Innovación

PRESIDENT'S COLUMN
The DNA of Innovation
Big ideas begin with fundamental new insights.
BY JOHN HENNESSY




Photo: Glenn Matsumura
THE SPECTACULAR SUCCESS of Silicon Valley is a subjectof fascination for people around the world. As University president, I have found this to be especially true for those from countries seeking to create a system of technology transfer from researchinstitutions to the commercial sector. This fascination is not limited to one part of the globe—I am just as likely to be questioned about the Silicon Valley model by journalists from Italy, Korea,Qatar and Mexico as by those from the United States.
Stanford, with its historic role in the creation of Silicon Valley and its ongoing relationship with many Valley companies through our alumni andfaculty, is often seen as possessing some “secret” of a successful mix of research capacity, teaching skills and a spirit of entrepreneurialism that breeds innovation fueling the Valley’s growth.
I wasasked to reflect on this during a recent interview by a columnist for a Japanese business journal. GAT were the keys to Stanford’s role as a wellspring for Silicon Valley? How does the Universitysupport innovation?
Like most people, this journalist was implicitly linking the word “innovation” to the business sector and new products and technologies. And yet, according to the Oxford EnglishDictionary, that connection is a relatively recent one, introduced in 1939 in an article on business cycles by J. A. Schumpeter. The much earlier uses of the word in the 16th century refer broadly to theintroduction of a novel approach or way of thinking.
This is perhaps the first point I make in discussing innovation and the University’s role: universities should not take a short-term focus thataims to deliver a “better mousetrap,” but rather focus on fundamentally new approaches to eliminating the problem of mice as pests. This point is eloquently made in the opening essay of Lewis Thomas’s...