There is a pervasive Australian myth that goes something like this: innovations come from brilliant scientists who pass on their discoveries to grateful businessmen and women and, eventually, the consumer. This linear progression does occur, but is a rarity compared to the real source of Australian innovation - the entrepreneur.

The world's stock of science and technology is increasing at a rapid rate and, in fact, there is already enough of it around to fuel a number of industrial revolutions. What is in short supply are the people who can assemble technologies and ideas into a coherent business plan, raise the finance and assemble the team that can turn all these inputs into something consumers value - in short, into an innovative product or service.

Our much celebrated technology business successes - Cochlear and ResMed illustrate the point.

While the bionic ear hearing implant was a brilliant idea of Professor Graeme Clarke. it was the late Paul Trainor who patiently incubated the immature Cochlear business inside his Telectronics heart pacemaker business. Peter Farrell did a similar job with ResMed, creating a global business around the ideas of Professor Colin Sullivan.

Few business successes are based on such obviously good ideas. Take many of the recent crop of internet successes - they are more usually novel customer-focused business systems and processes based on well understood communications technologies. These are the work of entrepreneurs.

Of course a great business has to have some sort of inspiration. But the vast majority of effort and expense begins once the idea is formulated. Most of the many scientific 'breakthroughs' we hear about never make it through the innovation process precisely because the execution is - usually at least - so much more important than the inspiration.