WisconsInnovation

If you haven't already, check out the New York Times 8th Annual Year in Ideas magazine. Though some of the entries describe social experiments or academic research findings, a few detail user-generated innovations, for example inflatable airbags to break falls sustained by the elderly, the leading cause of death for people over the age of 65 or spray-on condoms for the man who just can't find that right fit.

These ideas made me think about an issue not discussed in class - the economic viability of an innovation and how to market it. While most likely not an issue for most of us, individual resources and the market severely limit the number of innovations we see. So while we have a tendency to believe innovations are incremental and do not fulfill consumer needs, the innovations we actually see represent of fraction of what exists. For all we know, there is something out there that satisfies our unmet demand. We just don't know about it.