Creating future breakthrough products hinges on creatively leveraging past successes, both within and outside one's industry. Rarely do business breakthroughs occur in a "eureka moment"; instead, most valuable innovations result from "technology brokering", where successful ideas from one industry are adapted to another. To excel in the future, we must effectively utilize the past. The outdated image of a lone genius inventing the future in isolation should be discarded. Innovative companies thrive not by disregarding the past, but by repurposing it in novel ways, leading to an innovation process that makes smaller, safer bets by building on what already exists. - Andrew Hargadon.
Technology brokering is a concept that hinges on the recombination of existing ideas to spur innovation, rather than the creation of entirely new concepts. It involves a systematic approach where a proficient technology broker traverses various industries, transferring ideas from their known applications to unfamiliar territories. This process of recombinant innovation is central to product breakthroughs, as every technology, no matter how complex, is essentially a fusion of different elements that work together to achieve a specific goal. The history of technology brokering can be traced back to notable figures like Thomas Edison, whose Menlo Park laboratory was a hub of innovation, producing over 400 patents in six years. Similarly, Henry Ford's Highland Park Factory and Design Continuum are examples of how the recombination of existing ideas and technologies from various fields can lead to significant breakthroughs and commercial success. These idea factories were organized along the lines of technology brokerages, illustrating the power of connecting and recombining existing technologies in innovative ways. Innovative breakthroughs often occur when the networks surrounding different technologies form new relationships with each other. These abrupt shifts, akin to "phase transitions" in physics, can unveil numerous commercial opportunities. Inventors are not necessarily more creative than others; they are simply better connected, spanning more networks than the average person, which gives them an edge in forming new associations between technologies. Technology brokers are effective not because they do original things, but because they discover new ways to connect the network of one technology with another. They bridge distant worlds to create new combinations of technologies, leveraging the past rather than breaking away from it. This approach is contrary to the conventional beliefs about innovation, which often emphasize the creation of novel advancements. Instead, technology brokering focuses on igniting a revolution by combining existing technologies in new ways and building communities around these new technologies. Some of the most renowned idea factories in history, such as Edison's Menlo Park and Ford's Highland Park Factory, have demonstrated the success of this approach. Their achievements were not due to the invention of new technologies, but rather their ability to connect and recombine existing ones in innovative ways. This strategy has proven to be a powerful method for fostering innovation and achieving commercial success. In essence, technology brokering is about understanding products from the customer's point of view, empathic design, and creating new markets and industries from innovative combinations of existing technology. It requires a shift in focus for traditional R&D teams from inventing new products to combining previous innovations, and it involves including marketing and manufacturing perspectives in product design to ensure success and practicality. The process is intertwined with empathic design, which leads to innovative products that suit the particular problems of the customer. The role of technology brokers is to facilitate the delivery of solutions using a network of expert providers, helping to reduce operating costs and improve the state of the industry. They are trusted advisers who use their expertise to help business development and partner selection, providing services that are essential for the growth and advancement of various sectors.
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