Innovation-three things: 1. great idea 2. talent to execute it 3. the business vision to turn it into a successful product

1. THE INNOVATORS: HOW A
GROUP OF HACKERS, GENIUSES,
AND GEEKS CREATED THE
DIGITAL REVOLUTION
BY WALTER ISAACSON

2. SOME INVENTIONS HAVE CHANGED THE
WORLD
• INVENTION OF TORPEDO HELPED ANTI-NAZI TO WIN SOME CRUCIAL SEA BATTLES. TORPEDO HAS
BEEN INVENTED BY EUGENE WIGNER AT PRINCETON. DURING HIS WARTIME SERVICE IN THE NAVAL
ORDNANCE LABORATORY HE DISCUSSED TORPEDO DESIGN WITH ALBERT EINSTEIN. HE WAS ONE OF
THE WORLD’S GREATEST EXPERTS ON USING QUANTUM THEORY TO UNDERSTAND HOW MATERIALS
CONDUCT ELECTRICITY.
OR
• INVENTION OF NUCLEAR BOMB STOPPED THE WWII. IT WAS INVENTED BY JOHN VON NEUMANN,
HUNGARIAN-AMERICAN MATHEMATICIAN.
OR
• INVENTION OF TRANSISTOR IN 1947 HAS LEAD IT REVOLUTION IN ‘70S, ‘80S AND ‘90S

3. TRANSISTOR
WILLIAM SHOCKLEY, JOHN BARDEEN & WALTER BRATTAIN
• SHOCKLEY, BRATTAIN AND BARDEEN INVENTED THE TRANSISTOR WORKING SEPARATELY. FIRSTLY, THEY
DISCOVERED THE TRANSISTOR AND LATER ON THEIR COLLEAGUE FROM BELL LAB, SHOCKLEY IMPROVED
INVENTION. BELL LAB WAS IN MANHATTAN IN THE BEGINNING BUT LATER ON IT HAS BEEN REPLACED IN CAMPUS
OF NEW JERSEY. BIG PAVILIONS WHERE ALL TALENTS HAVE BEEN WORKING TOGETHER. THE IDEA WHICH WILL BE
COPY- PASTED BY STEVE JOBS LATER ON WITH APPLE (NEW YORK TIMES )
• SINCE THE DEVICE HAD THE PROPERTY OF TRANSRESISTANCE AND SHOULD HAVE A NAME SIMILAR TO DEVICES
SUCH AS THE THERMISTOR AND VARISTOR, JOHN PIERCE PROPOSED THE NAME ‘’TRANSISTOR’’ AND BECAME A
GODFATHER OF SILICON VALLEY 20 YEARS LATER.
• BELL LAB WAS OWNER OF THE IP AND IF OTHER COMPANIES WANTED TO USE TRANSISTOR THE LICENSE FEE WAS
$25K

4. PATRICK EUGENE HAGGERTY
FROM $25K TILL $3
• HAGGERTY WAS AN AMERICAN ENGINEER AND BUSINESSMAN, CO-FOUNDER OF
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS. UNDER HIS INFLUENCE, THE COMPANY INVESTED IN
TRANSISTORS WHEN THEIR COMMERCIAL VALUE WAS STILL MUCH IN QUESTION;
• HE STARTED THE MASS PRODUCTION AND FIRST PIECES OF TRANSISTORS HAVE
BEEN SOLD TO US NAVY IN 1954 FOR $16/PIECE. FEW YEARS LATER, HAGGERTY
FOUND THE WAY HOW TO DROP THE PRICE TILL $3/PIECE

5. IBM
FROM TRANSISTOR TO THE MICROCHIP
• IBM’S CHIEF THOMAS WATSON JR. BOUGHT A HUNDRED REGENCY RADIOS AND GAVE
THEM TO HIS TOP EXECUTIVES, TELLING THEM TO GET TO WORK USING
TRANSISTORS IN COMPUTERS
• BY THE TIME THEY WERE BEING PUT INTO REGULAR PRODUCTION, EACH MICROCHIP
COSTED $50 (1962), BY 1968 IT WAS $2/PIECE
• A NEW MARKET HAD BEEN CREATED FOR A DEVICE PEOPLE HAD NOT KNOWN THEY
NEEDED. AND FOLLOWING THE INEVITABLE TRAJECTORY, IT KEPT GETTING SMALLER,
MORE POWERFUL, AND CHEAPER. BY 1972 THE PRICE OF A POCKET CALCULATOR
HAD DROPPED TO $100, AND 5 MILLION UNITS WERE SOLD. BY 1975 THE PRICE WAS
DOWN TO $25, AND SALES WERE DOUBLING EVERY YEAR. IN 2014 A TEXAS
INSTRUMENTS POCKET CALCULATOR COST $3.62 AT WALMART.

6. INNOVATION-THREE THINGS
• GREAT IDEA
• THE ENGINEERING TALENT TO EXECUTE IT
• THE BUSINESS VISION TO TURN IT INTO A SUCCESSFUL PRODUCT

7. THEY CHANGED MODERN WORLD
MICROSOFT: BILL GATES & PAUL ALLEN
• IN 1976 HE LEFT HARVARD FOR GOOD, TWO SEMESTERS SHY OF GRADUATING. IN JUNE 2007, WHEN HE RETURNED
TO HARVARD TO GET AN HONORARY DEGREE, HE BEGAN HIS SPEECH BY DIRECTING A COMMENT TO HIS FATHER IN
THE AUDIENCE. “I’VE BEEN WAITING MORE THAN 30 YEARS TO SAY THIS: DAD, I ALWAYS TOLD YOU I’D COME BACK
AND GET MY DEGREE.”
• PASSION: FAST CARS, CHESS AND POKER
• GATES & ALLEN HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THEIR OWN COMPUTER WHICH SUPPOSED TO FINISH TASK FOR THE
GOVERNMENT IN BASIC NOT CABAL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE WHICH GATES KNEW BETTER THOSE DAYS.
INTERESTING THAT ALLEN FORMED THE GROUP OF 4 FRIENDS. THEY’VE DECIDED NOT TO COLLABORATE WITH
GATES SINCE THEY EVALUATED THEY DON'T NEED HIM. AFTER WHILE THEY’VE CHANGED THEIR MIND SINCE THE
TASK WAS WIDER- INCLUDING SOME REGULATIONS AND TAX LAWS. AT THE END OF THE DAY, GATS ENDED UP
ONLY WITH ALLEN. THEY'VE BEEN WORKING SO HARD ON CREATING NEW SOFTWARE. SOMETIMES 2-3 DAYS
WITHOUT BRAKE
• ALLEN WAS VERY SMART AND AMBITIOUS STUDYING THREE COLLEGES AT THE SAME TIME: HARVARD (BECAUSE OF
MATH), PRINCETON AND YALE IN ORDER TO IMPROVE DIFFERENT SKILLS TO BECOME MORE COMPETITIVE

8. THEY CHANGED MODERN WORLD
APPLE: STEVE WOZNIAK & STEVE JOBS
• BOTH OF THEM HAD DROPPED OUT OF COLLEGE. THEY ESTABLISHED APPLE IN 1977
• STEVE VOZNIAK HAD DESIGNED FIRST TWO APPLE COMPUTERS: APPLE I & APPLE II. HE LEFT THE
COMPANY UPON FIASCO OF APPLE III (HE WASN’T INVOLVED IN THAT PROJECT)
• STEVE JOBS HAS BEEN FIRED BY JOHN SCULLEY, WHO JOINED APPLE FROM PEPSI ON STEVE’S
INSISTING
• JOBS HAS BOUGHT PIXAR, FORMER GRAPHIC GROUP, FROM FAMOUS DIRECTOR GEORGE LUCAS FOR
ONLY $10MILLION IN 1986. PIXAR OSCAR’S MOVIES: TOY STORY1, FINDING NEMO, INCREDIBLES,
HAPPY FEET, RATATOUILLE, WALL-E, TOY STORY 3, BRAVE, INSIDE OUT AND COCO (2018)
• STEVE JOBS BECAME THE BIGGEST SHAREHOLDER (7%) OF DISNEY IN 2006 SINCE DISNEY BOUGHT
PIXAR FOR $7,4 BILLION

9. THEY CHANGED MODERN WORLD
MICROSOFT VS APPLE
• THE PRIMARY REASON FOR MICROSOFT’S SUCCESS WAS THAT IT WAS WILLING
AND EAGER TO LICENSE ITS OPERATING SYSTEM TO ANY HARDWARE MAKER.
APPLE, BY CONTRAST, OPTED FOR AN INTEGRATED APPROACH. ITS HARDWARE
CAME ONLY WITH ITS SOFTWARE AND VICE VERSA. JOBS WAS AN ARTIST, A
PERFECTIONIST, AND THUS A CONTROL FREAK WHO WANTED TO BE IN CHARGE
OF THE USER EXPERIENCE FROM BEGINNING TO END. APPLE’S APPROACH LED TO
MORE BEAUTIFUL PRODUCTS, A HIGHER PROFIT MARGIN, AND A MORE SUBLIME
USER EXPERIENCE. MICROSOFT’S APPROACH LED TO A WIDER CHOICE OF
HARDWARE. IT ALSO TURNED OUT TO BE A BETTER PATH FOR GAINING MARKET
SHARE.

10. THEY CHANGED MODERN WORLD
BERNERS LEE- W3C
• CONCEPTION OF THE WEB (WORLD WIDE WEB-WWW) WAS DRIVEN PRIMARILY BY ONE
PERSON- BERNERS LEE
• ONCE THE PROJECT WAS OFFICIALLY EMBRACED, THE CERN ADMINISTRATORS WANTED
TO PATENT IT. WHEN THEY RAISED THE ISSUE, BERNERS-LEE OBJECTED. HE WANTED THE
WEB TO SPREAD AND EVOLVE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE, AND THAT MEANT IT SHOULD BE
FREE AND OPEN. AT ONE POINT OF TIME, THEY ASKED HIM ACCUSINGLY, “DO YOU WANT
TO BE RICH?” BERNERES’ REACTION WAS “WELL, IT HELPS, NO.”

11. THEY CHANGED MODERN WORLD
• GENERATION 1955:
 BILL GATES, 28TH OF OCTOBER
 STEVE JOBS, 24TH OF FEBRUARY
 BERNERS LEE, 8TH OF JUNE