ABSTRACT

Recognition since the mid 20th Century that scientific technology is the key driver of economic development and job growth, has sparked increasing collaboration of government, industry and academia in commercial areas outside the historical focus areas of defense, public health and transportation. Notwithstanding, theories and tools to anticipate innovation with certainty are limited primarily to those instances of incremental innovation, for which historical project analysis provides a sound basis for planning. The capability for real time computation and telecommunication makes rapid development and commercialization of breakthrough innovations imperative for competitive success in the globally connected 21st Century environment. This paper assesses the course of technology from its empirical base in antiquity through the initial scientific technology stage of the 19th and 20th Centuries, to the 21st Century environment governed increasingly by technologies of thinking. It examines the need for and benefits from a new information technology enabled paradigm of Accelerated Radical Innovation (ARI). By combining advanced information and telecommunications technology tools and innovation management techniques in a real-time decision-making environment, the ARI paradigm has the potential to overcome technological, organizational and societal challenges and hurdles, thereby achieving a factor of 10X improvement in radical innovation effectiveness. Further development of this proposed new paradigm is envisioned through a collaborative multi-university program of research and teaching, in collaboration with selected industrial partners to identify methodology variants appropriate for diverse companies and industries. Successful implementation will contribute significantly to the proposed activities required for a 21st Century innovation ecology, envisioned by the National Innovation Initiative report, "Innovate America".

Accelerated Radical Innovation, Paradigm, Challenges, Hurdles, Information Technology

Background and Introduction

From antiquity tacit knowledge and empirical discovery provided the basis for major technology advances, and subsequent incremental improvements associated with the maturing of these technologies and their geographical and temporal propagation (Merrifield 1999). The 19th Century marked the boundary between the ancient world and the modern world (Betz 2003) characterized increasingly by the disciplinary influence of science and the research university in defining the underlying principles for a rapidly growing science and technology infrastructure that enables technological innovation based on scientific technology. The rise of large industrial organizations in the late 19th Century played a significant role through the formation of major, central research and development laboratories seeking competitive advantage based on proprietary technology (Fusfeld 1994). During the 20th Century the size and scope of industrial research grew both geographically and virtually due to the increasing capability of transportation, communication and computing technologies (Gerybadze 1999).

Recognition since the mid 20th Century that technology is the key driver of innovation (Schumpeter 1939, Mensch 1982), has stimulated multidisciplinary management of technology (MOT) research dedicated to better understanding and improving industrial innovation through collaborative industryuniversity-government initiatives (Kelly 1978). National Research Council workshops (NRC 1987, NRC 1991) have further stimulated systematic study of the innovation process leading to the recognition of many diverse individual and organizational roles important for success (Fusfeld 1994, Roberts 1987 and 1988, von Hippel 1986 and 1988). Nevertheless, the complexities inherent to innovation have hindered the development of qualitative and quantitative models for forecasting and prediction (Age 1995). High performance execution of innovation projects to plan are limited to incremental innovation projects for which documented, historical procedures provide a basis for repeated success (Senhar 1995). Due to the unavailability of a sound, general theory for improving radical innovation effectiveness, practical guidelines for breakthrough innovation are still based primarily on historical best practices from case study research (Leifer 2000 and 2001, O'Connor 2001 and 2005, Christensen 1995).

Recently a consensus has emerged (NII 2004) that a more rapid and effective approach to radical innovation is needed for future industrial and societal competitiveness. Existing innovation strategies for cost reduction and continuous improvement over the past 25 years are inadequate, and may prove counterproductive in creating the high growth rate industries and sustained economic development and job creation required for success in the globally connected 21st Century world.

In May 2004, a group of fifty leading scholars and industrial practitioners of radical innovation from around the world (Dismukes 2004, Bers 2004) established the vision for a dramatically improved, global, accelerated radical innovation methodology that could significantly improve the arduous, meandering, often decades-long process of radical innovation, thereby achieving a factor of 2X-10X improvement in innovation effectiveness, as measured by reduced risk, reduced time and reduced cost. To realize this vision, they proposed a mission to develop sound theory and validate practical open-innovation approaches (Chesbrough 2003) that would integrate academic and business innovation professionals and knowledge workers in a collaborative environment enhanced by computer science and telecommunication tools.