Innovation

80% of self-made billionaires we studied made their mark in mature, competitive markets. They weren't all 'exactly' new products that came out – they were maybe a variation of a business model or existing product that pleased the customer in a different way.

Don't aspire to be an entrepreneur. Aspire to create something that solves a problem. My message to young people with an idea is build a prototype and test it. Test it again and again, making the changes, learning from failure.

Inventor & Founder of Dyson Ltd, Bagless Vacuum Pioneer

At Dyson our philosophy has always been to invest in the long term. To power our 25 year pipeline of technology we have just announced a further £1.5 billion investment into new research and development on top of our current spending of £3 million a week. You cannot create disruptive technology without investing heavily in the long term.

Inventor & Founder of Dyson Ltd, Bagless Vacuum Pioneer

Inventors shouldn't be afraid to take risks. They should embrace failure and learn from their mistakes. I created 5,127 prototypes of the first Dyson bag-less vacuum cleaner and only the last one was right! Not being afraid to fail is something I think all successful entrepreneurs have in common.

Inventor & Founder of Dyson Ltd, Bagless Vacuum Pioneer

Being an entrepreneur, an inventor, is about having ideas and having the doggedness to see them through. As an inventor your ideas should be based on creating a solution to a problem – a solution which focuses on function over form.

Inventor & Founder of Dyson Ltd, Bagless Vacuum Pioneer

My best ideas, and most successful opportunities have come- usually- from the most unexpected areas.

The more dots you give your brain, the more of them it will connect!

People have regarded as a paradox- the fact that Newton spent most of his time doing alchemy, which doesn't sound very scientific, and only part of his time doing mechanics and gravitation. Of course, his discoveries in mechanics and his law of gravitation were absolutely foundational to all of quantitative science, engineering, technology and, indeed, everything that came after

Theoretical Physicist & Director of Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

Had the first astronauts or explorers listened to advice, chances are they would never have embarked on those world-changing adventures. The same is true of entrepreneurs. First and foremost, entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs because their gut had an insight or an idea that's driven them.

The sleep revolution is finally hitting the workplace. The business world is waking up to the high cost of sleep deprivation on productivity, health care, and ultimately the bottom line. I expect the nap room to soon become as universal as the conference room.

Co-Founder of The Huffington Post & Wellness Advocate

Small companies will get an idea and try to scale up. Big companies have to decide when to extend, when to extend and scale, and when to do something new. They need to build capabilities in terms of insight and execution to do the new thing.

Former CEO of Microsoft & Owner of Los Angeles Clippers

Never was wealth the driver for me. – it was always hey, there's a cool idea here, let's make something of it. It was nice to be well rewarded, but the interesting part was working the problem, thinking about new things and how to bring them forward from being ideas to being products or new ways of doing things.

Former CEO of Microsoft & Owner of Los Angeles Clippers

The Internet is subsuming most of our other intellectual technologies, it's becoming our typewriter and our printing press, our map and our clock, our calculator and our telephone, our post office and our library, our radio and our TV.

Technology writer & author of "The Shallows" and "The Big Switch

It's the convergence of technologies at any given time that allow individuals to achieve the things which simply were not possible before. Your smartphone can be used to diagnose diseases for example – every disease has a pattern.

Entrepreneur & Founder of Moon Express, Infosys Technologies Co-Founder

My mind just never stopped thinking about what we could be doing next.

Grammy-winning rapper, producer, and member of The Black Eyed Peas

You have to keep reaching, keep thinking about what the next-level is.

Grammy-winning rapper, producer, and member of The Black Eyed Peas