Product Description
What is innovation? How important is innovation in business? How can we use it to succeed? In the last 150 years our world has been transformed--largely due to innovation. Our parents were born into a world where television had yet to be invented, and there was no penicillin or frozen food. Our great grandparents began life in a world with no light bulbs, cars, telephones, or airplanes. This Very Short Introduction looks at what innovation is and why it can affect us so profoundly. It examines how it occurs, who stimulates it, how it is pursued, and what its outcomes are, both positive and negative. The book shows that innovation is hugely challenging and failure is common, yet it is essential to our social and economic progress. Mark Dodgson and David Gann also consider the extent to which our understanding of innovation has developed over the past century and how it might be used to interpret the global economy we all face in the future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A light introduction to innovation
One of the questions that has perplexed the economist for centuries was the fact that even though the natural resources seem limited, and the human population keeps expanding, we don't seem to be getting poorer nor the life more difficult. In fact, the exact opposite is happening: short-term economic downfalls notwithstanding, we have all been getting richer and richer. Even the poorest people in most developed countries live better by many measures than royalty did just a century or two ago: we have more food, better health care and access to contraptions and gadgets that could not have even been conceived just a generation ago. The answer to this apparent paradox is rather simple: all this improvement comes primarily from innovation. Human innovation has been the primarily driving force behind many of the most dramatic improvements in our standard of living, as we have learned to get more and more out of less and less. The question remains, however, what exactly is innovation, and this very short introduction attempts to give a concise and informative answer to it.

One of the foremost virtues of this book is the number of interesting and insightful case studies of innovation over the past few centuries. Almost a whole chapter is dedicated to Thomas Alva Edison, and this is particularly welcome since this iconic inventor has been slipping from the public conscience in recent years.

However, despite all these interesting case studies and stories of great inventions, there doesn't seem to be a cohesive meta-narrative that would join them into a unified whole. From the theoretical standpoint there is no grappling with the understanding of what innovation is on a very fundamental level. On the other hand, from a purely practical standpoint there is also very little in this book that will guide someone who wants to become an innovator. Parts of the book read like an unapologetic puff pieces for innovation in general and they lack critical reflection.

Despite its flaws, this is an interesting book on innovation that is suitable for someone who just want some casual introduction to the subject. ... Read more

Product Description
Industrialization created cities of Dickensian squalor that were crowded, smoky, dirty, and disease-ridden. By the beginning of the twentieth century, urban visionaries were looking for ways to improve living and working conditions in industrial cities. In Invented Edens, Robert Kargon and Arthur Molella trace the arc of one form of urban design, which they term the techno-city: a planned city developed in conjunction with large industrial or technological enterprises, blending the technological and the pastoral, the mill town and the garden city. Techno-cities of the twentieth century range from factory towns in Mussolini's Italy to the Disney creation of Celebration, Florida. Kargon and Molella show that the techno-city represents an experiment in integrating modern technology into the world of ideal life. Techno-cities mirror society's understanding of current technologies and, at the same time, seek to regain the lost virtues of the edenic pre-industrial village.

The idea of the techno-city transcended ideologies, crossed national borders, and spanned the entire twentieth century. Kargon and Molella map the concept through a series of exemplars. These include Norris, Tennessee, home to the Tennessee Valley Authority; Torviscosa, Italy, built by Italy's Fascist government to accommodate synthetic textile manufacturing (and featured in an early short by Michelangelo Antonioni); Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela, planned by a team from MIT and Harvard; and, finally, Disney's Celebration—perhaps the ultimate techno-city, a fantasy city reflecting an era in which virtual experiences are rapidly replacing actual ones. ... Read more

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Based on a workshop of the Roundtable on Research and Development of Drugs, Biologics, and Medical Devices. This was the third workshop, held in April 2000. Softcover. ... Read more

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Inventiveness and ingenuity from North America's First Nations.

Everyone knows that moccasins, canoes and toboggans were invented by the Aboriginal people of North America, but did you know that they also developed their own sign language, as well as syringe needles and a secret ingredient in soda pop?

Depending on where they lived, Aboriginal communities relied on their ingenuity to harness the resources available to them. Some groups, such as the Iroquois, were particularly skilled at growing and harvesting food. From them, we get corn and wild rice, as well as maple syrup.

Other groups, including the Sioux and Comanche of the plains, were exceptional hunters. Camouflage, fish hooks and decoys were all developed to make the task of catching animals easier. And even games-lacrosse, hockey and volleyball -- have Native American roots.

Other clever inventions and innovations include:

• Diapers
• Asphalt
• Megaphones
• Hair conditioner
• Surgical knives
• Sunscreen.

With descriptive photos and information-packed text, this book explores eight different categories in which the creativity of First Nations peoples from across the continent led to remarkable inventions and innovations, many of which are still in use today.

Product Description
"From this lively and personal account, we learn that we can all practice inventorship to great advantage–measured either in gold or pleasure, or perhaps both!"–From the Foreword by Walter Cronkite

"Inventorship is truly the stuff from which the future will be molded. Giving us an insight into the everyday thought processes of great inventive minds, Greene’s wonderful collection of stories and ideas is a model for each of us in the art of inventiveness."–Pat Hallberg, Executive Director, National Inventors Hall of Fame

"This entertaining and well-written work educates without pain and motivates the reader to learn more. It should be widely read not only by business people and entrepreneurs, but by young people, their parents, and their teachers. The lesson: Inventorship is for everyone and can change lives for the better."–Joseph N. Hankin, President, Westchester Community College

"After all the scholarly books and articles about innovation and the entrepreneurial process by theorists, how refreshing it is to hear from a real live inventor holding hundreds of patents in fields as diverse as aeronautics, sailing, chess, and skiing! He has even invented a word, ‘inventorship’, to describe the process and guide us through dozens of examples. A very useful book."–John Diebold, Chairman, The JD Consulting Group, Inc. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Not bad
It is not a bad book. You should admire that the author wanted to make the world a better place by teaching about being inventive. Although, in my opinion, I find that the author has a bit of ego telling the world he has invented this and that. I don't find anything ego about creating a more safer aircraft, but the other example I do find it to be bragging. The author suggestion about being inventive doesn't seem new, it just that most people doesn't seem to notice it yet.

I don't actually recommand that you buy this book on how to be inventive.

However, if you wanted a few funny story, then by all means, buy this book.

Interesting but fluffy
This is an easy to read book by the inventor of several aeronautical instruments. The author is also a prolific "idea" guy, and he shares many of his undeveloped ideas throughout the book. Dr. Greene goes into just a little of the detail behind his invention of the airplane stall indicator, his crowning achievement and apparently the source of his wealth. After that, the author covers many invention case studies in a very cursory and story telling way. The stories are entertaining but will not give more than a peek at what goes into the "Art of Innovation".
Much of the book is self-serving and reads like a memoir at times. There are many stories about how the author was with his family on a fantastic vacation and came up with a great invention. The stories continue to include his private plane, summer home, son's helicopter, private sail yacht, etc. Greene is very forward about showing you the riches and great life that can accompany Inventorship. He uses the book to also link politics with Inventorship by briefly plugging his book on The National Tax Rebate as an example of using Inventiveness for social issues.
Some of Greene's invention examples allocate himself a little more credit than seems reasonable. In one parable, Greene claims to have had a chat with a Princeton Professor after a lecture that resulted in major revisions of the world's cyclotrons and moved particle physics research to a new level. The kicker is Greene claims that the fundamental principle for this cyclotron design occurred to him while playing with his trains when he was seven years old.
Buy this book for the corny and sometimes funny stories. Buy this book for insight into an octogenarian who has had an impact on the aeronautical industry. Buy this book to get a few nuggets of wisdom about bringing a product to market. Don't buy this book for a "how-to" on inventing.

Great for all ages
This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn how to apply creative thinking, imagination, and "lateral thinking" to their lives and work. It is suitable for anyone, but would be best for children age 10 and older, and adults. The author has lived an amazing life, and filled this book with stories of how he has changed the world, and the people around him. This is a great book for someone looking to find new solutions to old problems, or just looking to "spice things up." There should be a web site where people can share ideas that are stimulated by this book.

Imagination and Necessity equals Invention
From the beginning of Leonard Greene's book, "Inventorship, the Art of Innovation", Walter Cronkite writing in the Foreword, writes about one of my favorite writers of yesterday. Cronkite tells the reader a World War Two incident involving a reporter friend of his, Jimmy Cannon. Cronkite and the other American reporters could not get by the Russian Guards because they had no proper ID. Cannon got by the Russian Guards and spenttwo days with them before returning to Cronkite and the American Third Army. The Question was "How did Cannon do it?" Leonard Greene provides the answer for his readers in his book: think about the problem at hand, and use "the art of innovation." Jimmy Cannon's solution: thinking and innovation.Cannon showed the Russian Guards "his Texaco credit card with the oil company's big red star on its back.The Guards couldn't read English, but the soviet symbol was enough, and pass him through they did." Leonard Greene's new book is full of wonderful ideas of how inventions come into being. He proves in an intelligent and interesting way that necessity is not necessarily the the only mother of invention; "Imagination is." During World War Two, when this writer was a young sailor. one of the things that amazed me was how in God's name did those planes take off and land on aircraft cariers, especially, the carriers we called the "baby carriers." Leonard's Inventions/solutions: Stall Warning Devices for landing; speed bumps at the end of the runway for take-offs. The Elder President Bush knows their value from his WW11 South Pacific flying days. Leonard Greene's book is facinating reading; it should be required reading with Peter Drucker's books in University/College Business Schools.I give Greene's book the Highest Recommendation.

Very interesting stories from a prolific inventor
If you are at all interested in the invention process then you'll should get this book to read on the actual processes that an inventor went through in invention after invention.

At first I thought the author was a little egocentric... talking about all of his inventions.Then I realized that he was truly a profilic inventor.His method of telling us about the invention process was to illustrate each of the methods he used with real stories of inventions.Stories that happened (mostly) to him.

It is very easy to read, and the author went out the way to get an artist to support his points with illustrations.As I read the book I became intrigued with all of his inventions.After a while I started saying to myself... "Gosh, I can't believe he invented this under those conditions."

Particularly interesting was his analysis of what the people on the Titanic could have done to save the ship.

I think there are better academic books about the invention process out there... but there are few that offer a look inside the mind of someone who invented so many products.

John Dunbar ... Read more

Product Description
Since the late 1990s, technology markets have declined dramatically. Responding to the changing business climate, companies use strategies of open innovation: acquiring technologies from outside, marketing their technologies to other companies, and outsourcing manufacturing. But open innovation is not enough; it is mainly a way to run a business to its endgame. By itself, open innovation results in razor-thin profits from products that compete as commodities. Businesses also need a path to renewal. No one ever achieved a breakthrough with open innovation.

Our capacity for creating breakthroughs depends on a combination of science, imagination, and business; the next great waves of innovation will come from organizations that get this combination right. During periods of rapid economic growth, companies and investors focus on the short term and forget where breakthroughs come from. Without appropriate engagement and reinvestment, the innovation ecology breaks down. Today, universities, technology companies, government funding agencies, venture capitalists, and corporate research laboratories need to foster the conditions in which breakthroughs arise.

In Breakthrough, Mark and Barbara Stefik show us how innovation works. Drawing on stories from repeat inventors and managers of technology, they uncover the best practices for inventing the future. This book is for readers who want to know how inventors do their work, how people become inventors, and how businesses can create powerful cultures of innovation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Packed with Knowledge!
Mark and Barbara Stefik's guide to innovation is based on their belief that the new century demands that business foster inventive strategies. The authors tell inventors, entrepreneurs and managers what they can and must do to achieve breakthrough innovations. They explain the basis for innovation, the context of invention and what breakthroughs mean in terms of business strategy for the twenty-first century. The authors based their research on interviews with inventors and managers, including many from the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Their book is thorough, clearly written and packed with anecdotes, although at times it suffers from erratic organization. We find that the authors do a very good job of introducing the elements of innovation to a general business readership.

looking for breakthroughs
As an inventor, I found this book useful. The authors explore the theme of radical innovation. Of the creating of breakthrough inventions that can in turn create new markets and experiences. The book cites many examples. Perhaps most notably that of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). As is well known to many in technology, PARC developed the seminal concepts of a mouse, icons and window based user interface. Though sadly Xerox benefitted not a whit from this.

A constant question in the book is how to discover those breakthroughs. Or, restated, how to devise an environment that can nuture such events and the people that bring them about. The authors assert that what they term "open innovation" can never lead to breakthroughs. However, truly original creativity is such a fragile and intangible thing that the book doesn't really offer a deterministic approach to finding and applying it. But perhaps no book can. ... Read more

Product Description
Curious about the origins of the computer mouse, the use of lasers in retinal treatment, minimally invasive robotic surgery, or the beginnings of Disneyland? Since its inception in 1946, research institute SRI International has brought these and a world of other innovations to society. SRI International, which began life as Stanford Research Institute, has now been in existence for more than a half century. From its beginnings at Stanford University, where it was intended to serve industry in the Western United States, SRI has grown into a worldwide research organization. As a nonprofit contract research institute whose areas of work are defined by the predilections of its individual researchers, SRI serves a broad range of sectors in our society. The book focuses on about 60 of the more than 50,000 projects undertaken by SRI over the decades. Those who have an interest in stories of research, innovation, and discovery will find this book fascinating. The book also gives personal accounts of SRI's own history, how it does business, what its current aspirations are, and the unique atmosphere of problem-solving and innovation that author Don Nielson found in a lifetime of working there.The author, a 40-year SRI veteran, is an SRI vice president emeritus. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Whitewash and A Diservice to History
The Stanford Research Institute (SRI) was one of the premier military consulting labs in Silicon Valley.It did innovative and important weapons research for every branch of the military and every 3-letter U.S. intelligence agency.Three quarters of its revenue came from military and intelligence customers. It's work was something that its employees and country should be proud of.

Yet this book not only ignores SRI's military contributions but pretends SRI was a consumer consulting firm.

There's nothing worse than a company that's ashamed of its own history and accomplishments. ... Read more

Product Description
For courses in engineering and science. Designed to help researchers move from passive thinking to creative thinking, overcoming knowledge and technological barriers, this text discusses the art of innovation and scientific invention. Included is a set of classic patents which have had an impact on society. The major inventions discussed are based on patents in electrical engineering, computers and communication. Provides tolls for research students to be more creative. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

why i don't trust reviews


i purchased this book largely on the quality of the amazon reviews it received...

what a mistake

the book isn't bad,,,it's just not good...it is particularly useless for anyone who is serious about scientific innovation and innovation in science...any grad school student or doctoral candidate who thinks this a genuinely helpful book is probably a below-the-median phd candidate...any professor who would make this a chosen text is - i'm sorry - either lazy or not very confident in their students' energies and/or talents...

i would have given this book two stars but it's been so horribly overrated that balance is essential...if you have no clue - or merely a tiny one - get this book from a library...if you are seriously interested in science-based innovation, please...spare yourself

learn from my error

Inspriring and a must read
This is an inspriring book. I highly recommend this book for young scientists and anyone who is thinking about a life of research. This should be recommended reading for CS students everywhere.

Extremely helpful
Ideas presented in this book, "The Art of Scientific Innovation: Cases of Classic Creativity", and taught by the author Professor Syed Ahamed in class are proven fruitful for many of his students including myself.The book actually leads "from realization of a concept to the development of a device intended to serve a commercial or social need". It helped a great deal to successfully finish my research on a subject (financial networks), defend my dissertation, implement my ideas in industry and keep working on a patent.
The broad audience of researchers will greatly benefit from this book.

Highly Inspiring and Motivating
"The Art of Scientific Innovations" by Professor Syed Ahamed and Dr. Lawrence provides invaluable insights into the great minds and history behind key innovations that continue to greatly impact our lives today.I had the pleasure of meting authors on a number of occasions and have great respect for their vision and dedication to help advance knowledge with a view to improve the quality and well being of our existence as a humanity overall. I can not think of a more inspiring and motivating book than the "The Art of Scientific Innovations" for Doctoral students and alike for whom this book has been dedicated to. Written in a clear and concise manner, the book enables appreciation of the efforts spent in the advancement of science as well as understanding of thecharacteristics andcommon threads of great scientific innovations.

An invaluable aid to the art of dissertation creation
The Art of Scientific Innovation by Professor Syed V Ahamed and Dr Victor Lawrence is a contribution to graduate education not readily found in other scientific text material. What the authors have done is to share their personal experience with guiding Ph.D. students in graduate dissertation work. They elicit the essential ingredients of performing seminal contributions to the field of endeavor. They have created a stream of outstanding flow of scientific creativity by researchers who have made some of the largest contributions to the art of scientific innovation. This report of these contributions combined with their personal analysis of the dissertation process make this a work that should be read by all Ph.D students. ... Read more

Product Description
rom the way we communicate...to the way we travel....from the way we entertain ourselves to the way we do business in every aspect of our lives...it is all so radically different from the time of our grandparents. Now, the editors of TIME tell the fascinating stories behind the most important innovations of the past 100 years, from computers, space shuttles, and cell phones, to zippers, Teflon and the Internet. Here is a celebration of ingenuity in every form, from the kitchen to the garage, from the multiplex to the mousepad. Here are intriguing portraits of the brilliant scientists, oddball inventors and shade-tree mechanics who created our modern world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent Product
Well worth the money. Reminds me a bit of a 1926 book, "Thinkers and Doers" by Floyd Darrow that chronicalled the many developments up to that perios.It whetted my interests, as hopefully this book will do for others, in to fields they may enjoy working in the rest of their. ... Read more

Product Description
Webster's prior art dictionaries are comprehensive summaries of modern patents, inventions, and sponsored research. Relying on international sources, this book represents a compilation of glossary-type abstracts with a particular emphasis on recent innovations relating to the term "Formats," but also including non-conventional or alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. Product development managers, inventors and researchers will find this book useful for brainstorming exercises and becoming quickly knowledgeable about recent innovations and research. The index covers terms used across these entries and allows quick access to abstracts using related terms. Proceeds from this book are used to expand the content and coverage of Webster's Online Dictionary (www.websters-online-dictionary.org), which was relied upon for some of the references in this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Webster's prior art dictionaries are comprehensive summaries of modern patents, inventions, and sponsored research. Relying on international sources, this book represents a compilation of glossary-type abstracts with a particular emphasis on recent innovations relating to the term "Chains," but also including non-conventional or alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. Product development managers, inventors and researchers will find this book useful for brainstorming exercises and becoming quickly knowledgeable about recent innovations and research. The index covers terms used across these entries and allows quick access to abstracts using related terms. Proceeds from this book are used to expand the content and coverage of Webster's Online Dictionary (www.websters-online-dictionary.org), which was relied upon for some of the references in this book. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume examines the antagonism between tradition and innovation in the Middle Ages. There were lines of thought which presume adherence to authoritative examples, but also believe in the purposefulness of history, in that, starting from an original state, there is a succession of redemptive actions, threats of danger and promises of happiness, and at times even the expectation of an ideal final state. New processes, new skills, new knowledge, new ethical attitudes and new forms of co-existence are seen as representing progressive steps which do not cease in the present and are directed towards the promise of future happiness. This view was, however, confronted with those which bemoaned change as a deviation from past ideals and as a decline, and which held that the present and future could only be improved through recourse to tried and tested states legitimised through tradition. There was, therefore, the legitimation through tradition, but at the same time! there was a commitment to innovation, which was judged to be an improvement. The image of dwarves who stand on the shoulders of giants, but are thus able to see farther, demonstrates the dichotomous attitude of the Middle Ages. The volume presents papers from a variety of disciplines involved in medieval studies.The papers focus on views of time and change, technological invention, the accumulation of goods and profit, reform and innovation in communities and the state, the increase in knowledge, innovation in art and literature, and the possibilities and boundaries of progress in human knowledge. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Junior Scholastic, published by Scholastic, Inc. on March 2, 2009. The length of the article is 654 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Hot new inventions: how might these creative innovations shape your future?(TECHNOLOGY: HOT NEW INVENTIONS)
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication: Junior Scholastic (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 2, 2009
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Volume: 111Issue: 13Page: 12(2)

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

Product Description
Webster's prior art dictionaries are comprehensive summaries of modern patents, inventions, and sponsored research. Relying on international sources, this book represents a compilation of glossary-type abstracts with a particular emphasis on recent innovations relating to the term "Acids," but also including non-conventional or alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. Product development managers, inventors and researchers will find this book useful for brainstorming exercises and becoming quickly knowledgeable about recent innovations and research. The index covers terms used across these entries and allows quick access to abstracts using related terms. Proceeds from this book are used to expand the content and coverage of Webster's Online Dictionary (www.websters-online-dictionary.org), which was relied upon for some of the references in this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Webster's prior art dictionaries are comprehensive summaries of modern patents, inventions, and sponsored research. Relying on international sources, this book represents a compilation of glossary-type abstracts with a particular emphasis on recent innovations relating to the term "Enzymes," but also including non-conventional or alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. Product development managers, inventors and researchers will find this book useful for brainstorming exercises and becoming quickly knowledgeable about recent innovations and research. The index covers terms used across these entries and allows quick access to abstracts using related terms. Proceeds from this book are used to expand the content and coverage of Webster's Online Dictionary (www.websters-online-dictionary.org), which was relied upon for some of the references in this book. ... Read more