Based on chapter of the book "Kellogg on Marketing", this presentation gives an overview of how the innovation is cumulative and diffused. it also talks about the business implications of the innovation that a marketing manager should understand to develop a successful innovation strategy.

1. From Wheel to Twitter:
Where Do Innovations Come
from?
Made By- Anjali Mehta (PGDM) {A chapter of the book “Kellogg on Marketing”

2. OVERVIEW1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
One of the most pressing questions managers face today is how to beget innovation in their
enterprise.
Converge to
increase the
importance
of
Global Competition
Diffusion of
information &
technology
Business complexity
The slide deck represents the overview of insights from Jared Diamond’s “Guns, germs and
steel” and how managers can foster innovation in an enterprise in a novel way.

3. INVENTION IS THE MOTHER OF
NECESSITY1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
In contrast to the conventional wisdom, most major historical inventions were not invented to fulfill
pressing needs but instead developed by tinkers and hobbyists who developed it for their own
curiosity.
Most inventions find their greatest use for a different purpose than for which they were originally
developed. Individuals do not realize there exists an application that require an invention until has
been invented in the first place.(Hence the title of the slide)
Steam engines were
initially developed to
remove water from
coal mines.
You Tube was created
by two guys with no
Valentine’s dates who
thought the service
would be a great video
dating site.
Internet was
developed by U.S
defense department to
link radar stations.

4. INVENTION IS CUMULATIVE1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
This conclusion contradicts the Heroic theory of invention that only one great inventor or scientist are
responsible for generating the most significant advances.
Steam engine,
credited to James
Watt
It was
improvement of
engine developed
by Thomas
Newcomen
Which was
inspired by
Thomas Savery’s
steam engine.
In turn inspired by
engine designs of
Denis Papin
1769
1698
1680
1715
Steam Engine: Invention History
So, invention is a cumulative process where most inventions are simply incremental but ultimately
important contributions to the existing inventions.

5. THE DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Most inventions used by a society come from other societies . Most do not invent the majority
innovations that they use, but instead adopt them from other societies.
So, the diffusion of innovation occurs because innovations that give sufficient advantage to a society
are observed and adopted by other societies.
Evidence shows that first occurrence of wheel was
around 3400 B.C near the Black Sea, with subsequent
appearances over next 100 years over all Eurasia
Arabs defeated Chinese at the battle of Talas River in 751
A.D and took advantage of Chinese captives to develop
and indigenous paper industry.

6. IMPLICATIONS FOR CORPORATE
INNOVATION

7. INVENTION v/s INNOVATION1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
INVENTION
Refers to a new concept
INNOVATION
Commercial application of an invention
Companies should not only focus on new inventions but also on improving existing inventions for a
particular application, that is, for innovation.
U.S patent and trademark
office issues around 100,00
patents annually.
But in reality only a small
fraction ultimately leads to
successful commercial
products.
Despite the promotion of
reusable adhesive by Silver
spencer, development of the
adhesive did not proceed
until another 3 M researcher
Art Fry recognized the
application of it 6 years later
in the form of post-it notes.

8. ANTICIPATING CUSTOMER NEEDS1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Focus of a successful innovation strategy should be on creative application for existing inventions and
combination of inventions.
Identifying applications to fulfill customer needs that do not exist explicitly( and the customer can not
articulate) is central to successful innovation.
“ If I had asked my customers what
they wanted, I would have built a
faster horse” – HENRY FORD
Honeywell developed a home computer in 1969 for
managing recipe cards and thus marketed it as kitchen
computer for $10, 000 for housewives and could not sell
even a single piece.

9. LOOKING OUTSIDE THE
ORGANIZATION
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Innovations may come from outside the organization also- company’s customers, other companies in
the same industry or the other industries entirely.
Thus, a critical component of a successful innovation strategy is identification, adoption, adaptation,
improvement and integration of existing innovation to new applications.
• Google Maps was the result of
acquisition of an Australian
company that was subsequently
integrated with other features
• Apple invented neither MP3 nor
smart phone but it is skilled at
integrating many different
inventions to make innovative
products like iPhone and iPad.

10. SUMMARY1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Focus of corporate innovation
should be on novel application
of existing inventions rather
than on new inventions
Hallmark of innovation in
marketing is identification of
unarticulated customer needs and
imagination of application to
fulfill those needs.
Identification, adaptation and
integration of innovations outside
the organization are the
foundation of successful
innovation strategy.