Many people speak of innovation and almost all countries in the Western world have set goals regarding innovation. But it is us inventors that are actually doing something about it and creating the products.

I have identified 10 Mega-trends that are influencing the inventors' working conditions:

1. An increasing political focus on innovation and a large political desire to be more innovative in the future. The question is how to do this in practice. It is easy to set targets, but a huge challenge to actually reach those targets.


2. There are an increasing number of financial aid schemes for consultants and business incubators designed to help innovative people. The problem is that many of those people that are meant to help innovators and other innovative people have limited experience within this area. There is a lot of focus on how to deliver a standard package that includes x number of hours, but this is not the type of help we need.
   
   
3. The consolidation of industries. Today an increasing number of companies are consolidating to create global players within an industry and to gain advantages of scale of operations. But creative forces often find it difficult to function in a large company, whose primary focus is on the current quarter or half-year revenue. This opens for the possibility of partnerships between large companies and a small inventor.


4. There is no organised financial market for financing traditional inventors that are working in other areas than IT, biotech and alternative energy. Everybody is talking about growth sectors and companies, but forget or overlook the possibilities and opportunities that lie outside the three above sectors that all countries are focusing on.


5. The EU is working on creating the Single European Market and removing the trade barriers and reducing the costs of doing business across the EU. This has been very successful with in many areas and the costs of launching on new markets have been significantly reduced. But this is not the case regarding patents. You still need to apply for a patent in each individual European country - unlike in the USA, where one single patent application covers all the American states.


6. An increasing number of companies are violating copyrights and patents. There have never previously been so many cases regarding copyright and patent violations as there are today. It is very expensive and time-consuming to defend copyrights and patents. Many inventors will simply give up if companies take advantage of their size to stifle their opponents with enormous lawyer and counselling costs.


7. Companies that regard innovation as something they purchase. In the biotech industry, innovation has become a commodity that large medicinal companies purchase to maintain or expand their market position. We are seeing an increasing number of companies that are either purchasing ideas or companies to strengthen their range of products and the innovation that is the basis of their company's future success.


8. Partnerships between companies and innovative people. Many large companies have realised that they have difficulty in retaining innovative employees. Some of these companies offer their innovative employees the possibility of launching their own company in a close cooperation with other innovative people and with their former employer as an investor.


9. Companies that deemphasise working with innovation in order to satisfy the stock market's short-term demands for high profits. Developing new ideas costs money and takes time. The problem is that many of the companies that save on innovation end up having to purchase competitors to be able to maintain their market position in the longer run - that is more expensive than being innovative.


10. An increasing number of people that dream of creating an innovative company. But at the same time have difficulty getting the support and self-confidence needed to be able to commercialise a good idea. Being an inventor is fun, but it is also tough, difficult and very expensive to reach a point where you have created a commercial success.