Innovation Quotes

"Modern miracles are ideas that have been turned into reality through science and engineering."

"He has conquered the air so completely, that the birds are a poor match for him in flying. He has harnessed the ether, and made it serve as a means of instantaneous communication with any part of the world."

"Innovation comes from people meeting in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea."

"Stay focused on the user."

"The returns to being the best in the world at what you do are enormous."

"If you're waiting to have good ideas before you have any ideas, you won't have many ideas. Ch. 3"

"There is every indication that the period ahead will be an innovative one, one of rapid change in technology, society, economy, and institutions. p. 803 (last page)"

"You don't need a new plan for next year. You need a commitment."

"The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death. p. 50"

"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible, even in competitive business environments."

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

"If you don't have a culture that supports innovation, your strategy won't matter."

"Innovation is the ability to see opportunity where everyone else only sees a problem or a dead end."

"Radical open-mindedness and radical transparency are invaluable for rapid learning and change."

"The internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow."

"Of all the ages of civilization, this is the most favorable for the development of the imagination, because it is an age of rapid change. On every hand one may contact stimuli which develop the imagination. Through the aid of his imaginative faculty, man has discovered, and harnessed, more of Nature's forces during the past fifty years than during the entire history of the human race, previous to that time... p. 62"

"I'm as proud of many of the things we haven't done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to a thousand things."

"Think in decades, not quarters."

"Escape competition through authenticity."

"The growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest."

"All economic activity is by definition "high risk." And defending yesterday--that is, not innovating--is far more risky than making tomorrow. Innovations and Entrepreneurship (1985)"

"Soon is not as good as now."

"In the 21st century, we need a new way of thinking that recognizes our fundamental interdependence."

"In a world of change, the only thing that is truly dangerous is standing still."

"Innovation requires a focus on the long term, even when the short term is screaming for attention."

"Innovation is the tool of the obsessed; the average person is too busy trying to fit in to ever stand out."

"If you can't build a machine that produces innovation, you will eventually be replaced by someone who can."

"We need to revolutionize the way we produce and consume energy to save the planet."

"The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."

"The most successful founders are the ones who are most persistent."

"Capital and labor are permissioned leverage. Code and media are permissionless."

"A man has no right to occupy the ground and call himself a hunter who has no bow and arrow."

"Ideas are somewhat like babies--they are born small, immature, and shapeless. They are promise rather than fulfillment. In the innovative company executives do not say, "This is a damn-fool idea." Instead they ask, "What would be needed to make this embryonic, half-baked, foolish idea into something that makes sense, that is an opportunity for us?" The Frontiers of Management (1986)"