Marcel Proust once said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but 
in having new eyes.” I was reminded to this quote yesterday after reading John Markoff’s insightful article on Pax Scientific — a company that has applied biomimicry to create new industrial designs for everything from aerospace designs to parts for air conditioners.
What is so interesting about the article is that Pax Scientific has found it difficult to find a market for its product and technology in spite of the fact that it can often demonstrate double-digit increases in product efficiency.
The problem is not the technology, rather it is users inability to unlearn their old ways of doing business. Because they think they "know" what an airplane or air conditioner part should look like, they are unwilling to consider models that do not conform to their pre-conceived ideas. In short, they can’t "see" with new eyes.
Those companies, however, that can unlearn the fastest should be able to achieve a competitive advantage in the commercial marketplace.
