VISH KRISHNAN: Invention activities are focused on breakthrough advances,

often unconstrained and not worried about applications.

They're really pursued intrinsically, you know, with intrinsic motives.
Innovation, on the other hand, may be seen
as the translation, the adaptation of these breakthroughs
to address some real market needs.
In fact, we might think of invention itself
as a special type of innovation that is pursued for its own sake
without worrying about commercial impact.
Or we might think of invention as the upfront activities that
are producing the seeds, the breakthrough inputs
to the innovation process which must ensure then
that some compelling needs are identified for impact,
for market adoption, and for customer usage.
Now, consider our innovation processes of the last few years,
especially used in our industries.
Since innovation involves bringing new approaches and technologies
to fruitful application, it can happen in one of several pathways,
at least a couple of major pathways.
Throughout the 20th century, we have had a more technology-driven innovation
approach where a company such as Intel, for example,
works really hard to find matching applications for advancements
in transistor technology that was originally invented at Bell Labs
but now governed by their so-called Moore's law,
which really is that aim to keep this technology advanced.
We call this a seed-driven or a supply-driven innovation approach
where the advancements in transistor seeds
are really pacing this particular area.
Intel, Qualcomm, and their peers engage in furious development
of this transistor technology, and create products
to work with customers, such as computer companies and cell phone
handset companies, to get these innovations out,
and tightly designed them for application and for adoption and usage.
In this case, the transistor as a seed really drives the innovation process.
But you have to find new applications, such as smartphones.
This is seeds-driven innovation, starting with the seed
and finding applications.
During the last 20 years, we have had a progress
on another approach we might call needs-driven innovation, which
place high emphasis on starting with the needs,
doing extensive studies of the market to identify, to unearth,
to capture customer needs, which are then used to find a solution.
In this case, we start with the need.
We swim in the fishbowl with the customers.
We really spend time with the field to find out what is bothering them,
what their problems are, what their pain points
are, and then try to discover new technological approaches
to solve these problems.
Which is better, the needs-driven approach or the seeds-driven approach?
Well, it depends.
There are merits to both these approaches.
There are also significant challenges associated with solely
using one of these approaches.
We will argue that using just one of these approaches
is like clapping with one hand.
And if you really want to have impact, you really
need to integrate them in a closed loop.
That's what we'll call accelerated innovation.
We'll discuss each of these approaches in greater detail
and then learn to put them together.