Disruptive innovation requires a strong correlation of knowledge, passion, patience and serendipity. It needs a creative mind and an out-of-the-box bird’s eye view. And it needs funding before all.

Yet, globalization has narrowed the innovation return-on-investment space too much. It’s difficult to find new ideas; and if you find one, it’s probably not profitable enough for business. If you succeed to commercialize it, it can be stolen within days and implemented thousands of miles away at cheaper cost. Otherwise, the business model and implementation must be as brilliant as the idea itself in order to have a sustainable business. Finally you may find that you’re pursuing passion rewarded by more passion and estime rather than profit.

Such an ecosystem is too complicated for investors. After all, if risks are to be taken in all cases, investing in finance can be much more profitable.

Here comes a tough dilemma: the world needs more innovation to save its sliding economy. Innovation needs financing, great minds and research. Great minds are massively migrating to finance. And finance doesn’t want to fund research.

I think the solution is to revive the invention and creativity passion, the values of astonishment and pursuit of great discoveries. The culture of entrepreneurship and profit is great, but spreading it too massively as the universal absolute good kills the basic values of creation and knowledge.

Some of the greatest inventions and ideas came by serendipity after decades of “worthless” research. If humanity looses this perseverence model (by loosing passion and funding) the modern civilization will be in a serious trouble.

Remember that the only real way out of the current economic crisis is innovation. Not the incremental, but the real disruptive one.