Why Innovation Matters Even More Today - Transforming Your STEM Career Through Leadership and Innovation - page 31

FIGURE 2.3 European innovation ecosystem. Source: Dr. Burton H. Lee, Program Director
Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME 421 European Entreprenuership & Innovation
Program 2010). Copyright 2010 Stanford University.

creation often means understanding what skills or knowledge you need to
acquire personally before you can do product innovation. Technology trans-
fer requires capital. This is the phase where you are marketing your new skill
- finding a new job, volunteering somewhere you can demonstrate your skill,
or selling the manifested innovation that is part of your new career portfolio.
Within an ecosystem these four major components may occur sequentially
or overlap.

CREATING YOUR OWN MICRO-INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM
While personal innovation might mean we don't need the help of organizations
or corporations, we can create a micro version of this system in our personal
careers. Your micro-innovation system begins with the same step as any other
innovation ecosystem:

Idea Generation - your concept reduced to a useful product or service,
documented, and details associated with the development of the innovation
researched and confirmed.

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Product Innovation - the creation of your product or innovation can take on
a variety of approaches including developing the initial idea as a computer
simulation or a physical prototype.

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