.S. Someone has to come up with a new and improved way of getting electricity so that we can start using electric cars and reduce our dependance on oil. Q: What determines whether something is 'good' in terms of innovation? A: Selling power in the present coupled with sustainability and impact on future generations is what determines if something is 'good' or not. As designers we are held responsible for looking at all these aspects and trying to see how a certain product will impact everyone else in the future, becuase after all, any designer can create an idead for a product that will sell, it is the ablity to see the impact on future generations that make a designer great.
Posted by Joey Hojnacki on October 07, 2008 at 11:58 AM EDT #
One of the most important things about inventing is doing it while thinking of the future. Thomas Edison was far past his time in some of the inventions he created. Designing products so that they fit with the time is very important. This requires critical planning and this will determine how successful or how big a failure the product is. Edison said ?Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent.? This statement is accurate in that everyone wants a successful product. Why invent something that no one will use? But thinking past the subject of pass or fail, an invention needs to be healthy. Plastic bags are perfect examples of good inventions turning bad. There cheap and easy to use, but like the article said, they are detrimental to our environment. It was created for a quick solution and has turned into a long term problem.
As we learned in Design Thinking, Thomas Edison never created an invention that could be used as a weapon. He stuck with the important principle of healthy designing. My main concern with future of inventions is health. It is important to boost our economy with new inventions and resist from producing deadly war inventions. Inventions seem to move along with time. The longer a country is at war, the more prone they are to having designs of war. Just as if a country is in economic burst there will be more inventions to further this success. Designers are inventers. So as designers, it is important for us to begin to calculate ways of designing healthier lifestyle for the future.
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Posted by Robert M. Garrison on October 07, 2008 at 08:20 PM EDT #
I feel that foresight should be part of, if not the responsibility of the society of designers. I have a firm belief in the idea that business needs to adopt a hybrid design process to ensure that we have a tomorrow to sell our ideas. It is not the future designs themselves that we should be wary of, but rather the practices that create them. Many good things, including much needed sustainability practices (and image) have come from Google and Apple. This is not a change of time, an advancement in technology nor retrospect. These companies have adopted the design process as the forefront of their business. Google does not have dull presentation rooms with improper lighting and a meeting being conducted with men in suits. Rather, Google has redesigned the meeting room to advance thinking. This is one of the few modern examples of design thinking as a business forefront. I call this approach BUSINESS DESIGN. Now, understand, that what I have called for is a more responsible designer, designers who lead by design. The days of introverted designers must cease because our ideals and practices become too mutilated by the financial and managerial sectors that have driven our market to shambles over some quick bucks. I strongly believe that the repetition of business and management has been the downfall to our economic growth and stability. Business practices have in the past been taught relatively the same across campuses and company workshops. A good business man can be defined simply as a person who can produce the same result over and over more and more efficiently. The design approach says for us to be inspired, imagine, create and critique. The variables are more accounted for in the design process than the typical process of business development and the approach is often more creative. We have been through the industrial economy, the tech economy, and now we are seeing a crash in the economy while famed business design models such as Google and Apple go nearly unaffected. The great thing about business design is that it is a repeatable process, aimed at financial performance, but with a heavier bias towards design. The next economy will be a hybrid economy known as Business Design. Design will soon become the byword of management and business practice. We as designers will see more responsibility and more opportunity in the near future, and I predict that many of us will be called upon to design businesses and practices more often than we design physical items. And I look forward to the day when leaders become designers and designers are the leaders.
Posted by Michael Christopher Hobgood on October 07, 2008 at 09:01 PM EDT #