Lessons in Scaling Up

Esther Addley wrote a wonderful piece in the Guardian about Josh Silver's project "to offer glasses to a billion of the world's poorest people by 2020", distributing "100 million pairs annually" within a few years, with each pair costing only a dollar - and no profits being taken.

Professor Silver is clearly an inspired and inspirational figure, as well as being immensely practical. His project and his approach to it illustrate some key recurring themes of innovation.

Silver's story falls into three distinct phases. There's the sudden burst of insight, or the dawning of the idea: what if someone could adjust the power of their own spectacles, so that they didn't need an optometrist? The second phase is invention – in Silver's case, a period lasting longer than two decades, during which he and his team have developed an ingenious mechanism involving liquid lenses. The third phase, which Silver has now embarked on, is the diffusion phase, where the invention leaves the laboratory, enters production – and goes out to change the world.

The compelling core of Silver's idea echoes a number of breakthroughs in consumer goods and services. His self-tuning glasses remove the professional constraint on growth imposed by the need for a skilled middleman, just as Eastman's photography system turned us all into everyday photographers. Early automobile manufacturers doubted that cars could become mass market products because there wouldn't be enough people available to train as chauffeurs. In more recent times, skilled programmer availability was seen as a limiting factor on the growth of computers. The productivity advances we have experienced in white-collar settings also largely flow from technologies that cut out intermediaries, whether it's dedicated typing pools, counter clerks or, in these days of business process outsourcing, entire back office teams.

But I think the more impressive lessons that innovators can take from Silver's project are to be found not in the breakthrough characteristics of his idea and invention, but in his methods of diffusion. Firstly, Silver has declared very solid goals. Aiming to distribute 100 million products at a dollar each every year is an unambiguous goal that can be shared, broken down into component plans, and interpreted flexibly across different territories. The irresistible phrase "2020 vision" also helps the project's messaging.

Secondly, Silver is growing the project by networking. He is making use of organisations and connections that already exist in the places where he wants to make an impact. He is using networks to spread knowledge of the project and its benefits, to stimulate demand, and to recruit partners.