Usually the term ‘gestation period’ the time between conception and birth, is used for mammals, but it is just as relevant for innovation.
In the animal world, it is a fixed and consistent period for each species, varying from the 12 days it takes the Virginian opossum, to 22 months for the Indian elephant.
The definitional complications of using the term for commercial innovation come from the uncertainty in fixing the time of conception and birth.
The best definition I have seen of innovation is the one used by Sir Ken Robinson: ‘Innovation is an original idea that has value’. It is however just one of many.
Is that new flavour of product ‘A’ touted by the marketing department really an innovation, or just a line extension?
Is that fascinating scientific phenomena observed for the first time an innovation, or just something interesting to scientists that is waiting around for a commercial use to be created?
I remember seeing for the first time in 2006 the TED presentation by Jeff Han of the multi-touch interface. He had fun playing with it on the stage, but seemed unsure of the direction to commercialisation. Since then, the technology has been incorporated in every smartphone. Was the gestation started when Eric Johnson published a paper and was granted a patent in 1969, when Bell Labs Bob Boie first created the transparent multi-touch interface in 1984, when the PhD student in Jeff Han’s lab mastered the maths to make images interactive, or when Apple decided to apply the technology to the first touchscreen iPhone in 2007.
The gestation of market changing ‘Innovation’ is typically long, much longer than is easily recognised when you look at the end product.
The angst created by the sudden emergence of mRNA vaccines for Covid is widespread. However, it is misleading when you know that the mRNA molecule was first theorised in the early fifties, isolated in the lab in 1961, and worked on continuously at a low level by some major players, particularly after CRISPR technology was developed. Covid was just the catalyst that enabled 70 years of work to be brought to market at a speed that appeared to be unprecedented.
On the other hand, the marketing team I led in the late 90’s brought ‘Dare’ flavoured milk to market in 12 weeks. While it was and remains a commercial success, there was nothing new involved, just a smart rearrangement of existing packaging and market positioning in the large and then undeveloped flavoured milk market.
