NanoInnovation: What Every Manager Needs to Know

Preface

In 2000, I was giving a series of presentations to industry and academic groups on radical innovations that have the potential to reshape the future, and one of these innovations was nanotechnology. At the time, there was a lot of hype around “nano,” but I had the sense that most people didn't really understand what was really going on in the field. So I began asking my audiences, “Who can name one product that uses nanotechnology?”

To my amazement, most people couldn't name a single product. This happened year after year. In the fourth year, one hand went up and someone said, “carbon nanotubes.” At the time, I knew there were already more than a thousand products that used nanotechnology. Obviously, the business community needed to know more about nanoinnovation. At the same time, many of my colleagues in business were expressing frustration over the media hype and constant flow of “breakthrough” announcements that were causing a lot of confusion and misinformation. Finally, I decided to write a book that tells what's “really happening” in nanoinnovation – the book you're reading now.

I started by interviewing nano-insiders in business, government, science, and academia. Thanks to contacts shared by friends like Michael Terlaak and others and by using LinkedIn and other networking resources, I was able to interview more than 150 nano-insiders. Over time, I got to know many of the most prominent nano pioneers. I invited them to provide updates on their research at an ...