Innovation comes in pairs. It isn’t about genius or eureka moments, it is about collaboration and good partnerships. This is the main idea of this article written by Rich Karlgaard and published by Forbes under the title of “Change Agents: It Takes Two”. It is also the subject of this fragment of a conversation between Karlgaard and another journalist, Michael S. Malone, titled “Jobs and Wozniak: Why the Best Innovators Come in Pairs”.
The Forbes article gives three examples of companies whose success comes after the appearance of a team with managers who enabled innovation in their business, whether technological or organizational. These cases are Autodesk, VMware and P&G.
Pairing up with the right person
It also mentions the partners of Steve Jobs (Steve Wozniak, Jony Ive and Tim Cook) who made the launch and growth of Apple and the development of its revolutionary products possible. You will find this idea in the video where Karlagaard highlights that Jobs was exceptionally good at pairing up with the right person at the right time. That ability allowed him to devise the philosophy of the company, the message and marketing of Apple while his partners were responsible for the technical issues.
I link to the article and the YouTube video because I think they are good examples of how collaboration favors innovation, which in the end is one of the essential points of the Open Innovation.
