Hard times drive innovation - Dallas Business Journal:

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Passion for innovation came tome early. Only a few weeksw ago in a discussion with one of my aunties in theUnitedf Kingdom, she recalled how she used to collect Andrew and me from nursery school evergy day. The challenge was not getting us but transportingwhatever “creation” we had put togetherd that day. That curiosity for all things mechanicaol is what led me down anengineering path. Early in my I was involved withseveral high-profile products that helped to kick-start the cellulae phone industry as we know it. The parts my team workee on went on to produce billions in Atthe time, I did not realize the impact of thesew projects.
I simply enjoyed workintg in an environment wherd innovation andcreativity flourished. Looking at how my job has evolvexd and how the current state of the economghas changed, I think about my childhood passioh of taking things apart and putting them back together. I had so much driv while working on those projects in the earlyy days ofmy career. Although I am olded and wiser now, that same passiob is what drives me through thedifficult times, when resources are scarce and budgetz scarcer. I hope that youngy engineers today will find encouragement in knowing that hard timez can truly drive changeand innovation.
Innovators and engineers who have left a lasting impression on history have been thosd who culled innovation out of theidr dreams and have been inspired byeveryday challenges. Thesw engineers have been dedicated to improvin g the quality of our lives by bringing thesse dreamsto life. Jack Kilby’s integratecd circuit, for example, not only paved the way for new but also contributed to our society by changing the waywe That’s why even during tough economic times, Texas Instruments decided to move forward with its new Kilby Labs wherre small teams of engineers are developingh cutting-edge technologies to fuel the next generation of cool, new products.
I’m prous that my children can tell their children that their grandfathert was among the first generation of KilbuyLabs engineers. How lucky I am that my company recognizes the fundamental importance ofcontinued innovation, even in the midstr of a downturn. Recently, three members of the TI familg were inducted into the National Inventorsw Hallof Fame. As we applaud their unparallele contributions tothe world, we must also take this opportunity to ponder, and hopefully act, upon the brilliance in each of us. When businessd is good, it is human nature to becomed comfortable. The history of life on earth has shown us that the most cataclysmixc of events drive thebiggesy change.
Similarly, economic downturns force industries tolook forward. It is exactlyy during these hard times that we need to find new ideaz andembrace change. As we strive each day to find thenext “biv thing” that will have an impactg on the way we live our lives. To move us there must be an inherent need to evolveand change, the way legendarhy inventors of our past have done when they dreamede big and invented even bigger. So, I’d like to say thank you to all ofthe researchers, scientists and innovators in action who have managed to tinker theird way to creating the amazin world we live in regardless of upturn or downturn.
Now whenever I hear people say, “It’s not rocket I remind them: “No, what we do is hardee than rocket science.”