As I begin drafting this article on my smartphone in a waiting room, I still wonder at times on the inventiveness of the human race and individuals who dream up inventions and then with others see them through to practical and useful outcomes.

The BBC programme "The Genius of Inventions" was so enjoyable for me and made me think about our own sector, local government. In particular the observation made on successful inventions may well have identified why local government has been so successful, especially more recently in maintaining the delivery of key front line services whilst facing enormous central government cuts.

Inventors are often pictured as a lone genius in a laboratory developing brilliant devices through experimentation and design until a particular concept or device works perfectly. It is then unveiled to the world, a stunning device or other thing that instantly changes everything and makes money for the inventor.

This may be partly right, but there is a great deal of time spent relentlessly redesigning and experimenting and it takes a lot longer than we think.