Does Innovation Pay?

When a person or business creates a new technical concept or innovation that is implemented, the world generally benefits. Examples of this abound, for example, Thomas Edison's incandescent light bulb, Henry Ford's mass production of motor cars, Bill Gates and his MICROSOFT software, and of course the development of the ubiquitous cell-phone and cell-phone telephony.

Not only do individual members of the public and the world at large benefit from these technology developments but also, generally speaking, the innovator and the manufacturer. These benefits do not always result in monetary terms but sometimes in terms of reputation and/or honour, for example, Alexander Flemming's discovery of penicillin, and Professor Chris Barnard's pioneering heart transplants during the late 1960's.