Few years ago, I was having a conversation with one of my friend. He said "Let us do some innovation project". I asked "Do you have any idea in your mind?". Being into the Medical Industry, he suggested to do some innovation in Blood pressure measurement techniques and make it digital.
The reason given by him seemed logical to me and was enough to convince me to contribute to this innovation. But suddenly, a thought came to my mind that if this digital BP device become a big hit in the market, all the existing traditional BP devices (the mercury based devices) will be replaced by new ones. What will happen to the existing devices? Will the doctors throw them away making them scrap? How many such devices are there in the market (almost every doctor has it; at high level we can assume it to be equal to no. doctors in the country)? If we assume that all the traditional devices are scrapped; what will be amount of non-recyclable waste generated out of it? And what will be amount of recyclable waste generated out of it and how that waste will be recycled (yes, there is a rubber tube in the mercury based BP system which may not be environment friendly)?
When I told this thought to my innovative friend; it took us to a discussion that how much Risk Assessment do we generally do while taking up an innovation. The only aspect of Risk which is the top concern (and the only concern in most cases) of everybody is the revenue, profit and ROI that the innovation is going to generate. Do WE take such risks (for example, risk of impact on environment in the digital BP device case) equally seriously? "WE" in the above sentence includes business community, innovative people (engineers/scientists), end users of these products, government and regulatory bodies.
I am not against innovation and the discussion above is just an example that triggered the thought; but there are very important aspects which many of us involved into business of innovation do not even think about. And after few years of usage of such innovative products; we are forced to do another innovation that can address the bad impacts of previous innovation and the amount of money required to do this innovation is generally much larger than earned from my friend's innovation.
I asked "Why do you want to make the BP device digital?". He said "Everything is going digital these days. Digital devices are more accurate; you can connect other devices like mobile phone/computer to it to automatically transfer the data, keep the records for diagnostic purposes, take action fastly during emergencies etc. etc. etc. Market of such devices is hot and it could make a great business case generating huge profits and revenues".
The reason given by him seemed logical to me and was enough to convince me to contribute to this innovation. But suddenly, a thought came to my mind that if this digital BP device become a big hit in the market, all the existing traditional BP devices (the mercury based devices) will be replaced by new ones. What will happen to the existing devices? Will the doctors throw them away making them scrap? How many such devices are there in the market (almost every doctor has it; at high level we can assume it to be equal to no. doctors in the country)? If we assume that all the traditional devices are scrapped; what will be amount of non-recyclable waste generated out of it? And what will be amount of recyclable waste generated out of it and how that waste will be recycled (yes, there is a rubber tube in the mercury based BP system which may not be environment friendly)?
When I told this thought to my innovative friend; it took us to a discussion that how much Risk Assessment do we generally do while taking up an innovation. The only aspect of Risk which is the top concern (and the only concern in most cases) of everybody is the revenue, profit and ROI that the innovation is going to generate. Do WE take such risks (for example, risk of impact on environment in the digital BP device case) equally seriously? "WE" in the above sentence includes business community, innovative people (engineers/scientists), end users of these products, government and regulatory bodies.
I am not against innovation and the discussion above is just an example that triggered the thought; but there are very important aspects which many of us involved into business of innovation do not even think about. And after few years of usage of such innovative products; we are forced to do another innovation that can address the bad impacts of previous innovation and the amount of money required to do this innovation is generally much larger than earned from my friend's innovation.
