Zero to One Innovation
KODA caught a good show yesterday about ‘innovation’. Peter Thiel, PayPal co-founder and author of the book Zero to One was interviewed. He had a lot to say, but one thing that stood out in particular was his mediocre opinion of innovation these days. That’s a pretty controversial statement, but when you think about it, maybe it isn’t…
The best explanation is done by example – by retrospectively looking at the typewriter. A 1-n innovation is making a better typewriter, with better ink, keys and mechanisms, or better methods of distribution, sales or manufacturer, maybe even digital line by line review. On the contrary, a 0-1 innovation is the invention of the first electronic word processor. Not only was it better for the users, but changed the industry. Effectively, it started with nothing (0) and ended up with the first step (1) towards a new future.
What is Technology?
Peter Thiel, in his interview, also seemed determined to restore the scope of the definition of ‘technology’. Despite his own successes in the field, he is concerned about the narrowing of the definition of technology to mostly only mean Information Technology; effectively narrowing the collective efforts of humanity in our pursuits. There are lots of socio-economic impacts that come from this including what careers, successes and societal roles we value, and therefore what we focus our energy on. After all, we went to the moon in 1969, but haven’t even come close to putting a human on Mars yet - 45 years later. Would that constitute a 0-1 innovation if we did? KODA thinks so.
What about KODA?
Well, we’re thinking how we can provide the next 0-1 innovation for the tunneling, construction and mining industries – how we can make the next ‘word-processor’. We don’t expect to do it alone, and look forward to working closely with industry to make it happen – so let’s start thinking big.
Please like, share and we look forward to comments.
Until next time, KODA