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Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond
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Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond

by Alan Axelrod
February 2008
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
192 pages
4h 1m
English
Jossey-Bass
Content preview from Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond

5.4. Lesson 36: Innovate Without Inventing

Edison amazed the world with his inventions, but even the most radically civilization-altering of them were typically innovations based on existing technologies or on analogies with existing technologies. Late in his creative life, beginning in 1927, Edison embarked on a project of innovation aimed at exploiting not an existing technology—but nature itself.

With the automobile industry rapidly expanding, the demand for rubber grew greater every year. Various experimenters were on the trail of methods of manufacturing synthetic rubber. Like these others, Edison saw tremendous potential in the rubber market, but instead of leaping into a quest for an artificial alternative to natural rubber, he turned ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780787994594Purchase book