Invention is the product of a creative or curious mind. Innovation is something that changes the life of the customer in some way, or the world in which the customer experiences things. That’s an innovation.
Arno Penzias – joint winner of the Nobel prize in physics, 1978
So invention is the product of a curious or creative mind, which describes the products of universities and research institutes but innovation requires that the invention changes the lives of customers.
If it's not innovative unless it is commercialised and if we take the rule of thumb that 90% of the cost of getting a product to market is in the commercialisation process (rather than the R&D process - invention?) then we need to spend more time and effort making our inventions easier to commercialise.
Do we need to think more about the commercialisation process before we set out to invent something or would this stifle invention?
