RItech

Innovative thinking and technology development for a society happens only when culture and environment are created. This can be done by an individual who has a unique idea and entrepreneurship skills e.g. Edison, Siemens, Microsoft, Apple etc. Typically, such ideas and the initial technology have a ‘snowball’ effect and spread across the industries spurring new enterprises. In reality, society has to be in a position to foster ideas and empower its population. Let me explore this a little bit. Although innovative thinking is an individual gift and the degree of innovation varies from person to person, everybody in this world has some unique idea. In the current ‘flat-world’ an idea can be generated anywhere and implemented from far away. Innovative thinking and generation of ideas can be nurtured to bring out the best of any human being. During my extensive travel, I have observed that those society/nations who have been most successful in generating innovative ideas have certain hall-marks: They never say “NO” or discourage; No idea is a “BAD” idea or should be discarded without appropriate evaluation; They encourage, foster and empower youngsters/co-workers/citizen to pursue and implement their dreams; They are disciplined and goal oriented. Typically during the first 10 years, a child develops its inquisitiveness, courage, discipline and coherent approach to implement his/her thoughts. This is the time when the child learns: “YES, I can do it!” To foster innovative thinking (every human being has some unique and innovative contributions to make), the family/society/education system needs to promote this aspect of the child. As he/she turns into adolescence, the person, the family, the educational system and the society need to be aware, recognize the talent and help to foster his/her dreams, ideas or unique thoughts. The best way it is done by example and practising: ‘Yes, you can do it! Let’s see how we can implement it etc.’ and taking the ‘negativity’ out of