Be an Inventor, Be Innovative
CEO of Boeing, Jim McNerney gave this great speech which I happened to find today while browsing. This is really awesome, a must-read.
Its bit of a long reading (transcript of speech), so I am also highlighting few points of speech (to tempt you read whole text 
) to summarize things that I really like to remember and add some of my (valuable ) comments.
1. Jim highlighted difference between Invention and Innovation. Frankly don’t we use these words as synonyms, well there is a big difference between the two. However the fact is inventors are always very limited souls who really create/discover something, many innovators adds features and work on improving the invention. Both touch lives of millions and literally change the way we (humans, at large) live our lives
2. Jim highlights five biggest myths of innovation
Myth #1: The iconoclastic, crusading researcher, working out of a “skunk works” or bootlegging operation, is responsible for most innovation.
Myth #2: It’s all about technology. The techies are the only innovators.
Myth #3: It has to change everything. Like Captain Kirk in Star Trek, anyone who cares about innovation should seek “to boldly go where no man has gone before.”
Myth #4: Innovation is a matter of serendipity. Or accident. Or luck. As with Archimedes, it’s the happy thought that comes to you when you least expect it.
Myth #5 Discipline and creativity are mortal enemies. They cannot coexist. And discipline, by the way, is the bad guy. For innovation to flourish, the “suits” and the “bean counters” — or the managers and the accountants — have to get out of the way and accept that the creative process is inherently mysterious and unmanageable. (That’s what makes it so much fun.)
OK lets pause here for a second and think how many times we have heard about myths and how many of us really believe in above. Jim’s counter-arguments on these myths are very interesting and just so factual and true.
Fact #1: Innovation is a team sport, not a solo sport. It depends on a culture of technical sharing and openness to others. It takes people working together across different groups, disciplines and organizational lines to make it happen. It also takes real leadership in charting the course and inspiring people to reach for the highest level of performance supported by a never-ending focus on integrity.
Fact #2: Innovation can and should occur in all areas of business. It’s not solely about technology; it’s about creating value for the customer in many different ways. If you define innovation as taking a task — any task — and finding a way to do it better, so that the customer benefits, it becomes clear that innovation is part of everyone’s job.
Fact #3: In engineering, as in business, always sweat the small stuff. Incremental doesn’t mean insignificant; it often means just the opposite. Never-ending incremental improvements are vital both to sustaining current business and to opening new opportunities.
Fact #4: The “eureka” moment — while exciting — is rare. As Thomas Edison said (and we all remember this well), “Genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99% perspiration.” Even in the laboratory, innovation should not be left to happenstance. Like in other parts of the business, the effectiveness and productivity of a company’s R&D efforts should be measured … and managed … to eliminate duplication of effort; to maximize returns; and to ensure the company pursues the right products, with the right partners, and does all the other things it has to do to maintain a customer-oriented perspective.
Fact #5: In a business environment, you can’t have creativity without discipline because — like it or not — not all ideas are created equal. You need the rigor and discipline both to say ‘no’ on some projects and to put the pedal to the metal on others. As a project moves from the lab … through marketing and manufacturing … and into the field, there is a continuing need for discipline. At every stage, you must ask whether the project is on target to deliver a compelling value proposition to your customer — and, in the business-to-business world, to your customer’s customers.
3. Due to inventions and innovations in transportation, communication and information processing, global competition has become more intense, businesses have become more focused on creating practical and measurable value for the customer. Therefore..
Gone is the day when big engineering-oriented companies like Boeing would put technology into a product just because we could do it.
Gone is the day of the independent inventor within the corporation who isn’t asked … and isn’t expected … to know anyone else outside of a small group of engineers.
Gone is the say when most technical ideas and input come from within your own company or institution.
4. And then Jim gives example of Boeing 787 Dreamliner – Really Impressive!
Here is link to full transcript of speech
I like speech because Jim talks about power of invention, how this changes world around us, how innovation (even tiny, small ones) cause human progress, this is all so exciting! Relate this to my belief that currently best ground for innovation and inventions is ‘Software Engineering Industry’. That doesn’t mean invention & innovation is dead in other fields, what I mean is we are living in an information age, lots of lots of data flows from one end of globe to another, from computers to newest gadgets, thus millions and billions and trillions and gazillions of bits of information gets process along the way, and our key to future inventions and how we humans will be leading our lives in next 50 or 100 years is how effectively, intuitively and comprehensible we will be processing this information. Software Industry gives you opportunity to play with this information all around, think of new ways to bring change in lives, dream and invent new ways of improving manual, disintegrated processes around us, bring power of technology to everyone. With cheap hardware and cloud computing around, I believe we software professionals are in best position ever in the human history to dream, invent and innovate. Best luck to us all
