Where Does Innovation Come From?0

Our lives are defined by innovation, and since you’re reading this on a computer, connected to the internet, you know what I mean.

GE was founded on new ideas and continues to drive innovation to solve the world’s toughest problems. As part of that, we are proud to announce the winners of the GE ecomagination Challenge, an exciting new way of finding and funding the most promising technological breakthroughs for our power grid. Please take a moment to look at the winning ideas and explore the site to learn more about how GE and these winners are collaborating to accelerate development of power grid technology.

We have been excited to host this hunt for innovation. But where does innovation come from? How does it happen? A lone inventor and a lightning strike of insight? More often, ideas take time and many hands. The seed of an idea is planted, nurtured, tended and eventually bears fruit. Teams of scientists, researchers and others sharing their results move an idea steadily forward until it reaches maturity.

Quite recently the human family has begun experimenting with new ways of innovating. Cloud-computing and crowd-sourcing have brought together extraordinary resources to solve complex problems.

At GE we asked ourselves, are there other places to find innovation, are there ideas we may be overlooking? The GE ecomagination Challenge is an example of these new ways of working and thinking.

Casting the net wide for new and interesting ideas, the GE ecomagination Challenge has been a bold step in redefining how we find and fund innovation. Thousands of people participated from companies across the globe, providing us with new ideas to explore and develop, and we look forward to seeing the results over the years ahead.

70,000 people logged into the Challenge site to submit an idea, cast a vote for their favorite, or comment on others’ submissions. This rich outpouring of creativity stands as testament to the fact that the spirit of innovation is alive and thriving in people all around the world, and that new technologies bring new possibilities and new ways of working together.

We began by asking ourselves some simple questions: “What do we know, and what do we know we don’t know?” As we work to solve some of the world’s most difficult problems, we ask ourselves “Where can innovation come from?” “Is there a better way to spur innovation?” What do you think?