Success in Innovation

4

Wrong Starts

4.1 Solution looking for a problem

The phrase ‘solution looking for a problem’ stems from the previous century when research and innovation were carried out differently. It was the time of ‘technology-push’ innovations resulting from inventions created in the research laboratories of large companies. Research, manufacturing, and marketing were separate silos in a company, each with their own responsibility and targets that were not necessarily aligned. At the annual coordination meeting, researchers would proudly present their clever inventions to the marketing people for further commercialization and would be disappointed when marketing did not show the required interest and proper enthusiasm. The problem was not that the inventions ...