
69Technical Creativity and Idea Generation
take a chance. For the academic, it requires getting grant money, pub-
lishing results, and selling the solution to skeptical peers. For a cog in
the engine of industry, it means getting face time with management
to explain the benets and carving out a share of the budget. Edouard
Benedictus raced through the rst ve steps, but spent years struggling to
sell his invention. The struggle demoralizes idealistic people who expect
a victory parade. Ideas are stolen, misunderstood, undermined, discred-
ited, reverse engineered, or lost in the in-box. Their time may pass before
they catch on.
The six steps ma ...