<h3>Creative thinking alone doesn’t guarantee success according to Alain Sylvain, CEO of strategy firm SYLVAIN.</h3>
Pour enough money into R&#038;D and it will lead to lucrative new products, right? Wrong.
“Creativity is important, but timing, I argue, is 
more important than creativity,” said Alain, who 
contends that, while creativity fuels new ideas, 
peak innovation happens when an idea aligns 
with cultural appetite, individual desire and 
technological capability.
Alain points to the Beatles as an example: “A lot 
of people say the impact of the Beatles – not only 
on rock and roll, but on all of Western culture – is 
simply incalculable.”
Though considered creative geniuses, their music 
was not actually that original. “[They] played Black 
American music … There was nothing unique,” Alain 
said. Their success owed more to timing, coinciding 
with the counterculture movement of the 1960s, birth 
control, civil rights, and the growth of mass media. 
The world was ready for the Beatles’ music.
Throughout history, good ideas have often come 
before their time. The elevator, for instance, was 
invented 100 years before it really took off. Why? The 
cultural climate and infrastructure weren’t prepared. 
Likewise, many tech inventions flop due to poor 
timing. Back in 2013, Google Glass lacked cultural 
appetite and the Pebble smartwatch had valuable 
tech, but no app infrastructure. In 2020, Clubhouse 
buzz quickly faded when people returned to offices 
Post-pandemic.
On the flip side, the ‘stay home; avoid contact’ 
conditions of Covid-19 enabled certain products – 
such as Peloton, QR codes, and Crocs – to reach peak 
impact. The climate, individual appetites and tech 
capacity miraculously aligned.
So how can companies set their ideas up for peak 
innovation? Alain advised examining the past, present 
and future. “Always put it in that context,” urged the 
CEO, “because your creativity exists in the context 
of time.”
Innovation isn’t everything, but timing just might be.
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