Why are big giants like Microsoft buying off small guys even before the market learns their names? Why are these big players scouting for ideas and products and all things new when they can build their own multi-million state-of-the-art labs and buy all the best expertise in the world? Innovation is found in small places, that’s why.

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Passion, the burning desire to make it happen and some sort of madness – this is the kind of combination that makes new ideas. This kind of combination is rare when you pay people fixed salary and get them to clock into their 6m*6.5m cubicles every working day. Yes, everyday operations run smooth, everyday outputs are there neatly stacked at the end of the day and yes, at the end of the year, department targets are achieved. But does the company get any more competitive -any newer and better products? Does it have creative marketing strategies rolled out this year making people fight for more of what they sell? Or does it find itself, despite all the targets being met, taken over by newer, more agile and highly innovative entrants – companies run by guys you haven’t even heard of, but are eating into the existing market subtly but steadily. Licensed and state-protected businesses aside, there is no stopping of new ideas and new people from snatching that baton off the incumbents’ hands. After all, everyone’s competing for the same cash – the aggregate to-spend cash in consumers’ hands. It doesn’t matter if you are not selling handphones. The cash that supposed to come your way from selling personal computers will go the other way when people get to do all things done on PCs on mobile devices. Big ideas have big impact on every other business, whatever segment you are in.

Though bigger players can afford bigger research facilities, smaller players have the luxury of exploring new intriguing areas without awaiting funds, permissions and resources – and able to tune the research paths and pace to work out something – results or discoveries or just plain observations. Eureka is heard more often in backyards and run down workshops because no one has to align their findings to some organisation’s goals printed in its strategy blueprint for the year. More interestingly, the small players do not have to always make commercially viable findings – but will, sooner or later, learn ways of applying their discoveries to something that the man in the street would like to have or use. Some people know these facts just too well, like venture capitalists and product development units who look for small set-ups with ideas and that invaluable innovative energy. These people have spurred the market for innovation -where ideas are sold and bought- and will continue to create the incentive for growth in newer and better things.

All is well for big ideas, but what about enhancing existing products – that little feature on top, an add-on service here and a bigger capacity there? Big players still contribute the most in these areas – Sony, Nokia, Ikea, Honda, Microsoft just to name a few. Huge research facilities have their importance in the scheme of things and is the source of so many new things we see in departmental stores worldwide. However, not too far away in the future, players, big and small will realize that rigidity, rules, standardization and bureaucracy is the nemesis of all creative and innovative energy. Whether in its research units, its normal operations, its strategy or product development areas, the way we run things has a lot to say on whether we are able to compete in the long run or otherwise. Buying ideas off the small guys is a luxury few can afford, but growing ideas in our own backyard…. is definitely an option we all have.