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Hard times could be the best times for innovation and invention.  That’s the conclusion reached by Paul J.H. Schoemaker, research director for the Mack Center for Technological Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.  In “Why an Economic Crisis Could Be the Right Time for Companies to Engage in “Disruptive Innovation,” in the November 12, 2008, issue of the Knowledge@Wharton newsletter, Schoemaker suggests that for some companies, the economic crisis can actually provide an innovation platform.

The crisis has multiple impacts.  Loss of revenue and profit will at first instill a cost cutting mentality, which is not good for innovation. If the patient is bleeding, you need to stop that first.  Then, however, a phase starts where leaders ask which parts of their business model are weak (and perhaps unsustainable) and that, in turn, can lead to restructuring and reinvention.

Schoemaker also cautions against too much caution -- over-reliance on incremental innovation versus transformative, or "disruptive," innovation. In innovation circles, the two have come to be differentiated as "little i" and "Big I" innovation.

“The largest gains in business come from more daring innovations that challenge the paradigm and the organization," Schoemaker says.

The article goes deep into disruptive innovation, its occurrence and its outcomes.  Along the way, the article throws out this little teaser: “Finland is merging its top business school, design school and technology school to create a multi-disciplinary ‘university of innovation’ next year.”  A techno-innoversity!