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April 21, 2006
Sesame Street is sticky
I came across this classic Sesame Street video, in which two yip-yips attempt to figure out a computer, while tracking down some data on the Computing Research Policy blog. As much as I tried to avoid it, I found myself strangely fixated by the video. Why was that? (Yeah, it's Friday, so that might have something to do with it...) Then I remembered a chapter from Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, where he explained the origins of the innovative programming for the Sesame Street TV show.
In an essay called The Birth of Big Bird, Malcolm Gladwell explains why the children's show Sesame Street was so phenomenally successful: "Sesame Street started epidemics of learning among pre-schoolers by creating "sticky" programming -- programming engineered in such a way that children were able to remember and understand what they saw on the screen..."
So what made the show so "sticky"? Even the Harvard psychologists called in as advisers were a bit surprised at what they found:
When the show was originally conceived, the decision was made that all fantasy elements of the show be separated from the real elements. This was done at the insistence of many child psychologists, who felt that to mix fantasy and reality would be misleading to children. The Muppets, then, were only seen with other Muppets, and the scenes filmed on Sesame Street itself involved only real adults and children. What Palmer found out in Philadelphia, though, was that as soon as they switched to the street scenes, the kids lost all interest. "The street was supposed to be the glue," Lesser said. "We would always come back to the street. It pulled the show together. But it was just adults doing things and talking about stuff and the kids weren't interested. We were getting incredibly low attention levels. The kids were leaving the show. Levels would pop back up if the Muppets came back, but we couldn't afford to keep losing them like that." Lesser calls Palmer's results a "turning point in the history of Sesame Street. We knew that if we kept the street that way, the show was going to die. Everything was happening so fast. We had the testing in the summer, and we were going on the air in the fall. We had to figure out what to do."
Lesser decided to defy the opinion of his scientific advisers. "We decided to write a letter to all the other developmental psychologists and say, we know how you guys think about mixing fantasy and reality. But we're going to do it anyway. If we don't, we'll be dead in the water." So the producers went back and re-shot all of the street scenes. Jim Henson and his coworkers created puppets who could walk and talk with the adults of the show and could live along side them on the street. "That's when Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch and Snuffalupagos were born," said Palmer. What we now think of as the essence of Sesame Street--the artful blend of fluffy monsters and earnest adults--grew out of a desperate desire to be sticky."
Tags: SesameStreet MalcolmGladwell tippingpoint sticky
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The Director's Commentary for design thinkers
On his Metacool blog, Stanford design professor Diego Rodriguez has been expanding on the concept of the "director's commentary" for design thinkers. As Diego points out, one of the most popular special features of any DVD is the commentary track from the director, who provides a running narrative of how and why a particular scene was shot. Now, this type of "director's commentary" is making its way into the world of design, as designers explain how and why they included a special feature.
Recently, Diego has posted about "director's commentary" from Bob Lutz on the Saturn Sky, as well as commentary from a designer of Jaeger-LeCoultre watches. Diego elaborates on this concept in greater detail in a post called The Director's Commentary:
I really enjoy listening to the director's commentary track on a movie DVD. How else could I confirm my suspicion that the closing credits of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou are an homage to the way the credits were presented in Buckaroo Banzai? What excites me about the director's commentary is the idea of future filmakers learning their craft not just at film school or via personal experimentation, but with the digital equivalent of an oral storytelling tradition.
Wouldn't it be great if, in a similar fashion, we could hear and see great designers talking about their craft? When I was a practicing engineer designing tangible things, there were tens, even hundreds of details embedded in my designs which I knew about, maybe the rest of my team knew about, but which were essentially invisible to the world at large. Which is fine; it isn't the job of end users to be thinking about the kinds of details and decisions that interest a professional design thinker. But for students in training, and for other professionals, what better way to truly appreciate the enormity of the task of design than to take a walkthrough around a real design with another real, living designer?
One of the best examples of the director's commentary in the real world of design, according to Diego, is one involving the Honda Ridgeline:
"Unique among pickups in that it was designed using a human-centric design process, the Ridgeline is an incredible piece of design and engineering. Sure, the aesthetics are a bit jolie-laide, but they're the result of Honda designers thinking and acting much like designers from the Citroen of old, always pushing limits technical and aesthetic -- to the limit... It's really, really cool, and that coolness is the sum total of thousands of clever, human-centric design decisions, most of them invisible.
How do I know? Thanks to a director's commentary. Here are some "director's commentary" videos with Gary Flint, the leader of the Ridgeline design team, walking us around the final offering. Even if you don't find cars exciting, take a listen to the first, upper left video -- you'll be amazed by the attention to detail and deep thinking that went into the design of the cargo area. Amazing."
Tags: directorscommentary design Ridgeline
[images: Gary Flint and the Honda Ridgeline]
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How to make money from the New Net Boom
According to the current issue of FORTUNE magazine, it's still possible to hitch your wagon to the latest Internet boom by investing in the tech stocks that stand to capitalize the most from the Web 2.0 craze. Innovative companies like Yahoo, Navteq, Akamai, Adobe and Cisco are all attractively valued prospects that would seem to benefit the most from important Internet trends. In terms of the buzz and hype surrounding Web 2.0, it all feels a bit like the year 1999, writes Adam Lashinsky. This time around, however, companies are sporting real profits and more reasonable valuations:
"Brace yourself--it's time to say hello to the new Net boom. And believe it or not, it's a boom you'll very likely want to invest in--even if you think (as we do) that Google at $400 a share is too scary to consider. The Internet, as you well know, didn't vanish along with all those dubious dot-coms. While shell-shocked investors were licking their wounds (or trying to make back all their money by flipping condos), folks in the Internet industry kept right on dreaming up new ways to use the revolutionary technology that created the fuss in the first place.
You don't need us to tell you that today the Net is fulfilling many of the visions its wild-eyed prophets were preaching about just a few years ago. All the impossibly cool applications that seemed so elusive in the late 1990s--Internet phone calls, (legal) downloadable music and movies, high-speed web access on cellphones, online bill paying--are a taken-for-granted part of daily life.
Young people talk about themselves and their favorite rock bands at MySpace. College students get the 411 on this weekend's party at Facebook. Moms post their family photos at Flickr. Dilberts waste their companies' time watching homebrewed videos on YouTube.
And even some infamous icons of the '90s are back. Says Henry Blodget, the now-banned Wall Street analyst who now, like just about everyone else these days, is a blogger: "The trends that people got excited about when Netscape went public in 1995 are very much in place and will be for 20 to 25 years."
That being said, writes Lashinsky, it's still important to be able to recognize what's hype and what's not:
"You still have to follow the basic rules of sound investing. Don't buy a "story" stock if you don't understand the story. Don't invest just because you heard a pick on TV--or, dare we say, read it in a magazine. Look for profits, sound financials, and reasonable prospects for growth. Pay attention to valuation. Make sure you know the bear case--the arguments against buying the stock. And most important of all, devote only a small portion of the cash you're investing to a hot area like Internet stocks."
Tags: Internet Web2.0 innovation
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Innovative wash-and-go suits not a big hit in the corporate boardroom
The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article ("Suitable Attire?") yesterday about the difficulty of getting men to embrace new wash-and-go suits. The new suits from innovative suitmaker Bagir Ltd. will retail for less than $180, and, according to the Wall Street Journal, will be the first suits ever that can be washed, machine dried and worn without ironing. With all that ease and convenience (no dry cleaners!), wouldn't men (and the women who love them) be rushing out to buy these suits? Well, no. The response to this sartorial innovation has been less than overwhelming, to say the least, especially among executives and young professionals who can't imagine washing a suit in a machine without having it look a bit rumpled afterwards:
"And therein lies the problem plaguing the wool/polyester/lycra suit like a stubborn wrinkle. The suit maker, Bagir, and its retailers, Marks & Spencer in Britain and J.C. Penney in America, are fighting powerful forces of anthropology and sociology with mere chemistry and marketing. Men, long accustomed to armoring themselves in creased-and-pressed formality as a sign of their status and aspirations, would have to risk not looking just so in professional situations."
One fashion historian quoted for the article (a woman) even goes so far as to remark that, "Suits aren't meant to be convenient. If you wear a suit, you are joining the company of respectable people... What men fear the most is something that makes them look like a fool."
There has to be an innovation lesson in there somewhere. Your company may have the niftiest innovation in a hot consumer sector, but is there really pent up consumer demand for that innovation? Anyway, it's worth checking out the website for Bagir, an up-and-coming company from Israel that bills itself as "innovating traditional tailored suits."
Tags: suit Bagir fashion innovator
[image: Bagir]
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Hey, who moved my Blackberry?
Nearly eight years after the publication of the #1 international business bestseller Who Moved My Cheese?, Financial Times columnist Lucy Kellaway has written a business satire, Who Moved My Blackberry?, that skewers managerial stereotypes and offers a light-hearted look at the efforts of one British manager to keep up with the mind-numbing array of new business fads. In the U.K., the book has already become a bestseller, thanks to reader familiarity with Lucy Kellaway's FT column.
It remains to be seen whether the book will attain U.S. crossover success, but it was recently reviewed by FORTUNE magazine. According to Amazon.com reviewer Simon Withers of Australia, the book could be an interesting weekend read for anyone that appreciates a satirical look at the world of business:
"Lucy's creation, Martin Lukes, is well known to readers of the Financial Times. He's an arrogant, selfish, self-obsessed, insecure and ambitious marketing director in the London office of a fictitious Fortune 500 company. By publishing a collection of his emails each week, she allows us to follow his rollercoaster career and personal life, and his adoption of every corporate and marketing fad that comes along.
Martin Lukes compensates for his limited intelligence and talent with unbounded ambition. His relentless clawing up the corporate pole and poor judgement often lead to disaster, but somehow he survives and moves forward.
We all know at least one Martin Lukes. That is why the column has proved to be both compelling and amusing. Lucy Kellaway, through Martin, also introduces us to a collection of recognisable corporate and domestic characters, and fires round after round into the mumbo-jumbo that passes for strategy and public relations in some companies. I mainly cringed, often smiled and sometimes laughed out loud while reading her book."
Tags: WhoMovedMyBlackberry LucyKellaway
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April 20, 2006
Seattle, the universe, and everything
No one will know for sure exactly what Microsoft's Bill Gates and China's Hu Jintao discussed at their mini-summit in Seattle. (Conspiracy fans, no doubt, will be cheered to know that Henry Kissinger was among the 100 guests who managed to wrangle an invitation to the event.) There is one thing that we do know for sure, though: the Chinese love Starbucks coffee. According to Indian Express, Hu Jintao made sure to give a big shout-out to Starbucks, which opened its first China store in 1999:
"Speaking to business executives, politicians and other dignitaries during a dinner on Tuesday at the home of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Hu expressed his desire to be a regular at the ubiquitous coffee-store chain. "Starbucks coffee shops have mushroomed in China’s cities,’’ said the Chinese leader through a translator. ‘‘If I were not serving in this office, I would certainly prefer to go into one of the coffee shops run by Starbucks,’’ said the usually reserved Hu, drawing laughter from the crowd."
Anyway, for more of what went down in Seattle, check out the photos of the historic meeting between Bill Gates and Hu Jintao via CNET News.com. Against this backdrop, the Wall Street Journal has been cranking out negative op-ed pieces daily about China and Hu Jintao, such as this one that makes Hu Jintao sound like a strategic manipulator along the lines of Sun-Tzu and another one yesterday that links China to North Korean repressions. Oh, and check out this harsh op-ed piece that also appeared yesterday on the pages of the Wall Street Journal called Peking Lame Duck.
Tags: BillGates HuJintao Seattle Starbucks
[image: CNET]
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Guy Kawasaki's favorite books on innovation
Every now and then, it's interesting to see which books have influenced the world's foremost innovators. On his blog, Guy Kawasaki (who recently made it onto the Technorati Top 100) has posted a list of his 10 favorite books of all time, including a few classic works on the topic of innovation:
(1) The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
Guy: "This was a formative read for me: it taught me why it's so hard to come up with a second hit and why startups often have the advantage when creating curve-jumping innovation."
(2) Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore
Guy: "I learned the hard way about chasms while working for Apple. The early adopters are easy--“main street” is hard. Entrepreneurs should read this book when they are cranking out their “conservative” sales projections."
(3) Inevitable Illusions: How Mistakes of Reason Rule Our Minds by Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini
(4) Uncommon Genius: How Great Ideas are Born by Denise Shekerjian
Guy: "A lovely book that gets into the minds of the ”genius“ award winners of the MacArthur Foundation. There's a lot to learn about ”mastery“ from these award winners and much of it can be applied to business."
(5) Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation by James M. Utterback
Guy: "This book opened my eyes with evidence and findings about innovation."
Interestingly enough, Guy's all-time favorite book has nothing whatsoever to do with business or innovation. The book by Brenda Ueland is called If You Want to Write: A Book About Art, Independence, and Spirit. It might also be worth checking out some of the books that Guy has authored, including The Art of the Start and Rules for Revolutionaries.
Tags: innovation GuyKawasaki
[image: Guy Kawasaki and Dave Sifry of Technorati]
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The future of the pharmaceutical industry
As part of the podcast series from Knowledge @ Wharton, former Merck CEO Roy Vagelos discusses the future of the pharmaceutical industry. Roy spent two decades at Merck, including 10 years as CEO. Since his retirement from Merck in 1994, he has stayed active in the pharmaceutical industry, focusing particularly on issues surrounding R&D. He is also the chairman of the board of two small drug companies, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Theravance, and the author of a book on Medicine, Science, and Merck. During the twenty-minute podcast, Vagelos analyzes the pace and scope of R&D in the pharmaceutical industry; the impact of outsourcing; the future of biotech alliances; and the next big drug breakthroughs.
Tags: Merck pharmaceutical RoyVagelos innovation
[image: Knowledge @ Wharton]
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Innovation is the "yin" to globalization's "yang"
Frank Gens of IDC has written a great summary of the debate over innovation that recently took place at IBM's Business Leadership Forum in Rome. In his blog post, Frank addresses two "nagging" questions about innovation, including one that was on the mind of nearly every business executive at the IBM event: "Is innovation really as big a deal as IBM (and many other IT vendors) are making of it, or is it just the latest empty buzzword, destined to fade away in 18-24 months?"
The answer, not surprisingly, is that innovation really is a big deal, thanks primarily to the forces of globalization. Frank explains why:
"Why is the subject of innovation so important to business leaders? The most obvious and powerful reason is globalization. There is a direct linkage between the pressures of globalization and the urgent need for innovation, and this was right on display throughout the IBM event: from author Tom Friedman’s comments about the "flattening world", right through to former EC Commissioner Mario Monti’s comments about the urgent need for structural reform in the Eurozone’s three largest countries...
Our research and others’ (including IBM’s recent CEO survey) show that innovation is seen by CEOs as a critical countermeasure to the growing pressures of globalization. At IDC, we think of innovation as the "yin" to the "yang" of globalization: they have a strong positive-feedback relationship, with globalization fueling the need to innovate, and innovative companies being able to create value by leveraging globalization. As I said at IDC Directions: "Innovation is moving up the CEO’s agenda, and it will stay there as long as globalization is an issue - which will be for quite a while to come."
Tags: innovation globalization yinyang
[Image: The Yin Yang Building]
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April 19, 2006
April 19 innovation linkage, A.M. edition
Innovation with Google's Eric Schmidt and Verizon's Ivan Seidenbeg [Google Video]
Has futurism failed? [The Wilson Quarterly]
Smart City 2020 [MetropolisMag.com]
Managing multi-generational workforces [Harvard Business School]
The Internet of Things, from a woman's perspective [Purse Lip Square Jaw]
How to de-commoditize your products [Ed Byrne]
Inspiring Creativity at Ferrari [Brent Edwards]
A sneak peek at the new Yahoo! homepage [TechCrunch]
[image: C'ALL Future Phone via Gizmodo]
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Leo Melamed: a pioneer in financial innovation
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has taken out a half-page advertorial in the current issue of Barron's to celebrate its heritage of innovation. In the process, it looks like the Chicago Merc has come up with a brand new innovation-inspired tagline:
"CME, once the house that pork bellies built, is today the house that innovation built."
Anyway, the Chicago Merc is recognizing the lifetime achievements of Leo Melamed, the chairman emeritus of the CME and the winner of this year's Fred Arditti Innovation Award. In financial circles, he's known as the "father of financial futures" for being one of the true groundbreaking pioneers in introducing new financial instruments:
"As a leading light in helping to create innovative, globally significant financial concepts-turned-real that many said could never make it off the back of a napkin, Melamed shines. In 1986, the late Nobel economist Merton Miller called the launch of financial futures "the most significant financial innovation of the last 20 years."
Groundbreaking thinking that today has made effective, efficient global risk management through the use of futures products is that for which Leo Melamed is being honored as this year's recipient of the CME Fred Arditti Innovation Award presented by the CME Center for Innovation. Established in 2003, the Center identifies, showcases and fosters examples of significant innovation and creative thinking. The award annually honors an individual or group whose innovative ideas, products or services have created significant change to markets, commerce and trade."
Tags: LeoMelamed finance innovation
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User-Centered Design moves to the forefront
Mark Vanderbeeken of the Putting People First blog points to the new User Centered Design Works website, which is managed by the IOP MMI (Innovation-Oriented Program in Man-Machine Interaction), an organization funded by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. According to the UCD website, the user-centered design philosophy is all about putting the end user at the center of the design process:
"In broad terms, user-centered design (UCD) is a design philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of the end user of an interface or document are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process. User-centered design can be characterized as a multi-stage problem solving process that not only requires designers to analyze and foresee how users are likely to use an interface, but to test the validity of their assumptions with regards to user behaviour in real world tests with actual users. Such testing is necessary as it is often very difficult for the designers of an interface to understand intuitively what a first-time user of their design experiences, and what each user's learning curve may look like.
The chief difference from other interface design philosophies is that user-centered design tries to bend and structure the functioning of a user interface around how people can, want or need to work, rather than the opposite way around."
The UCD Website intents to promote user centered design by providing real-world case studies and explanations of basic principles that can be used as part of a user-centered design methodology. For example, check out these user-centered design principles from IBM.
ASIDE: The Putting People First blog has moved to a new URL, so if the links above don't work, try this page.
Tags: design user innovation
[image: MikeK's photostream on Flickr]
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Outside innovation: the pace of customer creativity heats up
As Patty Seybold puts the finishing touches on the first draft of the manuscript for her new book (Outside Innovation), she shares a few insights that she's gleaned during the writing (and blogging) process. At least three key findings about "outside innovation" stand out:
(1) Big Momentum around Customer Communities;
(2) Huge Amount of Customer Creativity and Improvisation; and
(3) Enlightened Attitudes towards Intellectual Property.
According to Patty, the pace and scope of customer creativity is especially worth noting:
"It's mind boggling how much customer creativity is visible online these days. From the billion-plus photos on Flickr and the crazy videos on YouTube, to the podcasts and music mixes, to the anime videos, to the tens of thousands of mash ups, to the hundreds of thousands of blogs—the list goes on and on. There seems to be a huge pent-up amount of end-user talent, creativity, and know-how that is suddenly visible. People want to express themselves, to show off their expertise, to roll their own, and to share it with others. This behavior seems to cross age boundaries and to be happening in business as well as consumer activities."
Tags: outsideinnovation innovation creativity
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April 18, 2006
The "architect CEO"
In Monday's Wall Street Journal (sorry, no link available), Carol Hymowitz described the rise of the "architect CEO." According to Carol, CEOs like Mark Hurd of Hewlett-Packard, Gary Pruitt of newspaper chain McClatchy and Juan Carlos Dalto of Dannon represent the new breed of "architect CEO":
"It's the age of architect CEOs, who have to determine whether to gut, scale down, expand or build new wings for their companies. "This is an era where CEOs have to be hands on, deeply engaged and knowledgeable about operations, says Mr. Pruitt.
CEO styles, of course, go in and out of fashion. In the 1990s, celebrity CEOS who loved the limelight, including former GE CEO Jack Welch and former AMR chief Robert Crandall, were in vogue. Then came the dot-com crash and a slew of accounting scandals, which sent the CEOs who managed to keep their jobs ducking for cover..."
So what do you think - is this the golden era of the "architect CEO"? Certainly, it's the golden era of the celebrity architect - think of Frank Gehry, Cesar Pelli and Santiago Calatrava, for example. After the phenomenal success of the Bilbao Guggenheim, it seems like every city wants a Bilbao-esque architectural wonder to draw in visitors. Internet mogul Barry Diller is even building himself a Frank Gehry landmark building on Manhattan's West Side, so there's a certain cachet in having a world-class architect design your corporate HQ.
Consider, too, that the Simpsons dedicated an episode last year to architect Frank Gehry. After watching the Simpsons episode, John King of the San Francisco Chronicle reflected that, "architects have finally made inroads where it counts -- American pop culture... The notion of architects as celebrities has taken hold in American society..."
So maybe the era of the "architect CEO" is finally here. The notion of the "architect CEO" is closely linked to the notion of the "celebrity CEO," but with more of an emphasis on cool design. Companies want leaders with mega-watt star power who can design a distinctive company from scratch, much as cities want celebrity architects who can design impressive buildings to woo the tourists and put themselves on the map. After all, whoever heard of Bilbao before Frank Gehry?
[image: Frank Gehry on the Simpsons]
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April 17 innovation linkage, A.M. edition
Beware of grand visions and foresight in business [Financial Times]
Insights from the IBM Global CEO Study [Irving Wladawsky-Berger]
Is solar power really a disruptive technology? [Clayton Christensen]
Innovation for emerging markets [Accelerating Innovation]
Is there a risk of being copied? [Paul Graham]
Innovation lessons from a videogame developer [Slashdot]
Massive Planned Communities [Idea Sandbox blog]
Japanese robots in space [We-Make-Money-Not-Art]
The Firefox Bus [Kalyan Varma]
[image: Malcolm Gladwell at PopTech!]
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William Safire and the neuroscience of genius
Whatever happened to William Safire, the long-time syndicated columnist for the New York Times? In 2005, he ended his regular New York Times op-ed column to dedicate himself full-time to being the chairman of the Dana Foundation, a private philanthropic organization with a deep interest in brain research. On the Website of the Dana Foundation, there's a link to the Brain Center ("a gateway to brain information and resources") as well as a link to a fascinating book called The Creating Brain: the Neuroscience of Genius:
"The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius by Nancy Andreasen analyzes first-hand accounts from some of the most accomplished artist and scientists in history—from Tchaikovsky to Neil Simon— in which they describe the creative process. Andreasen looks at creativity through many lenses, the brain, one's genes, and one's environment. She asks if "creative" brains are different than "non-creative" brains. Andreasen argues that tapping into our creative potential may be more possible than we think. At the end of the book are exercises for children and adults all designed to cultivate creativity."
Anyway, the book has already picked up rave reviews from the likes of Kurt Vonnegut and might be worth a read for anyone interested in creativity and innovation. Here's a review from Publisher's Weekly (via Amazon.com):
"How does one define extraordinary creativity? Is creative genius a product of nature or nurture? And can those of us who are less creative enhance the creative capacity in ourselves and others? Andreasen (The Broken Brain), editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Psychiatric Association, brings neuroscience to bear in providing insight and expert analysis of the connections between extraordinary creativity, mental illness, intelligence and the social environment.
The complex subject matter is punctuated with intriguing research, such as Andreasen's Iowa Writer's Workshop study examining the relationship between creativity and psychopathology; a study of London taxi drivers showing that their need for extensive memory of the city leads to a larger hippocampus; and a study of members of symphony orchestras that found increased gray matter in Broca's area. These studies lead Andreasen to conclude that "extraordinary creativity" is the result of neural processes that "differ qualitatively as well as quantitatively" from those of other people.
The author's passion and admiration for creative genius and the arts—not surprising given her Ph.D. in Renaissance English literature—is evidenced in her exploration of such great minds as Mozart, da Vinci, Michelangelo and Tchaikovsky. And quotations from introspective accounts by mathematician Henri Poincaré, chemist Friedrich Kekulé, Stephen Spender and Neil Simon vividly describe mental activities that are anything but ordinary. Andreasen leaves us with hope that the potential exists to enhance the creative capacity in our children and in ourselves."
Tags: WilliamSafire genius creativity Dana
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What are Microsoft's and Boeing's plans for China?
It seems that almost every major U.S. corporation is scrambling to come up with a "China strategy." After all, who wouldn't want increased access to the world's largest untapped market? Yet, on his visit to America this week, Chinese President Hu Jintao has arranged private, high-level meetings with only two companies: Microsoft and Boeing. (According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, a few executives from Starbucks will also meet-and-greet with Mr. Hu Jintao in Seattle) As ABC News points out, Microsoft and Boeing "embody both the difficulties and the opportunities" for U.S. companies in China:
"Microsoft Corp. believes that, after more than a decade of efforts, it is on the cusp of a breakthrough in China's vast potential market, where it has traditionally been hindered by widespread software piracy.
But even as Microsoft is winning Chinese government backing to crack down on piracy, the software maker and its competitors have come under fire for aiding government censorship efforts as they try to break into China's lucrative online market. [...]
Meanwhile, Boeing Co. has won pledges for big airplane orders that could help boost diplomacy efforts, although some say the company's potential there is limited by strict regulation of Chinese airlines. "Everyone wants the market to deregulate, but it's happening slower than expected," said Richard Aboulafia, analyst with the Teal Group.
The nation's largest exporter also is seeing stiffer competition in China from rival Airbus SAS, raising concerns in part because so much business is at stake. Boeing believes China will require 2,600 new airplanes over the next 20 years."
For an idea of what to expect from the meeting with Bill Gates and Microsoft, check out this interview that China's Xinhua did with Microsoft Vice President Pamela S. Passman on the eve of Mr. Jintao's visit to the U.S. The BBC also has prepared a general Q&A about the historic visit to the USA.
Tags: HuJintao China Seattle Microsoft Boeing
[image: Reuters]
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April 17, 2006
Lessons about globalization and culture from Starbucks
Over the weekend, Yahoo! News (via the AP) ran a brief profile of Bryant Simon, a Philadelphia-based historian, who is "searching for the meaning of modern life amid the round tables and comfy sofas of Starbucks coffee shops." He's already been to over 300 Starbucks stores in six different countries and plans to release a book on Starbucks, globalization and culture ("Consuming Starbucks") sometime in 2008. According to the article, he spends close to 12 hours a week in Starbucks stores, giving him a unique insight into the lifestyles of "hurried office workers" and "solitary laptop users." So what has he already found out about the increasingly globalized "21st century cafe culture"?
Starbucks and other coffee houses, he believes, fill "some kind of deep desire for connection with other people." But unlike the coffee houses of 18th century London or the bohemian java dens of 1950s New York, "Starbucks makes sure you can be alone when you're out if you really need to be," he said. "You get the feeling you're out in public, but you don't need to talk to anyone. [...]"
Simon believes Starbucks succeeds by "selling comfort" in an anonymous, often dislocating world. He says he has lost track of the number of times people have told him that when they traveled to a strange country, "the first thing I did when I got off the plane was go to Starbucks." "There's a deep sense of unpredictability in the modern world, and what Starbucks provides a lot of people is predictability," he said.
Tags: Starbucks trends globalization
[image: AP]
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CNN's "Welcome to the Future" program
Last month, CNN assembled a number of futurists and cutting-edge innovators to create a special TV feature called Welcome to the Future, which looked at "what the future might bring in the areas of technology, health, entertainment and more." The show originally aired on March 25. For those of you who missed it, there are a lot of cool highlight clips from the show up on the CNN site, including short video clips called "Beam Me to My Meeting" and "Speak Any Language Instantly."
Douglas Rushkoff, an important contributor to the FORTUNE Business Innovation Insider blog last year, was one of the thought leaders who participated in the CNN program. On his blog, Doug shares the back story of making one segment for Welcome to the Future:
"I just spent three hours recording a special for CNN called Welcome to the Future, along with Jeff Greenfield, Ray Kurzweil, Mirka De Arellano, and the spectabulous (yes, she deserves her own adjective) Margaret Cho... It was a strange and long journey into various utopian and dystopian high-tech scenarios concerning everything from nano-bots implanted in two-year-olds so they can compete for places at increasingly selective nursery schools to why we never got to ride go carts on Mars even though Lost in Space was set in 1997.
I found Kurzweil brilliant but a little creepy. I'm usually on the gung-ho pro-technology side of discussions, so it was fun to be voicing some of the more cautionary concerns for a change. Of course, I've never really been pro-tech or anti-tech - just pro "life" (in the living things sense) and pro consciousness. While Mirka would argue against, say, genetic selection techniques on religious grounds (we should raise the children as God gave them to us), I was in the interesting position of suggesting how a balance could be struck between human agency and new technology. Do we *want* to choose our child's talents? If so, what does that say about why we want to have a child in the first place? Is it to have the opportunity to care for another human being, or simply to extend our own obsessions to another generation?
It all came down to "human nature" for Jeff Greenfield; you know, the idea that we can develop all sorts of technologies but human nature will stay the same, and use them for the same good and bad reasons. And that's when, for me, it became about the opposite: yes, human beings may have their biases, but so do the technologies we develop and implement. And we don't always know those biases when we set out to invent this stuff in the first place...
Was there a take home from all this? Sure. I think we're moving into an era when we will define ourselves more by the technologies we refuse than the ones we accept.
Posted by dominic at 8:09 AM | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack
What's inside box numbers two and three?
On his blog, Dartmouth business school professor Vijay Govindarajan ("VG") has outlined the details of his three box thinking model, which has become a powerful framework for enabling senior executives to think strategically. In addition, this three-box model can help to align the goals of employees through a common strategic language. VG explains that most actions companies take can be grouped into one of three different boxes:
Box 1 -- Manage the present;
Box 2 -- Selectively abandon the past; and
Box 3 -- Create the future.
Most companies are trapped inside Box 1, but it is within Box 2 and Box 3 that companies can tap into real innovation:
"Box 1 is about improving current businesses. Box 2 and Box 3 are about breakout performance and growth. Many organizations restrict their strategic thinking to Box 1. This tendency has been particularly acute in the past two to three years, as most leaders have emphasized reducing costs and improving margins in their current businesses.
But strategy cannot be just about what an organization needs to do to secure profits for the next year. Strategy must encompass Box 2 and Box 3. It must be about what a company needs to do to sustain leadership for the next ten years. In fact, the central task of an organization’s leaders is to balance managing the present with creating the future. Examples of successful Box 2 and Box 3 initiatives include: Dell’s direct model in the PC industry, Wal-Mart’s transformation of the discount retailing industry, Apple’s introduction of iPod, and Southwest Airlines’ revolution in the airline industry.
Anyway, if you're interested in learning more about the three box thinking model, check out the videoclips of Vijay Govindarajan in action, as he explains the Box 1-2-3 Framework. Or, you can download a five-page PDF describing this framework.
Tags: VijayGovindarajan Dartmouth VG strategy innovation
Posted by dominic at 6:16 AM | Comments (3) |