Innovation ought to be matched by steady, incremental refinements

Gaston Bilder contributed a thoughtful comment on my post about claimed innovations that in fact assemble and build on many component parts (See my post of Dec. 28, 2010: using as an illustration DuPont’s convergence.). Gaston wrote, in part: “The next step – which is also critical from my point of view – should be the continuous improvement of this bundle of ideas, i.e. testing new additions (call them innovations if you want) and weeding out what doesn’t work.”

He is right. In my mind, a steady series of improvements to a process has as much or more clout as a light bulb idea. Visit Gaston’s blog for more insights, especially on corporate social responsibility. (See my post of May 15, 2009: continuous improvement with 6 references and one metapost.).