The Future Looks Clear When You Invent It

By Gregory Pings

Steve Hoover
Steve Hoover, CEO, PARC, A Xerox Company

You will be forgiven if you think that success for an R&D department means 100 percent of its inventions are put to use in the business.

Not so, Steve Hoover (photo, right) explained to Forbes contributor Jonathan Salem Baskin: 100 percent adoption means “innovators aren’t trying hard enough.”

Welcome to Silicon Valley, folks.

Hoover believes it’s up to the inventor to create options for the future. Think of this in terms of Major League Baseball, where excellent hitters achieve a .300 lifetime batting average. Despite failing seven out of 10 times at bat, you’ll see many such men in the MLB Hall of Fame – and properly so.

But don’t think Hoover has lowered the bar to success; quite the opposite. More than transforming and disruptive, Hoover says inventions must “solve the right problem in a way that people find natural and easy to use.” No small feat.

Read “Xerox’s PARC Stays Close To The Future,” then take a look at the articles below. They feature Hoover’s thinking of what the future will look like, and how we will get there.

 GettyImages_Maze(Detail) 3 Reasons Why Innovation Fails (Simplify Work): If you’re struggling to innovate, take my advice, PARC CEO Steve Hoover tells CXOTalks.


What Will Work Be Like in 10 Years? (Simplify Work) The answer is “more collaboration,” but that doesn’t mean what you think. The Future of Work Show visits PARC.  Getty_ManHoldsUpHand(Detail)

Related Posts