Essay On Innovation

Essay on Innovation
What is innovation? Innovation can be defined as the application of solutions to real

life problems and better alternatives to gratify needs of mankind. Technology has
made our lives better over the course of time, and innovation is the forerunner of
technology. As the famous saying goes, Necessity is the mother of inventions.
Necessities force mankind to find a way to solve the problem.
The value of any invention depends on its usability and reliability. This raises an
interesting question - how can one differentiate innovation from invention? Invention
can be defined as the first occurrence of an idea for a new product or process while
innovation is the first commercialisation of an idea [1]. According to Joseph F.
Engelberger who developed the first industrial robot in 1950s, innovation comprises
three things: a recognised need, competent people with knowledge and experience in
relevant technology and financial support [2]. Innovation can be shown to take place
in three steps: Recognise a problem to be optimised, create all possible solutions that
resolves and validate the product or process according to the user needs comparing to
existing methods. Many a times, innovation is achieved with a collective effort that
requires expertise from various fields. Hence, interdisciplinary work with cooperation
will lead to better and meaningful innovations.
According to Joseph Schumpeter, economic development had to be seen as a process
of qualitative change driven by innovation. In his analysis, he mentions the tendency
of innovation to cluster in certain industries and time periods that contribute to the
formation of business cycles and growth of world economy [1].
What are the sources of innovation? What do we need to create an innovative idea? As
mentioned before, since we need to come up with an idea to bring innovation, where
does this idea come from? First of all, a proper definition of the problem is in order.
We then need to work on finding the requirements and existing solutions for that
problem. This is achieved through basic research. Hence, one can say innovation is
brought about by research. Sometimes, however, it takes more time to define a
problem than it would to solve the problem. We need to think out of the box to find
alternative solutions to the problem. Apart from these, there are also other factors
which promote innovation, such as capital investment, financial motivation, academic
motivation, manpower, cooperation etc.
Are the innovations in recent times purely profit-oriented? The answer is No. There
is a lot of funding available from government and other NGOs to promote research in
the fields of health, basic needs and which we cannot say is purely profit oriented.
Some private companies may be funding research that needs to get the results and
commercialise the ideas within the stipulated time. This could suggest that their aim is
likely the profit and proper return on their investments. We can say both types of
research are essential and should be promoted. The profit-oriented research will
mostly benefit the rich countries. For example, if there is an epidemic in a poor
community which has people who cannot afford medical care, the research in
medicine would be largely stunted in such areas. This is because the commercialising
capacity of such research is low and the corporates will be reluctant to take the risk
and invest in that research.
This brings us to another important question - how can we assess the quality of an
innovation? We can assess the quality of innovation with regard to the convenience it
brings about in our lives. But sometimes to assess the quality of an innovation it takes
a lot of time. The potential of an idea may not be known when it was first invented.
Rewarding the better ideas at an early stage can be motivational for the research
community. Protection of intellectual properties should be guaranteed in every nation
through civil lawsuits. A patent can be defined as a set of rights granted by a state/
organisation to an inventor for a limited period of time in exchange for detailed public
disclosure of an invention. Patents are a form of intellectual property [3]. In my
opinion, patents encourage researchers to search for novel ideas. However, there is a
darker side for patents - some essential heath care products or drugs cant be produced
since some people cannot afford to pay for the patent. In such cases, it is better to
subsidise such patent prices if governments or charitable organisations are ready to
pay, else we have to find some other methods to make the ideas publicly available.
Scientific knowledge is the key to innovation. An innovation is a paradigm shift in the
way of thought in the process of scientific progress. Once a shift in the concepts is
brought about, people start building upon those ideas till a major paradigm shift or
contradiction comes into picture. Sometimes the validation of an idea may be carried
out in controlled environments, and there can be issues on the universal applicability
of an idea. The proper validation of any idea is required before publication or
commercialisation.
In my opinion, the best example for innovation is the discovery of transistors. It has
been found that our telecommunication systems have changed from wired telephones
using mechanical switching to modern cellular mobile phones. Transistors are the
fundamental building blocks of modern electronic circuits. It was first implemented in
1947 and revolutionized the field of electronics, and this, to me, stands as a fine
testimony to the power of innovation the power to revolutionise the future of our
world.
References:
[1] Fagerberg, Jan. "Innovation: a guide to the literature." (2004).
[2] Engelberger, J. F. (1982). "Robotics in practice: Future capabilities". Electronic Servicing
& Technology magazine.
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent

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Essay on Innovation

What is innovation? Innovation can be defined as the application of solutions to real

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