Book Review: EDISON ON INNOVATION

EDISON ON INNOVATION 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond

By Alan Axelrod
ISBN-13:  9780787994594
Topic:  General Business
Format:  Hardcover
Language:  English
Publication Year:  2008

Edison provides lessons that are relevant today

Thomas Edison is unquestionably one of the most prolific inventors in history.  Seventy seven years after his death and with a record number of U.S. patents in his name, he remains one of history's most celebrated innovative minds.  But what if his genius was essentially a myth?

Alan Axelrod seeks to bring "the wizard of Menlo Park" down to earth, where we can all learn from him.  Many of us believe that creativity, like genius, is something that just happens by chance or destiny.  Edison's life demonstrates that creativity of the highest order can be indeed summoned up at will abd reduced to a reliable working method.

Axelrod reveals that Edison's phenomenal creativity was not driven by genius, but by a system incorporating habitd for generating new ideas, technologies and breakthroughs.  Using historical records, Axelrod shows how all of us can apply the Edison system to "fake genius".  It's interesting to read how to produce creativity at will on demand. 

"Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration"  is the famous quote of Edison that sums up this strategy.  In fact, Axelrod uses case studies of actual Edison inventions such as electric light, phonograph and others.  He draws out principles that can be applied by the least creative among us.  Lessons include, Failure is Fertile; Accumulate a Scrap Heap; Start Small, Scale Up; and Do What You Can, Not What You Wish.

Axelrod's does a good job with the structure as well as providing examples.  He also makes it relevant to today's issues.  The author highlights Edison's failures to reinforce the "failure is fertile" concept.