The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking

LeveragingResources

The third thinking pattern we want to examine in our study of the Renaissance mind-set is the ability of innovators to see themselves, and the world around them, as a collection of skills and assets that can be recombined or stretched into new opportunities.

Consider Johannes Gutenberg, whose mechanical, movable type printing press is considered by many to be the most important invention of the modern period. Let’s look a little deeper at the various skills and assets Gutenberg leveraged to make this innovation possible.

First, Gutenberg was no dummy. He studied at Germany’s University of Erfurt,¹⁴ which had opened its doors only a few decades earlier. He had a smart and entrepreneurial mind that seems to have been busy searching for new business opportunities. Before he became famous for revolutionizing printing, he came up with a scheme to manufacture small “magical” mirrors from polished metal that he claimed could capture holy light from religious relics and impart healing powers to the user. His idea was to sell this little miracle to religious pilgrims at a big event coming up in Aachen¹⁵—in 1439 the city was planning to display an exhibition of relics from Emperor Charlemagne. However, the event was postponed due to severe flooding, so Gutenberg was forced to put his creative energies into another, much more promising venture—the printing press.

It is ...