How have the sources of innovation changed at a global level over the past 20 years?

The world is in a big shift now from manufacturer-centered innovation, which has been the paradigm since the industrial revolution, to user-centered innovation. Business models have to adapt to this, and the policies of governments have to adapt to it, too.

You have these manufacturers following the traditional ‘

find a need and fill it’ model, the idea that the manufacturer’s job is to go out and look for user needs, come back and develop the products for the users. Market researchers go out to find needs, and then the internal R&D department develops the solution. They spend money doing that, and out of it comes the need for intellectual property. This is because the only way a company can benefit from spending R&D and market research money is by selling whatever they develop at a profit. User innovators are different. When innovation switches to users, users actually benefit from an innovation by using it.

Can you give an example of user innovation to illustrate this?

Take the heart-lung machine that was developed by a surgeon. He benefited because he used it. He built it for his practice. The inventors of the mountain bike were also users, and so were windsurfers. The guy who builds an innovative mountain bike gets to ride it.

On the other hand, a manufacturer doesn’t get any profit from innovation unless he sells it. So if a medical equipment company built the heart-lung machine, they wouldn’t benefit until they sold it. The user has in-house use, and the user can be an organization like a hospital, a company making equipment for itself to use, or it can be an individual, somebody who’s building a bit of sports or cooking equipment for their own needs. They build it to solve their own problem.

What’s driving this change in the way designs develop? Is it that people have access to more technology?

Users are more connected on the Internet. They have design tools that are digitally-based, so what’s happening is that the cost of user innovation is going down. Also, the cost of collaboration among groups of users is going down. When that happens, users start to collaborate, they start to innovate together, to share without IP - like open-source software. And the result is that in many areas, they’re showing they can actually drive manufacturers out of design - they can do so much better than manufacturers at designing. The user is the center of the story here; he innovates in collaboration with others.

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