Timing is Important to Make an Innovative Idea Disruptive

Timing is Important to Make an Innovative Idea Disruptive

America had to be discovered more than once, until it really had been discovered. The Apple Newton was a superior answer to a question that people did not bother at that time.
Likewise, Kodak invented the first portable digital camera (more), but the quality of the pictures was so inferior compared to traditional technologies at that time, that they dismissed it. The camera weight was 8 pounds, the resolution 0.01 Megapixel, there were no printers available nor internet services to transmit the picture to a laboratory. There were just floppy disks, and these were low in storage and high in size.

It's easy to claim that Kodak missed an opportunity at that time. But there was no opportunity. The time had yet to come for it.

Brilliant inventions need a supportive environment to innovate. That others like an idea is not nearly enough. There has to be a need, a real market opportunity. And you have to be able to find the people first willing to buy the product to finance its advancement. In other words: the timing has to be right. When the timing is right, innovation happens.

		Comments Sort by date Sort by rating Rating
		5 Gabi Levin Israel
	Yes, But You Can Decide and Make the Timing Kodak missed the opportunity. It's as simple as that. Yes they were the first and faced obstacles, b... Sign up

		5 Bernhard Keim Business Consultant, Germany
	Remember Leonarda Da Vinci Leonarda Da Vinci made many inventions well ahead of his time. Why were people not interested? Anoth... Sign up

		3 Gary Wong Consultant, Canada
	Where Good Ideas Come From Steven Johnson in his 2010 book Where Good Ideas Come From identifies the need to enable "hunches" f... Sign up

		3 Gary Wong Consultant, Canada
	Timing is Critical @Bernhard Keim: I suggest innovation can sometimes go further than delivering an answer society want... Sign up

		3 Gary Wong Consultant, Canada
	Kodak Could Read the Writing on the Wall (but Wasn’t Willing to Pay the Price) @Gabi Levin: I recently read about Kodak's failure in the book Shift Ahead. I think Kodak gets an un... Sign up

		3 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Short Versus Long Sightedness @Gary Wong: I agree Gary. I am sure that there are many cases where the short term greed of the bean... Sign up

		4 Charles Alter Consultant, United States
	Relying too much on the Historic Core Business @Maurice Hogarth: I agree the case of Kodak and many other companies that have been disrupted, inclu... Sign up

		2 Helen Strong Business Consultant, South Africa
	Can't Ignore Other Factors Conducive to Disruptive Innovation Totally agree that timing is important, even critical, BUT you have to have the whole environment. T... Sign up

		4 Allemeersch Interim Manager, Belgium
	Timing and Technology Impact A technology upgrade which is not disturbing the human effort to work with it can be introduced rela... Sign up

		1 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	PEST as Disruptor You can use the PEST Factors (domains) to explain the disruptive innovation process at a high level.... Sign up