Did Anyone Read This?
Editor | On 01, Jan 2010
Message: 66Posted by: Thomas-NYC
Posted on: Sunday, 10th December 2006
A man in California innovated his sellling practices and then the milk lobby fought for – and got – a federal law that made his innovation against the law.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/09/AR2006120900925.html Does anyone know if this type of experience with innovation is common? How often is an innovation later blocked by law?
Message: 67
Posted by: Michael S. Slocum
Posted on: Sunday, 10th December 2006
Thomas-NYC:
Classic example of a response to competition from an organization that does not know how to innovate. Instead of innovating their business model to compete against this new distribution tactic by conforming our out-innovating, the dairy indudtry paid to have its' competition stopped. Or maybe this was an innovative reponse after all…especially if the cost to lobby was less than the cost to compete.
Michael S. Slocum
Message: 68
Posted by: Ellen Domb
Posted on: Tuesday, 12th December 2006
There are many stories like this–when the automobile was first introduced, many cities passed laws making it illegal to use it within city limits, ostensibly to avoid scaring the horses. And we are now in the controversy about the use of human embryonic stem cells for both research and treatment–the laws are very different in different countries, and all the laws came after the innovation.
Message: 71
Posted by: John Stamey
Posted on: Tuesday, 12th December 2006
Innovation requires responsibility on both the part of the inventor, and on the part of society for thoughtful and intelligent use of the invention. Thoughtful regulations, when necessary, are a part of “intelligent use.” When there are problems (potential or actual), why not a good old-fashioned application of TRIZ? (This reply is neither short, nor pithy, but hopefully thoughtful.)