The Innovation Spiral

The EI spiral illustrates the idea that the entrepreneur uses the American capitalistic backbone to her advantage – she enters the market with her idea and as her innovation grows, her success spirals upward and outward. EI is fundamental to the U.S. economic advantage because the United States is the land of opportunity. The American Dream is that anyone can grow their idea into a business, or create their career, their goals, their life from that one idea.

That is an entrepreneur.

Commercial Market Spiral

This graphic shows how an entrepreneur and a target commercial market interact. Rapid technological advancements come when new industries replace old industries. The entrepreneur sees an opportunity in this market and enters it with a particular innovation. The market then reacts and there is an economic give and take. If the technology is truly innovative, the entrepreneur will spiral upward until the market it disrupted and a new industry replaced an old industry (think how Uber disrupted the taxi industry).

Learn More

DoD Market Spiral

There are plenty of opportunities for innovations in the DoD (bottom of the spiral). However, as the entrepreneur goes through the same steps as the normal market, there is a point where the entrepreneur cannot go any further; the DoD socializes the innovation with their incumbencies and that diminishes demand to the entrepreneur. Instead of causing disruption in the market, the entrepreneur is disrupted and has to go back to the beginning to come up with a new innovation. This causes a deterrent for other entrepreneurs and does not allow a rapid advancement of technology.

Learn More