On Eiji Toyoda: of course he was a great entrepeneur! He spotted the opportunity to create a huge domestic market for vehicles in Japan, visited Ford in the US (considered them inefficient) and wove the concept of kaizen into his company and led the development of the ‘Toyota Way’ culture. Innovation can be about going after underserved markets, improving processes, and even about creating new company cultures (for another example, Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream is about creating a product that isn’t at all new–but it’s about a particular company culture/ethos that has become central to how they operate and market the company’s products).

I 99% agree with everything you write here

but I don’t get why you take jabs at multi-level marketing.

certainly at times MLM has been abused by nefarious cads.

but then again, so has just about everything.

and i dare say Mary Kay Ash is one of the great American entrepreneurs of the 20th century. and her company, Mary Kay Cosmetics, was and still is all about MLM

also, i might broaden the definition of “innovation” and “new”

I believe Eiji Toyoda is also one of the great entrepreneurs of the 20th century. but its hard to argue he invented anything (not even a process, like Henry Ford). but he did start a new company, Toyota

anyway, minor quibbles, great post