Inventor or Innovator - Are Both True Entrepreneurs?

http://www.infochachkie.com/inventors-vs-innovators/#more-261

by mollylynn • 18 years ago

12 4 18 years ago

This article is a nice continuation of the questions first discussed in "Are You An Entrepreneur?"

I like the clear definitions of each person's role at a venture.

Alexian• 18 years ago

I've never even heard of Philo before reading this. Did anyone else know that he was responsible for inventing the modern television? (He definitely wasn't the innovator who profited from it)

WebGiant• 18 years ago

For those of us who dream about bringing a life changing product to the world, this article brings great hope in the form of understanding why most inventors need innovators.

matthewmeredith• 18 years ago

Agreed. There really is no debate here, as both parties need each other. However, I do agree with the distinction that Inventors are like "parents who enjoy 'making babies' but abandon their children once they begin to cry."

Great line!

skmurphy• 18 years ago

It's a ridiculous characterization of inventors: it sounds like the definition of a dilettante not an inventor.

For the most part it's difficult for inventors to appreciate where their inventions will find their first market. Peter Drucker details this in an interview in Inc. magazine http://www.inc.com/magazine/19960515/2083_Printer_Friendly.h... which builds on his work in "Innovation and Entrepreneurship" http://www.amazon.com/Innovation-Entrepreneurship-Peter-F-Dr...

Drucker: The first entrepreneurial pitfall comes when the entrepreneur has to face the fact that the new product or service is not successful where he or she thought it would be but is successful in a totally different market. Many businesses disappear because the founder-entrepreneur insists that he or she knows better than the market.

Inc.: So, often the entrepreneur is actually succeeding but doesn’t realize it?

Drucker: No, it’s worse than that. He or she rejects success. You want examples? There are thousands of them, but one of the best is over 100 years old.

A man by the name of John Wesley Hyatt had invented the roller bearing. He made up his mind that it was just right for the axles of railroad freight cars. Railroads traditionally stuffed the wheels of their cars with rags soaked in oil to handle the friction. The railroads, however, were not ready for radical change; they liked their rags. And Mr. Hyatt went bankrupt trying to persuade them otherwise.

When Alfred Sloan, the man who later built GM, graduated from MIT at the head of his class in the mid-1890s, he asked his father to buy him Hyatt’s small bankrupt business. Unlike Hyatt, Sloan was willing to broaden his vision of the product. It turned out that the roller bearing was ideal for the automobile, which was just coming to market. In two years Sloan had a flourishing business; for 20 years Henry Ford was his biggest customer.

Inventor or Innovator - Are Both True Entrepreneurs?

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