In the hunt for innovation, that elusive path to economic growth and corporate prosperity, try a little jazz as an inspirational metaphor, says John Kao, an innovation adviser to corporations and governments. Jazz, Mr. Kao says, demonstrates some of the tensions in innovation, between training and discipline, and improvised creativity. In business, as in jazz, the interaction of those two sides, the yin and the yang of innovation, fuels new ideas and products.
擔任企業及政府創新顧問的高健說，為使經濟成長、公司大發而追尋難以捉摸的創新時，不妨以爵士樂為他山之石，從中取得靈感。高健說，爵士樂展現了創新時兩極之間的一些張力，一邊是訓練和紀律，一邊是即興創意。商業一如爵士，創新時藉陰陽兩極互動激發出新的概念和產品。

Mr. Kao, who is also a jazz pianist, points to the very different models of innovation represented by Google and Apple, two powerhouses of Silicon Valley, the world’s epicenter of corporate creativity. The Google model relies on rapid experimentation and data. The company constantly refines its search, advertising marketplace, e-mail and other services, depending on how people use its online offerings. It takes a bottom-up approach: customers are participants, essentially becoming partners in product design.
同時身為爵士鋼琴家的高健指出，全球企業創意中心矽谷的兩強谷歌與蘋果，就代表迥異的創新模式。谷歌模式仰賴快速實驗及資料，他們根據人們使用其線上服務的經驗，不斷改進搜尋、廣告市集、電郵及其他服務。谷歌採取由下而上途徑：顧客就是參與者，在產品設計上顧客形同合夥人。

The Apple model is more edited, intuitive and top-down. When asked what market research went into the company’s elegant product designs, Steve Jobs had a standard answer: none. “It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want,” he would add. The Google-Apple comparison, Mr. Kao says, highlights the “archetypical tension in the creative process.”
蘋果模式偏向精心打造、仰賴直覺、由上而下。問到蘋果優雅的產品設計引用何種市場研究時，賈伯斯的標準答案是：什麼研究都沒用，他會補上一句：「搞清楚顧客要的是什麼，不是顧客的事。」高健說，谷歌和蘋果的對比凸顯了「創意過程中的原型張力」。

Google speaks to the power of data-driven decision-making, and of online experimentation and networked communication. The same Internet-era tools enable crowd-sourced collaboration as well as the rapid testing of product ideas – the essence of the lean start-up method. The benefits are apparent in markets like Internet software, online commerce and applications for smartphones and tablets.
谷歌說明的是資料導引決策、線上實驗以及網絡傳輸的力量。這套網路時代的工具可促成眾包式協作，快速測試產品構想，這些都是精簡的新創公司的創新法精髓，在網路軟體、線上商務及智慧型手機和平板電腦應用程式這類市場，效益顯而易見。

Yet breakthrough ideas still come from individuals, not committees. “There is nothing democratic about innovation,” says Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster. “It is always an elite activity, whether by a recognized or unrecognized elite.”
然而突破性構想依舊來自個人而非委員會。科技趨勢專家薩佛說：「創新毫不『民主』，一向是精英活動，無論這精英是否已獲公認。」

The labs at G.E. are trying to quicken the pace of innovation – but this is long-cycle innovation, since G.E.’s power generators, jet engines and medical-imaging equipment last for decades. G.E. is opening a software center in California to make its machines more intelligent with data-gathering sensors, wireless communications and predictive algorithms.
奇異公司的實驗室正努力加快創新步調，不過是周期很長的創新，因為奇異的發電機、噴射引擎及醫療造影設備壽命都長達數十年。奇異現在加州新設軟體中心，打造具有資料收集感應器、無線傳輸及預測演算能力的更聰明儀器。

The goal is to develop machines, such as jet engines or power turbines, that can alert their human minders when they need repairs, before equipment failures. G.E. works with corporations, government labs and universities on hundreds of collaborative projects. Apple’s smartphones, tablets and computers typically have life spans measured in a few years instead of decades, with new models introduced regularly. But like G.E., Apple is in the hardware business, where innovation cycles are beholden to the limits of materials science and manufacturing. The careful melding of hardware with software in Apple’s popular products is a challenge that must be orchestrated by a guiding hand – though it will no longer be the hand of Mr. Jobs, who died last October.
目標是研發像噴射引擎或動力渦輪機之類儀器，可在尚未故障但需修理時主動示警。奇異正與許多企業、政府實驗室及大學聯合執行數以百計的合作計畫。蘋果公司的智慧型手機、平板電腦及電腦，新款式定期推出，生命周期一向只有幾年，而非數十年。但蘋果跟奇異一樣身處硬體業，創新周期受限於材料科學及製造業狀況。蘋果熱銷產品如何審慎結合軟硬體，是有賴一個指導者善加協調的挑戰，而這個人不再是去年10月病逝的賈伯斯了。

Apple has also repeatedly displayed its openness to new ideas and influences, as exemplified by the visit that Mr. Jobs made to the Palo Alto research center of Xerox in 1979. He saw an experimental computer with a point-and-click mouse and graphical on-screen icons, which he adopted at Apple. It later became the standard for the personal computer industry.
蘋果對新構想及各種影響一再展現開放的態度，賈伯斯1979年造訪加州帕洛阿圖全錄公司研究中心就是例證。當時，他看到一部實驗電腦配有點擊滑鼠與螢幕圖示，後來他把這二者用在蘋果電腦中，使之成為個人電腦產業的標準功能與配備。

Apple and Google pursue very different paths to innovation, but the gap between their two models may be closing. In the months after Larry Page, the Google co-founder, took over as chief executive last April, the company eliminated a collection of more than two dozen projects, a nudge toward top-down leadership. And Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s C.E.O., is likely to be a more bottom-up leader than Mr. Jobs.
在創新上蘋果和谷歌途徑迥異，但二者的距離可能正在拉近。在谷歌創辦人佩吉去年四月接掌執行長之後幾個月，該公司取消了24個以上的計畫，領導模式朝向由上而下移動。而蘋果現任執行長庫克很可能是比賈伯斯更傾向由下而上的企業領導人。

“What we’re likely to see,” Mr. Kao says, “is Google and Apple each borrowing from the playbook of the other.”
高健說：「我們很可能會看到，谷歌和蘋果正各自從對方的劇本借招。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/technology/apple-and-google-as-creative-archetypes.html

2012-02-14聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 馮克芸譯 原文參見紐時週報八版右