A presentation by Fasasi Abdulafeeez at G-STEM hangout Ogbomosho

1. INNOVATION and
INOVATORS
Presentation by Fasasi Abdulafeeez
@
G-STEM Hangout Ogbomosho
27th January 2018

2. Outline
• What is Innovation
• Who is an innovator
• Qualities of Innovators
• How to become an innovator
• Challenges of Innovation
• Notable Innovators
• Recommended literature

3. What is Innovation
• Inovation can be defined simply as a "new idea,
device or method".However, innovation is often
also viewed as the application of better solutions
that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs,
or existing market needs.
Innovation is
impossible without
passion.

4. Innovation
• The term "innovation" can be defined as something
original and more effective and, as a consequence,
new, that "breaks into" the market or society. It is
related to, but not the same as, invention, as
innovation involves the practical implementation of an
invention (i.e. new/improved ability) to make a
meaningful impact in the market or society, and not all
innovations require an invention. Innovation is often
manifested via the engineering process, when the
problem being solved is of a technical or scientific
nature.

5. Innovator
• An innovator is someone who introduces changes
and new ideas.

6. Are you an innovator?
• Many people have a pretty narrow definition of an
innovator. They assume that if they don’t invent
things and hold multiple patents, they aren’t very
innovative.
HOW YOU THINK
DETERMINES
YOUR
CAPACITY TO
INNOVATE

7. • In reality, many inventors don’t have patents or
products. Some innovators generate ideas, others
bring those ideas to reality, while still others are
advocates, leaders, and champions of great ideas.
When you think of it this way, you might realize
you’re innovative after all.
Being an innovator means a lot more
than being Benjamin Franklin or a mad
scientist. Day to day, great innovators
encourage risk-taking, teach others,
collaborate and build teams, and much
more. Do you see yourself as an
innovator now? Do you want to be?

8. Qualities of innovators
• Innovators Value Innovation
• Encouragement of Risk Taking
• Innovators Teach Others
• Start Somewhere
• Innovators Look for Patterns Everywhere
• Staying Positive
• Being a Team Player
• Innovators Connect and Collaborate

9. How to become an innovator
• Most innovations are combinations of things we
already know. An Android or iPhone, for example,
combines a basic cellphone, camera, touch screen,
and other components. Those components are
themselves combinations of still-earlier
technologies.

10. Steps
• Step 1: List the skills, technologies, and fields you
are proficient in or knowledgeable about
• Step 2: List the combinations of those skills,
technologies, and fields
• Step 3: Find customer needs that each combination
might satisfy
• Step 4: Confirm that potential needs are real
• Step 5: Iterate to create the best fit between
customer need and your innovation

11. Challenges of Innovation
• There are dozens of challenges that must be
overcome, but to be handy I distilled them down
into 8 basics. This provides a handy checklist for
evaluating why ideas die, why a start-up failed, or
where the real tough spots are in making
innovations happen
You can do many
things right and
still fail.

12. Find an idea.
• Historically this is easy. Ideas are everywhere and
anyone who can consider a problem for an hour
can come up with possible ideas for solving it.
Creativity is rarely the hardest challenge.
•

13. Develop a solution.
• The gap between an idea and a working prototype
is HUGE. So what if you think something can be
done, go and do it. Until you can show the
manifestation of the idea, it’s still just an idea.
Thousands of brilliant minds have conceived
brilliant ideas, but failed, despite years of dedicated
effort, to successfully prototype them

14. Finding a sponsor and funding.
• Even with a kick-ass prototype in hand you need
resources to develop the prototype into a product.
Whether an entrepreneur or a middle-manager,
odds are good that to finish a prototype, or make a
product out of it, you’ll need someone else’s
approval. (Even if it’s your wife’s permission to
spend nights working, a friend who will let you live
in their basement, or a bartender willing to run you
a tab).
•

15. Reproduction
• . Making one of something is not the same as
making a thousand.
• Having an innovation and having an innovation
than can be reproduced economically are not the
same thing

16. Reach a customer
• . This is where the skill set required to make a
successful innovation changes dramatically. The
challenge is now about persuasion, not creation.
Up until this challenge, most innovators are
deliberately hiding from the world in fear of idea
theft,

17. Beat competitors
• . Every idea has competitors. Even if you
successfully reach customers, you won’t be the
only one trying to reach them, and in the pursuit of
customers things get ugly.

18. Timing.
• This is the challenge that crushes innovators souls.
A huge number of things can happen on any of
your important days that
• a) decides your fate and
• b) you have no control over.

19. Greatest Innovators of All Time
• Thomas Edison.
One of the most significant
innovators and inventors in American
history, Edison is perhaps best known
for inventing the first long-lasting,
commercially practical incandescent
light bulb. He was the father of many
other breakthroughs, including the
first phonograph and the motion
picture camera, and he was
influential in developing the first
economically viable way of
distributing light, heat, and power
from a central station.
• Nikola Tesla.
A great inventor, engineer,
and futurist, Tesla helped
develop the AC electrical
delivery system. Infamous
for his wild experiments
and colorful personality,
Tesla ‘s creative work
regarding the production
and transmission of power
was far ahead of his time.

20. Greatest Innovators of All Time
• Steve Jobs.
The iconic American
entrepreneur and founder of
Apple will go down in history as
one of the great innovators. As
CEO of Apple in the 1980s and
again in the late 90s and 2000s,
Jobs played a central role in the
personal computer revolution
and in developing its key
products, including the
McIntosh, the iPod and the
iPhone.
• Bill Gates.
One of the great
businessman/philanthropists of
the last century, Gates founded
and built Microsoft into an
unmatched software behemoth
before leaving to state the Bill
and Melinda Gates foundation,
a multi-billion dollar
philanthropic enterprise
working to enhance global
healthcare and reduce poverty.

21. Greatest Innovators of All Time
Leonardo Da Vinci.
The original “Renaissance
man,” Da Vinci is best
known for his paintings (the
Last Supper, the Mona Lisa)
but he was also a
philosopher, engineer, and
inventor. He left behind him
a collection of
extraordinarily prescient
drawings depicting future
technologies (helicopter,
tank, solar power).
Alexander Graham Bell.
A Scottish inventor and
engineer, Bell was awarded
the US patent for the
telephone in 1876. His work
on telecommunications,
aeronautics, and many
other areas (he invented the
metal detector) earned him
a reputation as one of the
great figures of the
nineteenth century.

22. Greatest Innovators of All Time
Marie Curie.
The first female winner of
the Nobel Prize in 1903
(she won it twice in both
physics and chemistry),
Curie was a pioneering
physicist and chemist who
is known for her
breakthrough ideas in
radioactivity and her
discovery of two
elements.
The Wright brothers.
Orville & Wilbur Wright
invented and flew the
world’s first successful
airplane in 1903. Their
persistence,
experimentation, and
work on the principles of
flight made them
legendary inventors and
innovators.

23. Greatest Innovators of All Time
Sandford Fleming.
A Scottish-Canadian
innovator and inventor,
Fleming used his
engineering, surveying, and
mapmaking skills to help
build the transcontinental
railways of the nineteenth
century. He was also the
inventor of worldwide
standard time and the
standard times zones used
today.
Galileo Galilei.
The legendary Italian genius
whose breakthrough ideas
helped usher in the scientific
revolution in the seventeenth
century, Galileo is often called
the father of modern science.
Forced to defend his views of
heliocentrism against the
Roman inquisition, and spending
most of his life under house
arrest for heresy, Galileo has
become an icon of scientific
integrity in the face of religious
dogmatism.

24. Contemporary Innovators
• Jeff Bezos. Amazon
• Larry Page. &Sergey Brin. Google
• Elon Musk. Paypal/Tesla, and SpaceX
• Reid Hoffman. LinkedIn./Paypal
• Larry Ellison. Oracle.
• Michael Dell. Dell Computers.
• Jack Ma. Alibaba
• Jony Ive. Apple designs
• Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook. Atbbl.