Inventions don't last decades

Interesting article in the Economist on innovation. In short: inventions don't last for decades anymore, so rather than chasing wonder new products, big companies should focus on making lots of small improvements and innovations on existing products and make a good profit out of them. I personally think most innovation will come from small companies and start-ups. Big companies therefore should spend much more on start-up capital and takeovers and less on R&D, since the money spend in seed funding start-ups will see much higher gains after an exit.