I read in The Guardian that Mark Sheahan the inventor of Squeezeopen is the British Library’s first inventor in residence. Which means that he will be sharing his tips and experiences with aspiring inventors at the British Library from next month.

The new role is part of the library’s business and intellectual property centre, launched in March last year to help small and medium-sized enterprises as well as individual inventors develop their business ideas.

In his free, one-on-one sessions with novice inventors, Sheahan will attempt to lay down the steps necessary to transform an idea into a commercially viable product.

He’s personally working on another invention too and has this to say about being an inventor:

“The only area I’ve had problems with is the UK. Larger companies are run by financial people. They don’t want to take the risk. I can tell quite often by just meeting them that they may want the technology but don’t want to pay for it. I don’t want to say this but with my experience, I’m not even interested in exhibiting here.”

I think that’s rather a sad statement to have come from someone in such a potentially influential role and to me it suggests a certain naivety on his part, after all large companies are governed by the financial results, they have a duty to their shareholders which tends to make them focus on the bottom line and risk averse.

Perhaps he needs to better understand the goals of the businesses he is pitching to and then adapt his pitch to suit his audience.

What do you think?

Subscribe:
If you enjoyed this post and would like to be kept updated on future posts, then please Subscribe by Email or subscribe to my RSS Feed.