How standards nurture innovation in the cold light of dawn

摘要

Many a flash of inspiration, many a hot, new idea, when examined in the cold light of dawn is found to face serious practical barriers to their implementation. Brilliant ideas for innovative products and technologies can be so far ahead of their time that even a commonly understood terminology for communicating them may be lacking. However, for brain-storming new ideas and bringing them to market in record time, few business areas can rival information technology. Fittingly therefore, it was Watts Humphreys, a key thinker on the management of software development, who said:"Innovation is the process of turning ideas into manufacturable and marketable form." A similar point was made by Theodore Leavitt, the Harvard Business School professor and author who as early as 1973 made the connection between standardization and the then unfamiliar term of "globalization", when he said: " Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things."