So the market is almost never where the inventor thinks it will be. No more than 10 or 15 percent of innovations move up to that founder s wishes. Five years later they ll say that this is a nice specialty. It means you have to wrap it in a five-dollar bill to give it away. Sixty percent are footnotes at best.
Timing is also important.
An invention may not succeed, but 10 years later someone else does the same thing, but gives it a slight twist and it clicks. Sometimes strategies are more important than the innovation itself. The trouble is that you rarely get a second chance. Absolutely, but this needs to be an ongoing process and it has to be organized. Let me give you an example of a company that I ve worked with.