Leading for Innovation: And Organizing for Results

16.1. How Knowledge Advanced Historically

A fairly typical historical example of this process illustrates how difficult it can be to second-guess events accurately: in mid-nineteenth-century England, as the lighting and heating market begins to saturate, coal-gas manufacturers are looking for ways to diversify. At the time, they are dumping tons of coal tar, the by-product of gaslight production. A separate (and until this moment, unrelated) problem is the disastrous effect of malaria on British colonial administration staff in India. The best antimalaria drug, South American quinine, is rare and expensive. Finding ways to transplant and relocate the cinchona plant (from which quinine is extracted) might be the coming business opportunity to ...