Building Moonshots

WAY 39Seed New Fields: Adding new players and ideas creates a foundation for the next ecosystem.

About the Way

Moonshots can spark entirely new fields of work and likewise can result from the action of strategically financing a potential new area of growth. Seeding a new innovation ecosystem often begins with a jumbled mix of funding sources, scientific and technical challenges, and the need to hire people who can imagine and build wicked prototypes that don't fit clearly in any one discipline or industry. Working with a shared vision of an almost impossible future, these teams and individuals then collaborate and compete on new methods and concepts, often bringing an entirely new field into existence.

Sometimes the seeding can occur explosively. A massive government act provides a deluge of financial rainfall, which engages multitudes of new system actors—turning scattered wild meadows into a rainforest overnight. One example is the growth spurt of aerospace from a cottage industry into its own field. Although various experiments of human flight had occurred throughout time, attempts picked up in the late 19th century and 20th century. In fact, one major touchpoint was the incorporation of the Wright Company with a capitalization of $1 million in 1909.¹ However, none of these attempts constituted a proper field—with a clear shared vocabulary, set of methods and tools, and community. Russia's launch of Sputnik in 1957 as the world's first artificial satellite incited action. ...