Picture This

Steve did.

Picture this …. Your name is Steve and you work in R&D. One day your boss calls you into his office and hands you a new thing called a charged couple device … and he asks you to investigate. So you do.

The charged couple device was designed to replace video tubes in television sets … Steve thought the best way to test it was to build something out of it.

Over the next year he designed and built a prototype using spare parts like cassette tapes from around the R&D office. It weighed 8 pounds and had just one button. And when he tested it it worked.

So he started showing it around the company and demonstrating its value. Well people were impressed especially when they looked at the resulting images on a television set. However, there was one small problem … the company Steve worked for one was of the most famous and iconic in the world with great technology and a well proven and very lucrative business model … they had no incentive to cannibalize their own market … so they didn’t realize until way too late that this little 8 pound prototype … was going to change their company and the world forever.

Today, Steve Sasson’s invention created in Kodak’s R&D lab, which won him the highest honor the US government can give scientists, and you are likely carrying one in your pocket right as part of your phone … the digital camera.

The digital camera is a great idea … because when real innovation “clicks” the world can change right before your eyes.