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April 14, 2006
Innovator interview: Jeff Hunter of EA
In this exclusive Q&A for the FORTUNE Business Innovation Insider, Jeff Hunter, Director of Global Talent Technologies at video game pioneer Electronic Arts, shares his views on business innovation. After discussing how companies can make innovation part of their organizational DNA, he explains the importance of an "innovation portfolio" for knowledge workers, discusses some of the innovation initiatives afoot at EA, and describes the two "innovation constants."
In addition to writing about the intersection of business, talent and technology on his award-winning Talentism blog, Jeff has also launched a new site, Talent u Should Know (TuSK), that profiles some of the unique individuals who have made a difference in his professional life. Jeff Hunter describes himself as "a serial entrepreneur currently in rehab at Electronic Arts." Later in the year, he plans to launch a Web 2.0 company and write his first book.
Q: You recently posted about the "10 Rules for Innovators" on Talentism. Is it possible for a big corporation (i.e. a FORTUNE 500 corporation) to make these rules part of its corporate DNA?
Jeff Hunter: I wrote a blog post at the beginning of this year called “Draw the Line.” In that post, I described how an organization could determine what was critical to its success, what was regulatory or a “ticket to play” and what was what I call “plaque” – the stuff that builds up over years of use that eventually clogs the arteries of the company. The modern corporation has to be able to determine which activities/functions go in which areas. Those organizations that are good at knowing what goes where will always have advantage over those companies that are not clear in this area. After that, the companies that will have advantage are the ones that can innovate in those areas that are strategic. I can’t think of a company or industry that will be immune from this phenomenon. That innovation capability will always come down to “innovation constants”: A) put the creative with the customers and B) always lower the cost of change.
The rules that I described in my post were more proscriptive that descriptive: they were intended to provide some thought-provoking short-hand about ways that innovators could shake things up. Many of those rules were based on the two innovation constants. For instance, the “Build Crappy Prototypes Fast” rule is a way to lower the cost of change, as it reduces the cycle time between an innovator’s insight and when that realization can be put back into the customer’s hands. Whereas the rule about “Don’t Listen to Customers, Watch Them” is based on putting innovators in proximity to customers. After all, it’s a little hard to watch unless you are right there.
So, with that background, I can answer your questions directly: not only is it possible, it’s imperative. Decide what gives you comparative advantage and then innovate in those areas. Companies that don’t won’t be able to compete for long.
Q: When recruiting new employees, what are some of the ways that companies are evaluating the "innovation potential" of new hires?
Jeff Hunter: I wrote in an early piece in my blog (“From Profile to Portfolio”) that recruiters and hiring managers needed to be focused more on the creative portfolio of an individual than on their resume. Every “investor” (employee) should be able to provide some level of proof of their innovative capability. These “proof points” are part of a portfolio of work that demonstrates conclusively over time that the prospective employee can be innovative. When we hire artists in the video game industry we don’t ask for resumes, we ask for demo reels. Photographers and architects have portfolios, as do actors and ad execs. It is not a new idea. But we need to extend the concept across all knowledge work. Code snippets, project plans, work documents. I understand that we have to work through the IP issues, but documents can be redacted and edited to remove content that may be considered proprietary. Expanding the number and types of knowledge workers who can demonstrate their creative capability through their portable portfolios will be the single greatest lever companies have to evaluate for “innovation potential.”
Q: What was the motivation for starting the new TuSK blog?
Jeff Hunter: “People hire people they know” has always been a truism of the practice of recruiting. A good recruiter has a fantastic network of nodes and contacts they can call upon to source a new “investor” (employee) for an open position. The surge in usage in new social networking technologies means that a person’s network really becomes the greatest single advantage they have in finding their next job. But what happens to those people who have been good corporate citizens for the last five years, who have kept their heads down and gotten their projects done? Those individuals are at a distinct disadvantage in creating a market for their services. In short, they are being punished for doing a good job. I know a lot of people who are caught in that position. These are people who have been good to me in one way or another (helped me on a project, pointed me to a resource I needed to be successful, mentored me) and I wanted to repay the favor. Helping them tap into the network of my readers seemed like a great way to accelerate building their networks.
I think some of the greatest value we can provide to our networks is to connect them to other great people. TuSK is my way of doing that.
Q: When people think of innovation, they usually think of "creatives" and white-collar "knowledge workers." However, Richard Florida recently wrote a thought-provoking op-ed piece for USA Today, challenging companies like Starbucks and Best Buy to tap into and then harness the creativity and ingenuity of their lower-paid, under-appreciated service economy workers. What role - if any - do these service economy workers play in the future of American innovation?
Jeff Hunter: The two “innovation constants” that I mentioned earlier must be pervasive throughout all parts of your organization that drive advantage. To believe that innovation is the job of the R&D lab is to sound the death knell for innovation in your company. This principle has been expressed in books like Geoff Moore’s Living on the Fault Line: software companies should make the PSO (Professional Service Organization) a key part of their R&D and early product development. The same thing applies in service industries: the people closest to the customer should be the people who have the greatest insights into what customers really need (assuming that they are watching, and not listening, of course). I believe that service companies actually can have comparative advantage over product companies in certain ways, since more resources are allocated to customer touch points.
Perhaps I am overly optimistic, but I really believe that human beings are problem solving and learning machines. They start out with nothing and end up accomplishing the two toughest tasks they will ever face (walking and talking) before the age of 3. It’s a biological necessity. It’s the way we are wired. Every company that fails to capitalize on the creative capacity of its workforce is digging for coal in a diamond mine. It’s one of the main reasons that I like the idea of smaller companies and the focus on core competency: more companies focused on delivering specific value by leveraging the innate creative capacity of as many of its investors (or what you would call employees) as possible. The more people in the organization that are shielded from the customer, the more people whose job it is to keep the cost of change constant (i.e. many finance functions), the more people who are being pigeon-holed into tasks that separate them from that capability.
Put another way: The closer that a creative is to people who pay money for your goods or services, the more likely that person is to innovate in ways that are beneficial and constructive for the organization. You challenge them to constantly lower the cost of change and they will turn your business into innovation factories. So think of your “sales associates” as creatives first and sales people second, and you will be following the first innovation constant. Be relentless in giving them the tools and incentives to decrease innovation cycle times and you will be observing the second innovation constant.
For example, a Starbucks I used to haunt had this great barista. She would wait until the lines died down and then she would start mixing weird coffee drinks. A little caramel with a little mocha with soy milk… that kind of thing. She would keep her eyes out for her most frequent customers and she would tell them “Hey, try this out for free. Tell me what you think.” Sometimes the drinks were awful. Sometimes they were fantastic. But every single customer whom she engaged in the process was a fan for life. They loved being a part of her “experiments.” Because that innovation mechanism was based on the trust that was built between the barista and her customers there would be no way that you could replicate that experience in a lab. It needed to be right there with the regular customer. And because she figured out a way to experiment on the cheap (it probably cost Starbucks all of $10 a day), she was able to try more combinations and more experiments all the time. In other words, the cost of change was cheap.
But it’s not just about service workers. It’s about getting everybody, and I do mean everybody, into alignment with those two innovation principles.
Q: Are there any business innovations at EA (or within the videogaming industry) that you'd like to highlight?
Jeff Hunter: I feel lucky every day I get to go to work. I love the potential of the video game industry, and I love working at an industry leader like EA. The innovations that EA is coming up with to advance interactive entertainment are simply mind blowing. Being in a place where so many hyper-intelligent and creative people are getting together and focusing their resources to make the interactive experience more fun and challenging, which I believe will have a net-positive impact on learning, creativity and society over the long run, is a great privilege.
For me the innovations around online game play and community development, especially in the Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming (MMOG) side of the business is really interesting. I think MMOG’s are challenging our assumptions around how people develop community, how they learn, how they problem solve in groups. It is clear to me that everything from medical research to the way that our kids work inside of companies is going to be directly impacted by the way these games are developed and played.
And when you think about the fact that the most powerful computer in a person’s house will be their gaming console, and that more and more people will spend their time in interactive entertainment environments, rather than watching passive entertainment like TV… let’s just say that over the long-term it is possible that the speed of innovation in the interactive entertainment industry will be beyond what anybody but the most optimistic futurist could possibly imagine.
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IBM, the healthcare innovator
The HealthNex blog, an IBM-sponsored blog that looks at networked, patient-centric healthcare solutions, is conducting a healthcare transformation "Blogposium" next week (April 18-20). According to Jack Mason of the HealthNex blog, the Blogposium is "the world's first ever cross-blog collaboration on healthcare transformation." About a dozen healthcare bloggers from around the world are collaborating on an important project: adding entries to the Clinical Informatics Wiki, a kind of encyclopedia for topics on how healthcare IT is transforming medicine and all of healthcare.
It's interesting to see IBM take the lead on healthcare innovation. (Obviously pharmaceutical companies and the other members of the healthcare-industrial complex are not pulling their own weight when it comes to innovative solutions for patients.) The IBM-sponsored "Blogposium" is an experiment as well in "open innovation" - participation at the three-day online event is open to anyone willing to contribute content, edit existing content, or just suggest links for further reading. From the list of topics that contributors have already selected, it looks like there is going to be some serious thinking about the future of healthcare:
(1) Evidence-Based Medicine
(2) Mobile Access to EMR/EHR/PHR
(3) The E-Patient-Provider Relationship
(4) EMR and Biometric Integrations
(5) The Consumer-Driven Health Care Movement
(6) Regional Health Information Organizations and Networks
(7) Biobanking
Tags: healthcare innovation IBM blogposium
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Welcome to the world of Man Divas, Evil Ones, and Malibu Barbies
Yesterday's New York Times took a fun look at the creative world of the online persona. Why simply be "John" or "Rebecca" when you can be "Haffro" or "VandanaZoe" or "Malibu Barbie"? As the New York Times explains, "names have meaning and are imbued with varying degrees of potency" - especially online. In some situations, let's face it, it's better to be known as "The Evil One" than by your real name. It turns out that there are often good (or at least, amusing) reasons behind each nickname - and that these names are part of an overall online "brand" that users create:
"The process of acquiring a nickname was changed by the advent of e-mail in the 1980's, when users had to create their e-mail handles. It occurred to many people that a nickname did not have to be earned or conferred. Rather, people could christen themselves.
Today e-mail handles and screen names often evolve into users' off-line nicknames, and the saucy turns of phrase prevalent in blogs and online forums easily catch fire and leap from computer screen to tongue. Practically everyone and everything now has a nickname, it seems, whether they like it or not. Starbucks is Fourbucks, Anderson Cooper is the Coop, and Mandisa, the big-voiced contestant voted off "American Idol" last week, is Mandiva...
"It's your personal brand," according to Andy Walker, a technology journalist in Toronto. "It's precision in language, which is exactly what we need in an age of too much information. How do you get around time and too much information? You create nicknames."
This trend toward creative online monikers has been given a push from the world of rap music artists and nightclub DJs, who have been "creating unique nicknames for decades," as well as from the popularity of mass-customization tools that are available to consumers everywhere. (Does anyone still use that default ringtone for their cell phone?) In addition, "sites like MySpace.com and YouTube.com have enabled everyone to feel like celebrities." Says one New York on-air radio personality: "Now more than ever the regular person is a star in their own mind, and in their own circle of friends. It's all about the Everyman becoming the Superman."
This being the New York Times and all, the article ends with a suggestion that perhaps we are witnessing the birth of a new literary genre:
"And as millions of people continue to express themselves with instant messaging, e-mail, blogs, forums and Web sites, they will continue to create what Dr. Baron calls new literary genres. Unlike the novel and the lyric poem, these digital forms are being formed in our lifetimes, he said, and we are in the unique position of being able to see how they unfold. "It's a fantastic opportunity to see how a genre comes into being," Dr. Baron said. "It's like being present at the birth of stars."
Tags: creativity nickname online persona
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April 13, 2006
The five best business blogs of the year
Earlier in the week, the International Academy of Digital Arts & Science announced this year's nominations for the Webby Awards, including nominations in a brand new "business blog" category:
"Nominees were named in over 65 categories, ranging from lifestyle favorites like Fashion, Politics, and Social Networking to business service categories Banking, Employment, and Real Estate. New categories making their debut this year include Political Blog, Business Blog, Podcast, and Best Use of Video or Moving Image... Proclaimed "the online equivalent of an Oscar" by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international honor for Web sites and the innovators behind them."
With that in mind, a big shout out to the five business blogs nominated for this year's Webby Awards:
(1) 5 Blogs Before Lunch
(2) Gartner Blogs
(3) GM FastLane blog
(4) Inc. magazine's Fresh Inc.
(5) NextBillion's Development Through Enterprise blog
The 10th annual Webby Awards gala celebration will take place on June 12th at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.
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April 13 innovation linkage, A.M edition
The pros and cons of competing for market share [Dealing with Darwin]
Tom Peters interviews the author of FutureShop [TomPeters.com]
Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer" can teach you a lot about business [Don Dodge]
Infolust: an emerging consumer trend [Trendwatching.com]
Guy Kawasaki on the science and practice of Influence [Bona tempora volvantur]
Viral Marketing Hall of Fame 2006 [MarketingSherpa.com]
What venture to start in college? [Business Opportunities Weblog]
Yuri Gagarin's big night: world space party [YurisNight.net]
Jon Gipe's Cabinet of Curiosities [JonGipesArt.com via Boing Boing]
[image: Richard Florida: The Creative Class via Flickr]
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Can innovative design save Detroit's auto industry?
At the New York International Auto Show, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn suggested that innovative design might be the way for some automakers to break out of their competitive malaise:
"Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn called for the auto industry to reduce its reliance on incentives and encouraged an end to "bland, safe, cookie-cutter designs." ... Ghosn made a play for more passion in the industry, saying that innovative design is the key to the auto industry's revival. "Incentives are an insidious, confusing carousel that no one seems willing to get off," he said. Though Ghosn didn't mention any auto maker in particular, his remarks seemed focused on General Motors, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group. All three U.S. auto companies have been heavily reliant on pitching discounts and incentives as they've fought against an incursion by overseas auto makers."
According to Ghosn, U.S. automakers rely far too much on discounts to sell cars. Instead, they should be focusing their energies on innovative designs that will inspire auto buyers: "In their reach for high volume and market-share growth, auto makers destroy value, instead falling back on bland design. Auto makers can either sell cars without passion and struggle with shrinking production, or they can sell cars with passion."
As an aside, Ghosn suggested that U.S. automakers take a look at the phenomenal success of the iPod to understand how innovative design can inspire consumers. What he didn't suggest, unfortunately, was that every automotive CEO attending the event in New York re-read entire chapters of SHIFT: Inside Nissan's Historic Renewal to understand how he reversed the declining fortunes at Nissan. When Ghosn took over, Nissan had lost Japanese market share for 27 years in a row (!) and was operating at 50% capacity. One of the first things Ghosn did was bring in a new designer from Isuzu and assemble a number of cross-functional teams to understand how to re-engineer each process involved in designing and building an automobile.
Tags: Nissan CarlosGhosn innovation design
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The problem with getting your innovative idea noticed
Kathy Sierra of the Creating Passionate Users blog has posted a great explanation of why some people just can't seem to get their innovative ideas noticed. The answer is simple - they just haven't mastered the art of glib. In a Gladwellian world where the power to make decisions in the blink of an eye is a highly prized attribute, people who can't articulate their opinions and ideas as quickly as they develop "gut feelings" may be at a real disadvantage in conference rooms across Corporate America:
"In way too many meetings, the fastest talkers win. And by "fastest talkers", I mean those who are the first to articulate an idea, challenge, issue, whatever. Too many of us assume that if it sounds smart, it probably is, especially when we aren't given the chance to think about it. The problem is, the guy with the "gut feeling"--the one who senses that something's not right, but has no idea how to explain it, let alone articulate it on the spot--might be right. Too bad, though, because the glib usually rule.
Let's face it--the clever, witty, glib talkers can make the non-clever, non-witty, and non-glib sound like slow dolts. Slow-to-articulate is mistaken for slow-in-the-head. And as the world speeds up and decisions have to be made right frickin' NOW, it just gets worse.
So there's the heart of the problem--if you're not able to explain your thoughts, ideas, and concerns quickly and articulately, you are often at a disadvantage. I've been there. I am there. I'm capable of thinking (some would debate that), willing to do the research, and reasonably articulate. But I need time! I have never been one of those think-on-your-feet types. With the exception of those few things in which I have a lot of expertise and experience, I pretty much suck at having to explain, defend, or promote something in real-time."Tags: blink glib communication innovation idea
[image: Creating Passionate Users]
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Innovation is risky business
In preparation for the upcoming Summit for the Future, which is being held May 3-5 in Amsterdam, global knowledge services firm Evalueserve has released a five-page PDF on the topic of "Innovation as Risky Business." The basic premise of the report is that "innovations and the risks associated with them are directly proportional." As a result, all resources deployed for successful innovation are subject to some form of risk. The report also describes the extent of risk during each stage of the product lifecycle: broadly speaking, risk is highest during the phase of "breakthrough innovation" and is lowest during a period of "incremental innovation."
Anyway, it's also worth checking out the Summit for the Future blog, sponsored by the Club of Amsterdam. In the past week, the blog has featured a discussion of the "ethical economy," an intellectual capital report, and a philosophical explanation of risk.
Tags: SummitfortheFuture innovation risk Evalueserve
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April 12, 2006
Iceland, the forgotten innovation leader
Iceland now has something to brag about other than Bjork and really cool-looking geothermal spas. According to the latest OECD report on broadband usage, Iceland has edged ahead of South Korea as the world leader in broadband penetration, as measured by the percentage of inhabitants with broadband connectivity:
Iceland topped the global ranking of high-speed Internet connections compiled by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with 26.7 subscribers per 100 inhabitants, or 26.7% penetration, at the end of 2005. South Korea dropped to second place at 25.4 percent, followed by the Netherlands at 25.3 percent and Denmark at 25 percent.
The findings underscore growing European demand for high-speed Internet connectivity, with Finland (22.5 percent), Norway (21.9 percent), Sweden (20.3 percent) and Belgium (18.3 percent) also ranked among the OECD's ten most-penetrated broadband markets. Each country added more than six subscribers per 100 inhabitants in 2005. Australia was ranked 17th with 13.8 percent.
Don't worry, though, America (ranked 12th in the OECD survey) still has the largest absolute number of broadband subscribers in the OECD, at 49.39 million, while South Korea only has 12.19 million and Iceland - tiny but beautiful Iceland - only has 78,000+ broadband subscribers. As GigaOm points out, though, South Korea appears to be moving away from a reliance on cable and DSL connections to fiber-based broadband connections. So, when evaluating the numbers, it's also important to keep an eye on the quality of the broadband connection. When it comes to download speeds, Japan and South Korea are at the front of the pack.
Tags: Iceland OECD broadband Internet
[image: Blue Lagoon, TabascoKid on Flickr]
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The Chicago Prediction Markets Summit discusses "Infotopia"
The Chicago Prediction Markets Summit, which takes place in June at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, already has lined up an impressive list of speakers, including Cass Sunstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago. Sunstein will be the keynote speaker for the event, where he will discuss some of the topics found in his latest book, Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge. (The book is not yet available on Amazon, but it sounds a lot like James Surowiecki's hugely popular The Wisdom of Crowds)
If you're interested, here's a quick summary of the event from the prediction markets website:
"The Chicago Prediction Markets Summit is an exciting triangulation of stunning thought leadership, disruptive technology innovation and future-focused practices. Knowledge exchanges, person-to-person trading and prediction markets are growing sharply. Top firms using prediction markets are Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Eli Lilly, Abbott Laboratories, HP and Siemens. Person-to-person trading is booming. These market-based mechanisms resolve questions of science, technology, management, strategy, planning, policy, innovation and so forth. They achieve fundamentally advancements in profound knowledge of all types."
Tags: predictionmarkets predictions knowledge CassSunstein Infotopia
[photo: Cass Sunstein]
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The controversy over Brazil's first man in space
According to the New York Times, Brazil's efforts to send its first man into space - at a cost of $10.5 million - resulted in quite a bit of controversy. While some hailed the week-long visitor to the International Space Station as a national hero, others called him a mere "space tourist" who helped to drain the country's meager treasury at a time when the money could have been better spent elsewhere:
"Because of the manner in which Brazil's first astronaut was launched into space, national pride has been mixed with pointed criticisms of weaknesses and deficiencies in the country's three-decade-old space program.
The astronaut, Marcos Pontes, a 43-year-old air force colonel, has become a national idol, stealing headlines even from soccer stars like Ronaldinho. He has waved the Brazilian flag, talked with schoolchildren, reporters and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and even found himself lionized in a comic book and toys.
But many Brazilian scientists, along with newspaper columnists and editorial writers, have criticized the voyage, which ended early Sunday, as a boondoggle. They argue that the roughly $10.5 million that Brazil paid Russia to launch Colonel Pontes aboard a Soyuz rocket would have been better spent on research here on Earth or invested in rebuilding a space port destroyed in 2003 in a launching pad explosion that killed 21 scientists and technicians."
Of course, the Brazilian government views the ability to put the country's first man into space as a huge scientific and political win. If nothing else, it will be easier to "loosen the purse strings" of the treasury for future space development efforts. It also has a strong symbolic meaning: "The idea is to give visibility to the [space] program. A decade ago, China, Brazil and India were all at the same level, but China has surged ahead, and we have been left behind, largely because of a lack of sustained investment."
Apparently, Washington has been a strong backer of the Brazilian space program, too: "The United States was eager to have Brazil involved because Washington wants to increase scientific exchanges with a country that has excelled in several niches. Brazil is a recognized leader, for example, in the manufacture of medium-size jets, genome mapping and numerous technologies adapted for use in the tropics."
ASIDE: Today, April 12, marks the 45th anniversary of the first man in outer space, Yuri Gagarin. The Russians, in fact, now refer to Marcos Pontes (the Brazilian astronaut) as "Brazil's Yuri Gagarin."
[image: New York Times]
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The New York Times is looking to hire a futurist
Building on the momentum of its latest Internet makeover (see re-designed home page above), the New York Times is looking to hire a "futurist" who can help spot the latest trends and analyze the impact of the newest disruptive technologies. Nicolas Nova of the Pasta and Vinegar blog points to this interesting job opportunity (via Paid Content) at the New York Times:
"The New York Times Company is looking for a Futurist for its new Research & Development group. The ideal candidate will be highly imaginative and well-informed about the social and technology trends affecting the creation, distribution and consumption of all forms of media now and in the future. We are looking for someone who has an innate curiosity and a passion for new ideas; someone with a facility for market research data and who can use that data to vividly paint a picture of how the world around us is evolving."
According to the details of the job posting, the "futurist" will need to be able to:
* Spot trends in consumer behavior, in government regulation, and in marketplace conditions by continually mining available data sources and keeping abreast of influential thinkers and publications.
* Project these trends into the future and suggest new directions for the Company's products and business development. Present these "crow's nest"/future trends briefings to senior management and other stakeholders.
* Monitor the competitive landscape for The New York Times Company's portfolio of brands; help identify disruptive forces, threats and opportunities.
* Participate in the brainstorming process with Creative Technologists on R&D team to help define new product
prototypes for the company to test.
* Provide context for the technology prototypes developed by R&D as these technologies are exposed to the business units.
* Partner with the Business Catalyst on R&D team to identify early stage companies who are executing on new trends for potential partnerships and collaboration.
* Help develop and execute an ongoing communications plan for R&D unit to share ideas within and throughout the Company.
From a business perspective, it's interesting to see how the New York Times gradually perceives itself more as an R&D-based technology company, and less as a traditional media company. Maybe the company has finally realized that Google and Yahoo are the competition, and not the New York Post or the New York Daily News.
Tags: NewYorkTimes futurist innovation media
[image: Nedward's photostream on Flickr]
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A thought pack on innovation and creativity
California-based Influx Strategic Consulting, which publishes the Influx Insights blog, has just published a Thought Pack on Innovation and Creativity. The Thought Pack is a free 28-page PDF of the best articles written by Influx on the topics of innovation and creativity over the past two years: "It covers a wide range of areas, from thinking on consumer generated media, how to make business more fun and includes a piece on the creative role of Nigel Godrich, producer of the British rock band, Radiohead."
Tags: InfluxInsights innovation creativity
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April 11, 2006
April 11 innovation linkage, P.M. edition
CEOs looking to external sources for innovation [William Heinze's I/P Updates]
2020 Science: the future of computing [Microsoft Research]
Innovation is hard... but that's why it's worth doing [Innovate on Purpose]
Carnegie Mellon to use 'Sims' in educational software [USA Today]
A new center for innovation and research in Louisiana [FCW.com]
The advantages of maintaining a creativity journal [The Innovation Weblog]
Can a robot replace your receptionist? [Business 2.0]
Emotional social intelligence prosthetic devices [NewScientist.com]
Heraldic Crests & Corporate Logos [Ye Olde Graphic Designer]
NASA announces plan to crash probe into moon [Yahoo News via Boing Boing]
[image: CNET]
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Innovative healthcare solutions from Wal-Mart?
While much of the focus on Wal-Mart this week concerns the company's proposed entry into the U.S. banking sector, it's also worth noting that Wal-Mart could be on the cusp of shaking up the massive U.S. healthcare market. The company's new in-store clinics are significantly cheaper and faster than almost any other option that exists for under-insured (or uninsured) Americans. Judging from the number of stories in the mainstream media about the sad state of healthcare coverage in the U.S., there are probably tens of millions of Americans that might benefit from a little Wal-Mart healthcare innovation. Rik Kirkland of FORTUNE takes a closer look at Wal-Mart's prescription for health care:
"The retailer is opening cheap, convenient clinics in its superstores -- and calling on Washington to fix the really big problems. When Wal-Mart announced recently that it would open medical clinics in supercenters across the country, the news coverage went something like this: Get ready for a battle of the titans. America's most admired, most vilified, most shopped-at retailer is finally taking on the $2-trillion-a-year U.S. health-care market, a hulking giant just begging to be whipped into shape by Wal-Mart's vaunted efficiency and everyday low pricing. It's Ali vs. Foreman, Mothra meets Godzilla, right?"
While the entry of Wal-Mart into the healthcare market may not be quite so dramatic as the epic battle between Godzilla and Mothra, writes Kirkland, it's sure to impact the pricing of healthcare in general. Let's face it, the $45 flat fee for "Get Well" visits at a convenient, friendly location (one in every three Americans stops by Wal-Mart each week) is something to get excited about:
"That price includes all the tests necessary to diagnose and prescribe for everyday ailments like colds, flu, strep throat and pink eye. If you're uninsured, as roughly half the clinic's customers are, it's a big saving over the $95 or so that a regular doctor's visit would cost in this part of the country, and a huge savings over the $400 a hospital emergency room might charge.
Another pamphlet offers a menu of "Stay Well" screenings for basic preventive medicine. For instance: a $29 blood test to determine your cholesterol profile with glucose, vs. what RediClinic claims is a "retail" price of $65. (Thirty minutes south down Highway 169, the Wal-Mart in Broken Arrow touts an "end-of-season special" on flu shots--"Now only $20.")
This mix of transparent prices, electronic efficiency (patients can access test results online using a password), and convenient hours (7 A.M. to 7 P.M. weekdays, 8 A.M. to 6 P.M. Saturdays, and noon to five on Sundays) looks, for now at least, like a winning formula."
According to a biz dev guy at Wal-Mart, the company is seeing satisfaction rates above 90% for the new rollout (one guy interviewed for the article called the service "awesome"). Anyway, assuming that the powers-that-be don't try to throw any regulatory roadblocks in Wal-Mart's path, the company may open as many as 50 more new clinics by the start of 2007. This looks like a trend that's here to stay. In fact, a similar service is profiled in the current issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance: retail healthcare kiosks that offer routine services at a fraction of physician services. The largest chain of retail clinics is Minneapolis-based MinuteClinic, which expects to have 250 facilities in 20 states by year-end.
Tags: WalMart healthcare innovation clinic
[image: Wal-Mart Clinic]
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NASA and outsider innovation
In the New York Times, Noah Shachtman highlights the unprecedented ways that NASA is opening up its innovation process to outsiders. Space innovation was once the exclusive preserve of FORTUNE 500 companies like Boeing, but not any longer. In one example cited by Shachtman, a college senior in Canada is actually helping NASA design and develop the "space elevator" concept - and he's doing it from his own dorm room:
"Steve Jones doesn't have a workshop, exactly, for his miniature space elevator; he is designing it in his dorm room and in four labs scattered across the University of British Columbia. He doesn't have a staff, either; a collection of friends and fellow space enthusiasts volunteer to help. And his budget, in the low five figures, comes mostly from the school activities fund, although Red Bull is donating some energy drinks.
But he might soon have a chance to join the ranks of the aerospace establishment by getting money from NASA and, in his own way, helping explore the solar system. To get ready, he is spending 60 hours a week on his elevator, which is meant to haul people and gear into orbit without a rocket. He has even put off graduation until the project is done."
In order to tap the expertise of the "tinkerers and students" at the edge of space innovation, NASA is also gearing up for 13 different innovation prize competitions:
"The agency is offering 13 contests, which it calls Centennial Challenges, that anyone can enter. The prizes range from $200,000 to more than $5 million, for building gear as diverse as solar sails, lunar excavators and the tiny elevators. But more important than the cash prizes, contestants and administrators say, is the opportunity to sidestep the traditional ways NASA has done business and bring some fresh faces to its ranks."
Without a doubt, the spectacular success of the X Prize competition for private manned space travel has played a major role in NASA's new-found willingness to embrace outside innovation. It's not just space travel that's on the agenda at NASA, though; the NASA prize competitions (formally known as the Centennial Challenges) tackle anything and everything, including robotics, high-tech astronaut gloves, "solar sails" and lunar landing modules.
Tags: outsideinnovation innovation NASA space
[image: New York Times]
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Future Shock
In celebration of its 20th anniversary, Network World has published a Future Shock special feature, which examines five emerging trends in technology innovation. For example, Daniel Burrus, founder and CEO of Burrus Research Associates and the author of Technotrends, describes one scenario involving "ultra-intelligent" electronic agents that are linked by always on neural networks:
"You wake up, turn on the TV and you're greeted by your personal agent, who says, "Good morning; you're flying to Boston this morning, and it's raining, so take a raincoat." As you approach the airport, your agent whispers into your holographic ear bud, telling you exactly where to find a parking space at the airport parking garage.
You go to the gym. Your agent asks what you'd like to watch on television, sets the channel and monitors your workout. Your agent monitors your caloric intake throughout the day via wireless microsensors. You go to work. Your agent keeps track of your appointments, and provides you with real-time information needed to run your company or your department.
Need to do some research? No typing in search terms on Google and clicking around to find what you're looking for. You ask your agent to find something out, and the agent does it - in a nanosecond."
Sound too improbable? Check out these four other futuristic trends mentioned by Network World:
(1) The convergence of biotechnology, nanotechnology and IT;
(2) Rapid changes brought about by profound changes in nanotechnology;
(3) The digital home, complete with on-demand gaming and "do-it-yourself-everything"
(4) The "virtual" enterprise, in which "everybody stays connected and works from anywhere"
Tags: future prediction technology
[image: Network World]
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How to survive a robot uprising in South Korea
South Korea, already having established itself as "the world's most wired country," is also turning into a powerhouse when it comes to robotics. According to the New York Times, South Korea is leading the way when it comes to networked robots for the home:
"South Korea... is rushing to turn what sounds like science fiction into everyday life. The government, which succeeded in getting broadband Internet into 72 percent of all households in the last half decade, has marshaled an army of scientists and business leaders to make robots full members of society.
By 2007, networked robots that, say, relay messages to parents, teach children English and sing and dance for them when they are bored, are scheduled to enter mass production. Outside the home, they are expected to guide customers at post offices or patrol public areas, searching for intruders and transmitting images to monitoring centers.
If all goes according to plan, robots will be in every South Korean household between 2015 and 2020. That is the prediction, at least, of the Ministry of Information and Communication, which has grouped more than 30 companies, as well as 1,000 scientists from universities and research institutes, under its wing."
That's already a fairly aggressive target, but some South Korean high-tech leaders are pushing for a robot in every home by the year 2010. It may not be entirely out of the question - South Korea was the first nation in the world to offer high-speed Internet access in every primary, junior and high school, and the government has moved quickly to make the country a global high-tech leader. As the New York Times points out, "South Koreans use futuristic technologies that are years away in the United States; companies like Microsoft and Motorola test products here before introducing them in the United States..."
Here's a prediction: Daniel Wilson's How To Survive a Robot Uprising will be translated into Korean and become a runaway bestseller within the next few years...
Tags: robot SouthKorea innovation
[image: New York Times]
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April 10, 2006
Key ideas and concepts from IBM's Global Innovation Outlook 2.0, part I
In this year's Global Innovation Outlook (available as a PDF here), IBM offers a great overview of the key ideas and concepts that will be influencing the debate over innovation during the next 12 months. As IBM points out, future innovation will be global, collaborative and multidisciplinary in nature. That's just a start, though, since each of these broad category classifications leads to new ideas about the very nature of business itself. Below, I've included a quick look at some of the buzzwords and concepts that caught my attention when I did a quick read-through of IBM's innovation report:
(1) The power of networks
(2) Social innovation
(3) Reputation capital
(4) Flipping the equation
(5) Line of sight
(6) Enterprise-free
(7) Innovation that matters
(8) 21st century guilds
(9) Connective tissue for collaboration
(10) Flexible contextual learning models
(11) Innovation as a mindset, not a department
(12) Sensing hubs
(13) Complexity tipping point
(14) The reverse supply network
(15) Extended product responsibility
(16) Micropower solutions
All in all, IBM's Global Innovation Outlook 2.0 report offers extensive insights into a number of different industries. In fact, if you could bundle up all the observations in Chapter Two of the report ("Transportation") and transform them into a working business strategy, I know of a few auto industry executives in Detroit who would be ready and willing to speak with you...
Tags: IBM global innovation GIO
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