Leonardo da Vinci, innovation and execution speed [story]

It is not easy to write about Leonardo da Vinci, a man of genius. Various serious authors (i.e. more qualified than me) have written about him. Here are some notes following a visit to an exhibition at the Accademia in Venice.

Leonardo was perhaps the original Renaissance Man, highly competent in a variety of disciplines, from painting to engineering. His technical notes, much like his paintings, are both detailed and beautiful. He was incredibly advanced for his time – we are talking about the 16th century.

Leonardo used analysis and research to solve a variety of problems, both artistic and scientific. As a trained artist, the observation of reality was one of his priorities. He was also fascinated by mathematics, which formed the basis of his investigations.

It was interesting to find out that he was rather slow in execution. This infuriated some of his patrons. One of the most famous episodes is Leonardo’s horse, a sculpture commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan. It took Leonardo 7 years to produce a clay model. By that time, the French had invaded Milan and ousted Sforza. French soldiers ended up destroying the model.

The conventional wisdom is that Leonardo was not particularly concerned with producing results but rather with tackling difficult problems. However, it could have been the other way round: the world around him was not sufficiently organised to channel his creativity, or his sponsors were too impatient to invest in what you would today label as R&D. There are other, more elaborate explanations for Leonardo’s behaviour, namely a psychological analysis by Merleau Ponty which suggests that Leonardo had a deep-rooted problem with authority.

While da Vinci was clearly a genius, today’s innovators are likely to share a number of traits with him, including the drive to solve problems in a new way. But innovation and speed of execution do not always go hand in hand. Specifically, product development often takes longer than expected and shareholders are impatient by nature. There is evidence that in the case of quoted companies under intense analyst scrutiny, managers feel pressure to meet short-term goals and invest less in long-term innovation projects. These managers are not slackers, they just tend to get more cautious when the amount of scrutiny increases. The other side of the equation is that equity research analysts are often knowledgeable about an industry but do not always understand the mechanics of innovation (to put it mildly).

From this perspective, the world has not changed much in the past 400 years.

Related articles

• Leonardo da Vinci: a different mind (criticalthinking8.wordpress.com)

 

The other reason why the Portuguese footwear industry is sexy [story]

An initiative has recently been launched to promote the Portuguese footwear industry and its international development. It appears to be financed in part by the EU and in part by the Portuguese Government.

Portuguese shoes, we are told, are “sexy” and the industry “combines tradition with cutting-edge technology and know-how with the best in design”. It is a good start to promote the industry and to build an image.

However the turnaround in the Portuguese shoe industry was more than marketing. It is a case of product innovation and it is related to technology. From what I know, early in the ’90s, the Portuguese footwear industry was very traditional. Producers used basic tooling and were producing footwear in large quantities. This started to pose a real problem as competition from Asian countries increased.

At around this time, some Portuguese capital goods producers started producing machinery which used water jet technology to make the components which form the basis of the shoes. Some of this technology came from other sectors, such as automotive. The technology could be transposed to the footwear industry with good results.

While certain footwear manufacturers used imported machinery, others started used Portuguese machinery which was more adapted to their needs and to the real raw materials used in the country. Gradually, the industry started changing and became more innovative. The shoes looked better and could be produced in smaller batches, which meant extra flexibility.

Today, the industry remains competitive and exports to a number of markets. Some niche brands have emerged. Rather than competing in volume with Asian countries, some producers manage to sell their products in smaller quantities while still making good margins.

It is all about innovation and the use of technology to improve the productivity of a traditional industry.

From this perspective, it is slightly disappointing that the list of companies that take part in this initiative does not include a single capital goods company.