Musings on Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Wednesday, April 26, 2006Heretics and Skeptics
Successful innovation is the product of the dynamic tension among heretics and skeptics. As Michael Shermer has noted:
All revolutions in science stem from heretics and skeptics, and thus even though most of them are probably wrong most of the time, we must keep an open mind because one never knows where and when the universe will...explode in revolutionary change
We at Evergreen IP wrestle with this tension daily. We partner with, and invest in, heretic-inventors, but that necessarily requires us to be skeptics, if we are to successfully resolve uncertainty to the point where BigCos will license and market our would-be innovations.
We're business people, not scientists. However, we try to approach the process of "growing inventions into innovation" in a scientific way:
- The value proposition of a product concept is a testable hypothesis.
- Observable, measurable data trumps opinion and intuition.
- We try to avoid reverting to a bionomial world view in favor of perspectives that allow for more or less certainty.
- We strive to reduce the uncertainty related to concept, intellectual property, product, market, and licensees in an iterative, experimental fashion.
Unfortunately, the terms heretic and skeptic have acquired negative connotions over time. A heretic, someone who espouses views that contradict and challenge the status quo, is often viewed as troublesome, even dangerous. (To test my assertion, ask employees of consumer product companies what they think of individual inventors.) Following Shermer's lead, the modern definition of a skeptic is "One who instinctively or habitually doubts, questions, or disagrees with assertions or generally accepted conclusions." However, the word is derived from the Greek skeptikos, which means thoughtful and the Latin scepticus, which means thoughtful or inquiring. Per Shermer, skepticism is thoughtful and reflective inquiry...a [skeptic is a] seeker after truth; an inquirer who has not yet arrived at definite convictions."
In our effort to identify, develop, and commercialize dramatically new and different products that can generate real value for users, manufacturers, inventors, and ourselves, we must, by definition, embrace the heretic while playing the role of skeptic.
It's not so easy. None involved are perfectly rational beings. Our mental models and, hence, our actions are often biased. Inventors and entrepreneurs - as well as those of us who would invest in them - are often subject to confirmation and self-serving biases that lead to over-optimism while they simultaneously suffer from loss aversion that is exacerbated by the very real fear associated with ambiguity. Such biases can, and often do, lead to bad decisions. Success in business is difficult enough for one to hamper oneself by unclear thinking and misdirected actions that waste time and resources.
