Hi,

(Some of the people on this thread are people I meet often, and so we
should have this discussion in person sometime)

Effectively, you are asking if if it is really possible to train
someone to be an innovator. The simple answer (by extrapolation) is
that if you can train to be a designer, obviously it follows that you
can train to be an innovator.

Secondly, you have to bear in mind that what we are talking about here
is not the quirkiness of genius, but a professional and consistent
ability to innovate (just like when we say "designer", we mean the
ability to deliver a creative solution consistently and
professionally).

The best of us often fall prey to the illusion that there is something
"different" about us that enables us to be more creative than others.
The difference may definitely be there (though so many times it is
only an ego trip), but it is not a difference that cannot be bridged
by dedication.
For every genetically endowed picturesque and strong Schwarzenegger,
there are thousands who still can choose subsets of what "strength"
denotes and become martial artists, weightlifters, bodybuilders,
gymnasts, endurance athletes, olympians and so on.

So, if you want to be an innovator, you can find your strength within
innovation and train in it, likewise. Let us not fall prey to the
disempowering idea of an idealized concept of natural-born talent. You
can be what you want to be, no matter what anyone tells you - if you
have the dedication.

What remains is to see if any particular systemically formulated
course can make you an innovator (or if it is someone simply cashing
in on the innovation boom).
As a designer, one can only say this - it is possible.

Why decry the effort for the sake of a doubt? If the concept is
powerful, it will create its own specialities (perhaps innovation is a
specialty of design?)

We have so many architecture colleges, which produce so many
substandard architects (one only has to look at our pathetic
cityscapes and townscapes to see this truth). Yet, architectural
education cannot be renounced or condemned on the basis that
understanding of spaces and living cannot be learnt.

If we seek to empower design, our first task must be to nurture allied
professions/activities, and if corporate honchos learn a something
about innovation, it can only be a good thing for design.

A course on innovation is most definitely welcome, and I do hope it
gets a resounding response, and that it does its best to maintain
top-end standards.

- Pankaj Sapkal



On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 1:28 PM, jamesdev anand <devanandjames@...> wrote:
> hello pangti,
> a few more thoughts on innovation course. my dentist is not an excellent
> academician. my software consultant doesnt even have a formal degree. my
> cameraman is not from IIT. hundreds of designers are born every year.
> hundreds of fashion designers are born every year. lawers. doctors. from all
> over, from the so-called good institutes.i believe, it is the human
> potential after all which matters. thomas edison didn't go to a school
> offering a masters in innovation. now, when it is a different world by all
> means, my sensibility doesnt prevent me from formulating these human
> elements. tomorrow, i might study a masters in making sound. and i guess
> the card could read anand james dev, sound making master! i might be a bad
> musician. but if i am good, it will work.
>
> anand james dev
> VC/IDC1996
>
>
> deepak pathania" designtalk@... thoughts that run thru
> the mind too on reading about the course..
>
> does a person become an innovator by studying an innovation course the same
> way a person can become a designer or doctor or architector a lawyer..by
> studying the relevant course....?
>
> can the business card say..."deepak pathania...innovato r"....?
> what if the newly qualified "innovator" never actually innovates anything in
> his life? so then in the end would it be fair to call him an "innovator"?
>
> are there other courses available for pursuing innovation elsewhere too?
>
> regards
> deepak pathania
> nid 1995
> director
> design intervention (I) pvt. ltd.
> www.designintervent ion.biz
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: navin pangti
> To: designindia@ yahoogroups. co.in
> Sent: Friday, August 29, 2008 12:23 PM
> Subject: [SPAM]RE: [designindia] Elephantversity Institute of Innovation
>
> hi hrridaysh,
> this is not to undermine your efforts but was just wondering... isn't a
> master degree in innovation a bit too much? somewhere it feels as if
> elephantversity has fallen in the trap of 'making the most' of the
> 'education boom'. just wondering if life can be simpler!
>
> warm regards
> navin pangti
> idc - vc -93-95
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>