Will the recession inspire innovation in 2009?

While admitting that 2009 would seem to be a tough a year for innovation as consumers and corporations continue to tighten their belts, Scott Anthony uses Forbes.com to remind us that a surprising number of great companies such as General Electric, IBM, McDonald's and Walt Disney were formed through innovation in times of recession.

Anthony explains that in his forthcoming book The Silver Lining (due to be published in the spring by Harvard Business Press) he argues that the challenging economic climate could be good news for innovation.
In fact, the author believes that abundance is at the heart of many corporate struggles with innovation. He writes: "Companies with overly deep pockets can flood a bad idea with money. Overly patient companies can let bad ideas linger for years."
But during times of scarcity, says Adams, organisations are forced to focus on creativity and innovation in order to deliver customer value. He adds: "Innovators can draw on high-quality, low-cost tools to develop, test and begin to commercialise ideas without tens of millions of dollars of investment."
Adams believes 2009 could be the year that innovation loses its reputation for being random and unpredictable. He asserts that academic and field work over the last 20 years have taken away much of the randomness and companies can now approach innovation in a more confident and disciplined manner.
The author concludes: "As long as there are problems to be solved, there will be innovators to solve them. Companies that use the current tough times as an excuse to de-emphasize innovation are going to severely regret it."
Innovation During The Great Disruption
Scott Anthony,
Forbes.com,
16/01/09.