An important change is taking place in the world of innovation. Put simply, innovation can be done very cheaply.
It used to be that innovation was relatively expensive. For example, one case taught in Harvard Business School's entrepreneurship program describes how Robin Wolaner came up with an idea for a high-quality magazine targeting parents in the mid-1980s. Wolaner's original plan suggested that it would cost $5 million to develop the idea. Before she attempted to raise that amount of capital, she decided to run a simple market test. She sent a sample issue of her magazine to a set of parents. Each test issue included a reply card that people could return to indicate interest in subscribing. High levels of response validated the market interest in the idea, and Wolaner was off and running. She eventually sold her magazine (Parenting) to Time Life, Inc., for about $10 million. This test cost Wolaner about $150,000 to run.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Making Innovation Cheap and Easy - Scott Anthony - Business - The Atlantic
