What’s the first thing you think about when you hear the name “Thomas Edison“?
Probably the light bulb, or maybe the phonograph, or the film camera. How about GE? He was after all the founder of GE.
I was surprised to find out that he also invented an electric battery for a car- since I drive a Prius- this was an interesting data point.
What I believe is his biggest impact-is not his inventions- but his philosophy and approach to innovation. Today we take for granted that most inventions are planned rather than by accident. There are examples of accidental inventions such as the Post-it® Notes by 3M that were not planned. Prior to Edison’s time, people believed that inventions were part of an accidental process of discovery. Edison changed all that.
He came up with a process of inventing. He would put together the resources and team that would result in his inventions. The team was made up of a group with a variety of skills. He provided them with the right tools to work with as well as a library with information on prior inventions that were studied when embarking on a new project. He did not want them to be sidetracked and focused them only on inventing rather than on solving other types of problems such as the manufacture of the product. He encouraged collaboration and it was OK to make mistakes. He also had aggressive goals and expected a major invention every six months and a small one every 10 days. This is no different that Steve Jobs expecting his team to improve upon existing products such as the iPhone or coming up with a totally new product such as the iPad.
This model has been adopted and refined by most companies around the world. In a number of organizations this process is housed in the R & D function and in technology companies it is usually led by the Chief Technology Officer.
I believe this process is his greatest contribution and is how we plan innovation. How about you?
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