I'm happy to define invention as the making, and innovation as the making+people wanting. But he's defining it in terms of intention: an inventor creates something for its own sake; whereas when an innovator creates for a market need. It means the same act of creation could be called invention or innovation, depending on the intention.
A deeper objection is that being market-lead only leads where the market already knows it wants to go. It is a problem in search of a solution. But there's the other, more interesting engineering-lead innovation, which is a solution in search of a problem. The Innovator's Dilemma has examples of the latter, such as tiny disk-drives and offroad minibikes.
And I think Steve Jobs is famous for not being market-lead (which is how the article presents him). The iPod wasn't market-led. People didn't say "we need an iPad", in fact many had doubts about it. It is true, however, that he intended and planned it to be a market success - he wasn't just "inventing" without regard to widespread adoption.
I think better definitions are that invention is creating new products, and innovation is creating new businesses. Invention can be a component of innovation. An innovation can target an existing or imagined market need. However, these terms already have meanings, so perhaps we're better off just saying what we mean.
PS: I looked at one inventions he mentions, and it seems cool: Liftaem, a bed-to-gurney hovercraft. When I've seen patients transferred manually in hospitals, I've thought it looks shockingly primitive. http://tincmag.com/2010/12/09/smart-medical-technologys-lift...
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I'm happy to define invention as the making, and innovation as the making+people wanting. But he's defining it in terms of intention: an inventor creates something for its own sake; whereas when an innovator creates for a market need. It means the same act of creation could be called invention or innovation, depending on the intention.
A deeper objection is that being market-lead only leads where the market already knows it wants to go. It is a problem in search of a solution. But there's the other, more interesting engineering-lead innovation, which is a solution in search of a problem. The Innovator's Dilemma has examples of the latter, such as tiny disk-drives and offroad minibikes.
And I think Steve Jobs is famous for not being market-lead (which is how the article presents him). The iPod wasn't market-led. People didn't say "we need an iPad", in fact many had doubts about it. It is true, however, that he intended and planned it to be a market success - he wasn't just "inventing" without regard to widespread adoption.
I think better definitions are that invention is creating new products, and innovation is creating new businesses. Invention can be a component of innovation. An innovation can target an existing or imagined market need. However, these terms already have meanings, so perhaps we're better off just saying what we mean.
PS: I looked at one inventions he mentions, and it seems cool: Liftaem, a bed-to-gurney hovercraft. When I've seen patients transferred manually in hospitals, I've thought it looks shockingly primitive. http://tincmag.com/2010/12/09/smart-medical-technologys-lift...
In my definitions, innovation is simply the step after invention and before imitation.
* invention: have an idea and build a prototype to verify
* innovation: make it a product and sell it
* imitation: make it scale