Nathan P. Myhrvold has no interest in competing with Microsoft-but he does mean to challenge the very method of innovation practiced at the company he left four years ago. The 44-year-old founder of Microsoft Research and former chief technology officer of the Seattle giant argues that virtually all big corporations, even wealthy ones, lack motivation to pump money into projects outside their existing product lines. In other words, they tend to discourage invention, the often subversive effort to isolate new problems and generate unexpected solutions. "Invention is a side effect [at corporate labs], not the focus," Myhrvold says. "Most large organizations have a mission, and invention often takes you in another direction. When it comes to mission versus invention at most companies, mission wins." Even small companies such as Silicon Valley startups, he notes, are often loath to support invention outside their core markets.

Yet this very reluctance has opened a world of opportunity, Myhrvold believes. "I can't outdevelop Microsoft and Oracle in databases," he says. "But I may be able to outinvent them."