By Antonis Theodorou
August, 1997

An Inventor is: An educated consumer, customer, or user who is able to recognize value — and most importantly, the absence of value. Consequently, this person can define the value requirements that are missing from an existing or new product or service.

Hence, invention is the definition or creation of absent value.

Inventors can see what is missing compared to tomorrow, in addition to what is there today. Their glass is half empty not because they are pessimistic, but because they see the future potential of a full glass.

A Customer is: A consumer or user of present value.

Customers have the wonderful ability to recognize today’s value compared to yesterday’s — they recognize and understand add-on improvements.

However, they are less able to recognize the absence of today’s value compared to tomorrow’s — mainly because they don’t need it now. Their glass is half full compared to nothing, and that’s good enough for now.

Who's Right: The Inventor or the Customer?

Some say that the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, that just avoids the real issue and does not explain it.

On the one hand, human nature decided a long time ago that present value is more desirable than future potential. On the other hand, no customer asked for a light bulb, a personal computer, Internet access, or anything else before someone invented it.

Perhaps the best way to understand how this works is to stop viewing this issue as a competition. It doesn’t matter which came first, the "full" glass or the "empty" one. The reality is that neither half-emptiness nor half-fullness can exist without the glass.

Similarly, collaboration and desire for improvement can become the container that brings present value and future potential together.

My job as an inventor is to raise good "brainchildren," so that they can grow up and become valued citizens of the successful product community. The rest is human history!

In the context of this article, educated means:

• Consumes continuously
• Is aware of the markets, their offerings, and their interrelations
• Is aware of alternatives and trends
• Knows products and their characteristics well.

(Top of this page | Index of articles)