“Innovation and business”
What is an innovation in business? How do you innovate?
If you ask Google’s Search Engine (~2,376,640 servers as of 2013) “What is an innovation in business”, it will use the World Wide Web to locate information across the vast number of websites and you will get as an answer: “Innovation generally refers to changing processes or creating more effective processes, products and ideas. For businesses, this could mean implementing new ideas, creating dynamic products or improving your existing services”. Which is pretty clear. Afterwards if you ask again Google (storage 100 million GB) “How do you innovate” you will get as an answer lists like: 21 Great Ways to Innovate, 10 Ways to Be More Innovative, 5 Steps to Innovate, The eight essentials of innovation and etc.
If you ask me (brain ~1 billion neurons, storage 2.5 million GB) “What is an innovation in business”, my neurons (web crawlers) - which have already collected information about their external environment (World Wide Web) and relay that information to the brain (database search) and stored it (indexing) in the form of memories – will organize the information stored in my brain by importance (ranking algorithm) and I will provide as an appropriate response (Search Engine Results Pages): “When I think of an innovation in business in my mind comes Eve and Adam” (1).
At its core, my SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is simply organizing the data in my brain as result of a direct and logical process for making my brain’s job easier. So, why did I think of the Garden of Eden, when I was asked about innovation in business? The reason is that the human mind is a story processor not a logic processor, that is to say my brain is hardwired to tell stories (2, 3).
Going back to Eve and from a narrative perspective, she and her boyfriend Adam were living a relaxed, comfortable, happy life in a solitary bliss in the Garden of Eden (somewhere in the Mesopotamia), until one day Eve ate from the forbidden tree of Knowledge. As a result of, Eve and Adam where immediately expelled from Eden. However, since they had already eaten from the forbidden tree they had eternally gained access to Knowledge. Following that suspension from Eden they had to survive in Mesopotamia relying only on their Knowledge, so they wrote the Code of Hammurabi - the Babylonian code of law - and as a consequence lawyers started a business. Later, during a warm sunny day in ancient Athens, Eve and Adam in order to survive they wrote about philosophy, poetry and rhetoric. As a consequence, politicians and philosophers started a business. Fast forward and after a lot of writing took place for centuries, Eve and Adam somewhere located in a valley in San Francisco inaugurated the writing of the computer code. That moment Knowledge and information just got more democratized (“Ready-to-wear” for all), and the new digital business was inevitable for the developers. Eve has heard a lot since she was banished from Eden. Some people just cannot forgive her for having lost their calling in paradise and some just adore her, because without her they wouldn’t be owning now computers, smartphones and drones. Unconfirmed information indicates that nowadays Eve and Adam in their free time are messing around with the snake/troll on Facebook.
Now, if you ask me (brain ~ 3.8 billion years in development, 1 employee) “How do you innovate”, I will just say: “You should do as Eve did, and then you should Google a lot (founded Sept. 4, 1998, ~ 61,814 employees)”! So to paraphrase, go against the grain, stand up for what you believe in and always use the web.
What is a virtual incubator?
If you ask Google again (~net weight 68,922,560 lbs, yearly operational expenditures $63,080,000,000) “What is a virtual incubator”, Wikipedia will give you as an answer: “A virtual incubator allows a company to garner the advice of an incubator without actually being located at the incubator site”.
If you ask me (brain ~ net weight 3 lbs, yearly operational expenditures $30-80K depending on where you live) “What is a virtual incubator”, I will think about it for a while, Google around and I will give as an answer:
“A virtual incubator is an example of innovation in business, this is because a virtual incubator is entering a novel virtual market not constrained by the limitations of our stereotypical 3D perspective of the world. Groundbreaking research that combines neuroscience with math, tells us that our brain creates neural structures with up to 11 dimensions when it processes information. By dimensions, they mean abstract mathematical spaces, not other physical realms (4). Right now by using our smartphone we are already creating a new dimension (the D dimension) where we are all “digitally transported” by uploading part of our existence, information, knowledge, identity and business activity. Therefore, a virtual incubator is an incubator that helps companies in the D dimension (D stands for digital). After all Eve and Adam couldn't stay stacked in a 3D world!”
Epilogue
I don’t know if there is a perfect book, article or online course regarding innovation in business, but I do believe that if you read a lot (books, articles) and follow a lot of online courses you will eventually find the perfect “recipe” for you to innovate. In the end, if you think about it has been from the beginning all about writing a code and reading that code (DNA, myths, fairy tells, law, program code etc).
- https://diamondpillar.com/blog/brain-vs-google
- https://bigthink.com/ideafeed/how-the-human-brain-became-hardwired-to-tell-stories
- https://hbr.org/2018/04/technical-experts-need-to-get-better-at-telling-stories?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=hbr&utm_medium=social
- https://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/our-brains-think-in-11-dimensions-discover-scientists