Why Not?: How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small
Gerald L. Musgrave
By Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres.
2003. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, Pp. 304, $ hardcover.
Is innovation a skill that can be taught? The authors of Why Not? believe the answer is yes and present a virtual innovator's guide to developing new ideas. Actually, one of their insights is that many innovations are not new ideas at all. According to the authors, innovations are sometimes solutions for one problem applied to a different problem. An example of this type of innovation is the problem airlines have in showing r-rated movies. As a solution, they produce sanitized versions. Parents have similar problems, and firms now produce similarly edited DVD movie versions. It is a solution similar to the one where several languages are available on a single disk.
The authors are known for their Forbes columns and their programs on NPR's Marketplace. Both are economists with endowed chairs at Yale. Because Nalebuff teaches in the School of Management and Ayres is a professor in the Law School, the examples have a commercial focus; and the legal aspects of innovation are discussed. For example, they realize that
