Innovators

Posters, cup cakes and the Internet

What can we learn from Apple’s late, lamented genius Steve Jobs? After his death, many eulogisers – like Eric Jackson and Gene Marks at Forbes magazine – quoted his famous address at Stanford University in 2005, as did Megan McArdle in The Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/10/follow-your-bliss-sort-of/246350/) when she rebuked him for advising students to “follow their bliss” – i.e. pursue their dreams. Good advice if you are the next Steve Jobs, McArdle noted tartly, but most people aren’t.

The Forum of Private Business is calling for small firms’ patent rights to be better protected amid concerns that many cannot afford to sue companies which steal their ideas.

The Drupa innovation park 2012 presented by digi:media (‘dip’) will focus on particularly young companies, start-ups and players with groundbreaking solutions and applications.

Innovation is key to continued business success as this magazine espouses on a frequent basis. Within the busy online corridors of Fespa's Wide Network there has been an ongoing discussion on the topic too. So just what do we mean when we talk about innovation? There are various definitions.

Fespa has set out 'Eight Steps to Innovation' to encourage wide-format entrepreneurs to embrace innovation more actively as part of their strategy for future growth. Ahead of June's 'innovation' themed Fespa Munich, sales and marketing director Marcus Timson has warned that: "Innovation can be intimidating for entrepreneurs, especially when they are steering their businesses out of an economic downturn, with the inevitable focus on efficiency and cost- and cash- management that brings."