Thomas Edison used to say that invention is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. What he really meant was that the 99% perspiration was spent on the process of innovation and perhaps only at the last minute could he have a mental breakthrough to create something new.
We are truly living in the age of innovation, where technology has created new ways of living and communicating that we could not have envisaged. Thirty years ago, when the TV series Star Trek began, we saw Captain Kirk flip his communicator and speak to the Starship Enterprise. Travelling in the Moluccas in the Spice Islands this Christmas, I was amazed how in the most remote islands of Indonesia, young people were communicating with their friends using the latest Blackberrys.