Sunday, June 7, 2009

About the power of innovation

Advocates of innovation describe it as necessary tool in a recession to regain prosperity.
Shed no doubt on it, but this is a macro-economics truth. For a company it does not make sense at all: the innovation bears a risk and we know from the market equilibrium theory that the risk surcharge is such that the utility equals non-risk investments.
A good theory but do I know my risks? Donald Rumsfeld once made an epistemological speech about unknown unknowns. The probability of innovation taking off, in the end is unknown. But theory behave as they would know, they just don't know that they don't know. So in the end its a Rumsfeld-ian "unknown unknown"?
As always, listen to Mr. Taleb carefully. He designates revenue from innovation in the fourth quadrant.

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