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May 26, 2006

Good design can make the everyday a little better

As a way to showcase its products during the International Contemporary Furniture Fair event taking place in New York earlier in the week, Ikea set up a show called "Everyday Fabulous" across the street from the Javits Center, transforming an empty building into an innovative model home complete with inexpensive items from the IKEA permanent collection. The idea, of course, was to emphasize the affordability and attractiveness of Ikea's Scandinavian-influenced designs.

To highlight how design can make everyday life fun, IKEA also placed its furniture and other home furnishings around the city in audacious places, like a corner bus stop and the subway. This IKEA press release outlines the company's attempt to give New York City a "mini-makeover":

"IKEA is making everyday life a little better for lots of people, from kids to dogs, with furniture and accessories that are springing up in unexpected (but useful!) places all over the Big Apple. The mini makeovers are magically appearing daily in New York City in conjunction with Design Week (May 19 - 23), which draws thousands of design professionals and aficionados from across the country... Mini makeovers have already started around the city including pens housed nicely in cool containers at bank ATMs, pillows providing a safe and soft landing for children on playground slides, furnished bus shelters offering weary commuters a comfortable and stylish waiting area (not to mention a Zen moment in the midst of rush hour)."

William Hamilton of The New York Times provides additional coverage of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. In a piece called The Practical Side of Style, he argues that companies like Target and IKEA have fundamentally changed the nature of design, forcing other designers to come up with stylish goods that are also affordable:

Certainly the fair did not offer the brave future of furnishings once promised by events like this. There was a surfeit of perfectly acceptable, reasonably affordable, stylish if not stimulating goods on the floor — wares that seemed to please both the exhibitors (nearly 600 from 31 countries) and the more than 23,000 visitors.

Aside from a few idiosyncratic pieces — sofas that seat up to 20 people, inflatable rec rooms, foam carpets that change color when exposed to heat — what was notable was a new pragmatism among young designers more interested in finding a way to prosper in an increasingly competitive design market than in making a statement. Talk of reinventing life at home, a subject designers used to yammer your ears off about, has been replaced by conversations about how to find buyers for a $5,000 chair, or a manufacturer for a $50 lamp.

A piece that held pride of place at the fair, the 50-year-old rosewood lounge chair by Charles and Ray Eames (several versions of which marked the anniversary in a display at the Herman Miller booth) pointed up, in its iconic status, how significant this change in the contemporary furniture market has been. In 1956, when the Eameses designed their chair, it stood out easily from the mass of traditional pieces from which it was making a clean, clear break... But if a latter-day equivalent were introduced today, it might go unnoticed in the teeming contemporary furniture market that comprises West Elm, Ikea, Todd Oldham for La-Z-Boy, Thomas O'Brien for Target, and companies like Kartell, which show in Milan as well as in New York."

Anyway, here's a link to about 20 photos from the IKEA Everyday Fabulous event.

Tags: IKEA design innovation

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The front end of innovation

Earlier in the week, the 4th annual Front End of Innovation event took place in Boston, with over 700 people attending. The official Front End of Innovation blog has details on the event, as well as links to blog coverage of the event. For example, Joyce Wycoff of the Heads-Up! on Organizational Innovation blog has extensive commentary and details of several presentations from the event, including the opening speech by Tom Kelley of IDEO; a session on design thinking led by Claudia Kotchka (Procter & Gamble); a speech by Renee Mauborgne, co-author of Blue Ocean Strategy, who outlined some innovative ways that companies can create value by moving from red oceans to blue oceans; and presentations by Gary Erickson (CEO and founder of Clif Bar) and Miha Pogacnik (Cultural Ambassador for The Republic of Slovenia).

Also, Jeffrey Phillips of the Innovate on Purpose blog has provided a handful of blog updates from the conference. After Day 1 of the event, he shared a few thoughts and impressions about business innovation:

"There's a sense of anticipation in many of the attendees. I get the feeling that many of them are very interested in innovation, yet in many cases something is holding them back. Sometimes it's a lack of authority or feeling that they alone can't implement innovation. Some are in a learning process, discovering what "innovation" is all about. Some are battling a culture that is not open to new concepts and new ideas. I get the sense that some change in the market, or technology, or economy will occur and innovation in many firms will literally gush forth.

I spoke with many different firms in many different industries about innovation and the "front end". Most of them recognize a severe shortcoming in generating ideas and moving them through some defined process to a new product or service development phase. Consistently, firms and individuals will tell me they know "how" to build things, they just aren't certain "what" to build.

There's also a real lack of clarity around innovation - the definitions and meanings. When some firms talk about innovation, what they are really talking about is incremental changes to existing products. Some firms are using innovation to mean developing new products in new industries. Some consultants talk about innovation but really mean creativity and idea generation. Those things are important but aren't innovation. The author of Blue Ocean Strategy talked about Blue Oceans and Red Oceans - in other words, defining new markets that your competitors haven't defined. All of these viewpoints are valid, yet don't provide real clarity to individuals who are trying to introduce new concepts to firms more attuned to cost cutting and right sizing than idea generation and innovation."

Tags: innovation creativity frontendofinnovation

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May 25, 2006

Ireland touts its innovation potential by pointing to Bono and Apple

Ireland is rolling out a brand new innovation-themed marketing campaign to make U.S. businesses more aware of the island's creativity and innovation potential. In one print ad appearing in the Wall Street Journal, IDA Ireland is using a full-color painting of U2's Bono (from the National Gallery of Ireland) along with the following text to call attention to the nation's innovation potential:

"The Irish Mind. An abundant supply of that rare commodity you'll need to bring your business to peak performance. The Irish. Creative. Imaginative. And flexible. Agile minds with a unique capacity to initiate and innovate without being directed. Always thinking on their feet. Adapting and improving. Generating new knowledge and new ideas. Working together to find new ways of getting things done. Better and faster."

The idea, of course, is that Ireland is just brimming with creative folks like Bono. I took a quick look at the IDA Ireland site, and there's also a link to Apple Ireland, suggesting that Apple chose to base its European HQ in Ireland as a reflection of the nation's innovation potential. Not bad... Bono and Apple, working together to promote Irish innovation.

Depending on the success of this Irish innovation campaign, it's easy to see how a few other nations might jump on the idea of linking together a world-famous musician and business innovation. How about Shakira as a spokesmodel for Colombian innovation? She can re-mix her insanely popular "Hips Don't Lie" video and encourage the use of a new slogan for Colombia: "Our best minds. Now at work developing world-class business ideas, not just impossibly sophisticated money laundering schemes for the all-powerful Colombian drug cartel."

Tags: innovation Bono Ireland Shakira

[image: U2 World]

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Nike + iPod = unstoppable design mojo

Gizmodo points to a new partnership between Apple and Nike to create the iPod Sport Kit. As might be imagined, the story is rapidly making its way through the blogosphere. On Google News, a whopping 516 news sites are now carrying this story about the iPod Sport Kit:

The iPod company and the shoe company are partnering together to make your workout easier and more fun. Nike’s new footwear, the Moire, tracks information during your run such as distance, time, speed, and calories burned. The iPod Sport Kit allows you to view the workout data from your shoe in real time, not after your workout is over.

There’s even a voice that speaks the data to you so you won’t have to look at your iPod. And after the workout, upload the information to your computer to keep track of your progress. We hate running as much as we love ice cream, but this would actually make us exercise.

There are a few takeaway lessons here. The most obvious lesson, of course, is that the Apple iPod has unleashed some very powerful "design mojo" on the world. (The credit for the term "design mojo" rightfully belongs to Lee Gomes of the Wall Street Journal, who wrote a great column about Microsoft and Apple yesterday: "Above All Else, Rivals of Apple Mostly Need Some Design Mojo") Is it any coincidence that PC maker Dell has decided to open its first-ever retail store? That companies now emphasize "design" and "creativity" and "innovation" at every possible turn as they attempt to hitch their wagons to the iPod phenomenon? As the Wall Street Journal points out, "The Nike/Apple partnership brings together two companies that have become icons in their own worlds with a mix of design prowess and buzzy consumer marketing." In other words, that's some pretty unstoppable design mojo.

Tags: Nike Apple innovation design iPod

[images: Reuters + BBC News]

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Tom Peters interviews Jeffrey Pfeffer

Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford and well-known speaker on management, officially joined the Tom Peters "Cool Friends" club yesterday. Along with Robert Sutton, Jeffrey recently co-wrote Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths & Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management, a book that is rapidly picking up momentum in innovation circles. Jeffrey is also the co-author of The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge Into Action.

In an interview with Tom Peters, Jeffrey Pfeffer discussed some of the "half-truths" and "total nonsense" detailed in his latest book. He also suggested that every organization should think of itself as an "ongoing prototype" and offered his views about business innovation:

Well, first of all, [innovation] is a buzz word, which means many more organizations talked about it than did it... I think that you need to be very thoughtful about how you go into your organizational change efforts. You need to understand the risks. If, heaven forbid, you have some serious form of cancer, I'm going to give you some cancer drugs. This, I think, makes a very important point, by the way. All cancer drugs are poison. Radiation is a poison. You're going to say, "Well, it works, so should we do more of it?" If a little is good, is more better?

I think what we have completely lost in our management thinking is the idea that sometimes there's a curvilinear relationship; there's an optimum amount of innovation, of decentralization, of individual incentives. Instead of thinking, maybe a little is good and more is worse, we tend to think, if we're doing a little, we ought to do a lot. I think that's how a lot of companies have come to think about innovation.

Tags: innovation TomPeters Pfeffer

[image: Jeffrey Pfeffer]

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German engineering, Swiss innovation, American nothing

This is the billboard that precipitated a major international scandal in Johannesburg. After a firestorm of protest from bloggers, auto enthusiasts, and citizen journalists, NeanderNews reports that DaimlerChrysler South Africa is pulling the blatantly anti-American billboard and retreating with its tail between its legs. Here's the formal apology sent by DaimlerChrysler:

"The intention of the communication headline of the billboard was never to reflect negatively on the American society, but rather to refer to the vehicles features and product characteristics. Whereas most American vehicles are famous for being large in size, the reference to “American Nothing” relates to vehicle manufacturing and most cetainly not to the American society. This message is clear, considering that “German engineering” and “Swiss innovation” also refers to vehicle manufacturing with no reference intended to the societies of either these countries.

Although we appreciate the fact that all advertisements are open for interpretation by various individuals depending on their own personal opinions, we wish to state that none of the advertisements by DaimlerChrysler in promoting it’s brands are aimed to be discriminating or offending against any individual, belief, religion, colour, nationality, country or otherwise.

Having regard to the above, and without it being construed as an admission of guilt on the part of DaimlerChrysler South Africa in placing the billboard, it has been resolved to remove the billboard to avoid any further misconception and wrong perception as to the true intent of DaimlerChrysler South Africa in the promotion of the smart brand. We wish to apologise for any offence taken as a result of the misperception created by the billboard."

Oh, and check out a 50-second video clip of the billboard made by Arthur Williamson in Jo'burg. As can be seen beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt, this billboard was not Photoshopped.

Tags: innovation DaimlerChrysler

[image: NeanderNews

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U.K. manufacturers: "Innovate or Die"

At a U.K. manufacturing conference ("Unlocking the Secrets of Growth and Innovation") organized by The Manufacturing Institute, more than 450 participants discussed how they can use innovation and advanced manufacturing techniques to take on the rising BRIC economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China. The overall conference message was "Innovate or Die," as companies like Jaguar Land Rover pointed out ways that they are using innovative new manufacturing methods to boost productivity and profitability. As one R&D expert pointed out:

"It is universally accepted that extending our knowledge base is crucial and this is particularly evident in the North West where we are UK leaders in a wide number of fields, particularly pharmaceuticals, chemicals, aerospace and biotechnology. We have to be constantly innovative with our products and also in the processes we use to manufacture them if we are to maintain our competitive edge."

Tags: innovation manufacturing UK

[Image: China Manufacturing on Flickr]

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May 24, 2006

For VISA, a breakdancing worm is a symbol of corporate innovation

This breakdancing worm video on YouTube.com has already been viewed more than 51,000 times since it was uploaded on March 29. Which perhaps wouldn't be so noteworthy if it weren't for the fact that the video is actually an advertisement for VISA that was created by Patrick Smith, a New York-based animator and filmmaker. Steve Hall of Ad Rants explains:

"We all know VISA's launched a huge, new campaign with the new tagline, which we like very much, "Life Takes VISA." We all know there's tons of TV spots supporting this campaign but one, which we saw a couple nights ago, just seemed to stand out from the crowd. It's called "Worm/Recycling" and sort of makes you wonder what it is at first as it begins with line drawings of a worm breakdancing to electronica before it becomes obvious it's a commercial for the VISA check card."

For additional background on VISA's advertising campaign, I had a chance to connect with Kevin Burke, Senior Vice President of Advertising & Brand Management at Visa USA, who explained why the company was launching a new brand innovation for the first time in almost 20 years:

"Visa used to be known as a credit card company, but over the past 30 years we've gone through a real evolution. Today, we're not only offering credit cards, but debit, prepaid and commercial products. Visa is developing new payment technologies like contactless and payment by cell phone, that go beyond the traditional view of our cards. So "Life Takes Visa" is more in line with today's Visa.

As a campaign platform it's flexible enough to include all of our products and services and broad enough to extend across our marketing programs. The "Life Takes Recycling" spot is a great example. It communicates how you can make your life easier with your Visa card, but done so it reinforces our overarching message that Visa is more than about universal acceptance. The campaign brings to life the many ways Visa can actually empower consumers in expected and unexpected ways."

As noted above, the creative talent behind the breakdancing worm is Patrick Smith, a New York-based artist who is also a professor and senior thesis advisor at the Pratt Institute. In 1999, Smith made his directorial debut in the Emmy nominated MTV animated series “Downtown”. He went on to direct several seasons of the popular series “Daria”. In 2001 he started his studio, Blend Films, which primarily produces his independent shorts, but also produces multiple commercial productions. He is also a curator and jurist for multiple film festivals. Below, Patrick answers a few questions about innovation and creativity.

Q: What was the inspiration for the "breakdancing worm" - and how did you work with VISA to integrate it into the "Life Takes Visa" campaign?

Patrick Smith: It was really a product of thinking about what type of random little doodle that any regular guy would draw on the pages of his checkbook, if he has the spare time. A worm breakdancing is exactly that type of random thing that would end up as a flipbook. And if you're making your checkbook into a flipbook, you really aren't planning on doing anything else with it. That is the whole premise behind the ad—if you have a Visa card, you can pay your bills with it and you don’t need a checkbook. I worked with Visa’s ad agency to help bring that idea to life.

Q: In addition to creating the "breakdancing worm" character for Visa, you also created the "Zoloft Blob" character for Pfizer. What insights can you share about working closely with corporations on their brand campaigns and developing these types of characters?

Patrick Smith: There's something amazing about a character that comes to life and expresses emotion. I've always seen animation as a way to express emotion through an icon that lives within a space. A simple smiley face or frown face wouldn't work as well as a little “blob” character, moving about, feeling things just like we do. A worm breakdancing won't be entertaining unless we can relate with the dance moves, and begin to believe that this worm is actually performing them. When working with corporations, I find it's helpful to identify the emotion that relates to the product.

Q: Two of the big buzzwords in business today are "innovation" and "creativity." What do you think business leaders can learn from artists and other creative types?

Patrick Smith: Artists seem to appeal to what people already know and feel, and what people can relate to. For instance, if you feel really happy, there's an image out there that describes it perfectly. The image didn't create the happiness – it's just a reminder of what it feels like. So in terms of business, I would say that artists are observers. Maybe that's something business could use more of? It's tough to be creative without being observant... At Pratt, I can't say that I'm seeing much of a blend between the two worlds, which is too bad because artists can learn a lot from business. I suppose a lot of younger artists write business off as something they're not interested in, but business and art will always be intertwined.

For more on Patrick Smith and the dancing worm, check out the Q&A on Patrick's website, where it's also possible to download exclusive IM and blog icons featuring his animations from the VISA commercial.

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The art of transforming your R&D culture

If you're interested in the evolving nature of corporate R&D processes, Forrester Research has put together a series of interesting reports, including one called Transforming R&D Culture. As Navi Radjou of Forrester Research explains, the industrial-era R&D paradigm is out of sync with new business realities. As a result, the traditional R&D culture at many firms needs to be overhauled so that it becomes market-focused, collaborative, and adaptive. Only then will the R&D function be able to respond flexibly to market shifts and optimize core innovation assets:

The industrial era corporate R&D model — with its insular and unresponsive culture — is dead. To win in today's globally networked and volatile economy, firms must transform their R&D culture to drive not just technical innovations, but also business model innovations that cannot be replicated by competitors. Today's digital era firms need a flexible, market-focused, corporate R&D function anchored by partner-friendly processes that span corporate and geographic boundaries. Growth-seeking CEOs can learn from pioneers like BT, Eli Lilly, Intel, and Whirlpool about new governance structures, processes, skills, and tools that they must invest in to seed and nurture a dynamic R&D culture.

Tags: R&D Forrester innovation

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An innovative way to raise money from strangers

If you're like most people, the idea of getting a loan from a bank or other financial institution is a source of considerable discomfort - especially if your credit score is less than stellar. Getting a loan from the back of a truck (pictured) is probably not at the top of the list, either (although it is for many low-income Americans). What if you were able to raise anywhere from a few hundred bucks to a few thousand dollars from a group of individuals on the Internet? Instead of viewing you as a credit score and collection of assets, these people would view you as a person. That's the premise behind Prosper, a unique online marketplace for people-to-people lending. In just the past week, the site has been featured by the Wall Street Journal, Salon.com and Boing Boing.

According to Farhad Manjoo of Salon.com , Prosper is an innovative way of borrowing money from strangers in cyberspace. If the idea catches on, it may even free millions of Americans from credit card debt and "the usurers at the local payday loan center." If you're willing to open up your credit rating to perfect strangers and are clever enough to come up with a "down on your luck" story that tugs at the heart strings of others, this site might just be for you:

"Prosper is a marketplace brimming with woe. In this respect it is not so different from a dating site, except that on Prosper people are looking for money, which is immeasurably more useful, and often harder to come by, than love. Love will sometimes find you in the dark when you least expect it, and change your life. This almost never happens with money. If you aren't born with it, there are really only two legitimate ways to get it: You work for it, trading your time and effort, or you borrow it, putting on the line your reputation, assets and future income.

For vast numbers of Americans today, the first option simply isn't working out, and the second choice -- borrowing -- has become a way of life. The problem isn't just record debt, but also the terms. Credit cards offer rates that are fluid and unpredictable, with high fees and little sympathy for hardship. Worse still are payday loan centers, which lend out money at obscene rates -- 400 percent or more on an annual basis -- yet have become a necessary crutch for many.

Prosper bills itself as an Internet-age alternative to such creditors. The system, which has been in operation since February, is at once ingenious and faintly surreal; its premise is that strangers -- lenders and borrowers -- will come together to execute meaningful, serious and risky transactions in a self-consciously anonymous environment, not unlike the way buyers and sellers do business with each other on eBay. If they succeed, "person-to-person" lending sites like Prosper -- competitors are coming online soon -- could upend the credit industry, bringing transparency and fairness to a market not known for either. Borrowers who've been shut out of the loan market find money at reasonable interest rates, and people with money to lend get a return that can surpass that of other investments. Prosper, which manages the loan, takes a small cut of the deal. (Borrowers pay 1 percent of each loan and lenders pay .5 percent on the money owed to them.)"

While there's a lot to question about the Prosper business model (yo, like how do I get some random person halfway across the country to pay me back without calling up Tony Soprano?), people-to-people lending seems like a smart idea to a lot of very smart people. In fact, a Harvard Law School professor (an expert on bankruptcy) gave it her seal of approval: "Looking at it from 10,000 feet, this is a great idea. It could have the wonderful effect of making markets work the way they should, driving down the amounts charged for loans to the true marginal cost."

Over at the Wall Street Journal, Jane Boon Pearlstine took a hard look at the economics of the business. Over a period of several months, she methodically created a portfolio of more than 300 small loans at an average rate of 21%. After factoring in Prosper's fees and the anticipated default rates on the loans, she hopes to earn about 13% on the portfolio. Which, by the way, is probably more than you would earn in the stock market. The key, of course, is diversifying your portfolio to spread out the risk of possible default.

Tags: innovation Prosper lending loan

[image: Payday Loans Van via Flickr]

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More amazing invention machines

Earlier in the week, we pointed to an extraordinary invention machine from Stanford's John Koza capable of churning out innovative solutions to just about any problem. Apparently, there are a number of other scientists and corporations also at work on the perfect invention machine. Yesterday, Boston-based Invention Machine announced the availability of Goldfire Innovator 3.0, which it claims "dramatically improves knowledge creation capabilities to stimulate ideation and promote inventive problem-solving." Here are the details:

"The latest release of Goldfire Innovator integrates problem identification, analysis and solution-generating capabilities with a patented semantic knowledge engine and access to rich technical content. Goldfire Innovator enables companies to identify viable solutions across product and information lifecycles while leveraging relevant content from across internal and corporate knowledge bases, patent and scientific effects databases, and the internet and deep-web.

With Goldfire Innovator, companies can systematically conceive new products and processes; more rapidly accelerating the introduction of innovative products. Additionally, companies can resolve design or process problems across a product’s lifecycle to streamline production efficiencies and gain earlier visibility into resolving defects in existing products - mitigating risk and minimizing warranty costs."

Invention Machine has already developed a global client base, including companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, Renault. Samsung, Dow, NEC, Whirlpool, and Shell. In addition, Invention Machine has worked with NASA to optimize and accelerate the innovation process.

Tags: invention innovation inventionmachine

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Hewlett-Packard is learning how to flip the equation

In its Global Innovation Outlook, IBM highlighted a number of companies that are "flipping the equation" by focusing on the decomposition of products rather than the composition of products and re-thinking the traditional product lifecycle. In some cases, these companies are exploring ways to re-engineer waste products or make products from eco-friendly materials.

According to Susan Moran of the New York Times, it looks like you can add Hewlett-Packard to the list of companies that are learning how to flip the equation. Last week, Susan profiled the activities of HP's North American recycling operations:

"Hewlett-Packard's recycling operations process 1.5 million pounds of electronics a month. The materials that they sort through are richer in precious metals than ore from a mine. Hewlett collects 8 to 10 ounces of gold, silver, palladium and other precious metals per ton of "ore," compared with 6 ounces per ton in a typical extractive mine.

"We all want these valuable resources put back into the economy in some way, shape or form," she said. [HP] is at the forefront of a major behavioral shift among electronics manufacturers. Many of them are taking more financial responsibility for the recovery and recycling of the goods they make and sell. They are also creating products with fewer toxic materials, and in some cases with biomass-based materials, so that the equipment can be more easily reused, recycled or decomposed in landfills.

Companies contend that the upfront investment in greener product design and recycling can pay off down the road — by avoiding regulatory fines, averting shareholder complaints and lawsuits, and catering to the demands of customers who want to use greener products."

It's not just HP, either. The article notes that Dell, Sony, Panasonic and Apple are also flipping the equation. Moreover, Japanese companies like NEC, Unikita and NTT DoCoMo have already developed cellphones with casings from bio-based plastics.

Tags: HP flippingtheequation productlifecycle

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May 23, 2006

May 23 innovation linkage

Updates from the Front End of Innovation event [Joyce Wycoff]
The Personal MBA program [Josh Kaufman]
Introducing a full lineup of iPod Killers [MP3 Newswire]
The new 'pay-as-you-go' computer [PhysOrg.com]
Retailers gather data the same way spies do [Orlando Sentinel]
How Yahoo sees the future of the Internet [Yahoo Analyst Day]
Dell retail stores to compete with Apple retail stores [PC Pro]
Do-it-yourself Prius hackers [CNET News.com]

[image: Nobel Peace Prize field]

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Design simplicity and product innovation in New York

About a month ago, Philips unveiled its new Sense and Simplicity advertising campaign. The key idea behind the campaign is that design simplicity can lead to innovative product offerings, while at the same time, simplifying the overall user experience. At the Philips Simplicity event that recently took place at Pier 94 in New York City, the company showcased some of the more innovative product designs currently in development. In this two-minute YouTube.com video, Philips highlights a number of prototypes that define its "sense and simplicity" brand positioning, including its Air Sensor air quality device, the Chameleon ambient lighting system, and the Herbarium portable indoor greenhouse.

Anyway, there's also a Sense + Simplicity Web page full of images and brief descriptions of these prototypes. For example, there's a mirror that becomes a wall-mounted touch messenging center and something called the Look Look. If you have kids, you'll appreciate this product innovation: "Philips believes that sharing experiences should be as simple as a child saying, “Look, Look” to a parent. Its ‘Look Look’ design concept is a device that allows people, particularly children, to capture and share images spontaneously..."

Tags: Philips design simplicity innovation

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How to build a growth platform

A group of researchers at Harvard Business School and INSEAD recently looked at how executives of twenty-four successful companies achieved organic growth over time. As the researchers found out, these companies were able to create "new growth platforms" (NGPs) on which they could build families of products, services, and businesses and extend their capabilities into multiple new domains. For example, consider United Parcel Service, which expanded from a small-parcel delivery service into a variety of high-growth areas, including corporate logistics for clients. This excerpt from the Harvard Business Review outlines five important steps in building new growth platforms:

Put credible chief growth officers in charge. The head of a New Growth Platform should be a future contender for the CEO position or another uniquely qualified individual;

Believe that the team is more important than the idea;

Have NGP units that are independent and embedded;

Guarantee financial independence. Top management needs to ensure that the financing for an NGP unit is not crowded out by the core business-unit demands;

Systematize the NGP creation process. Successful NGP companies like UPS, P&G, Medtronic, and Inverness had all systematically defined the processes of NGP creation and the roles of the various participants.

Tags: growth strategy innovation

[image: Build 'Em High via Bunny Spice on Flickr]

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Using origami for innovative design

In a post called "Using origami to augment displays," Nicolas Nova of the Pasta & Vinegar blog explains how some design studios are experimenting with origami displays for consumer electronics products. For example, there's the origami cell phone and the origami DVD player, both of which have fold-out and collapsable display screens:

This is a future cell phone concept developed at Inventables. The concept was inspired by the e-paper developed by Mag-Ink and the Popout Map. The map uses origami paper folding technique to expand and collapse automatically as it is opened and closed. This concept addresses the need for larger displays on cell phones without sacrificing a small form factor.

The Origami DVD Player is a portable DVD player concept that could be manufactured with a new e-paper (a full-color flexible display technology) being developed by Mag-Ink in Israel. As a product, it would target the business traveler who wants a convenient way to watch DVD movies. For this user, portability is a key requirement, but they are not interested in sacrificing their viewing experience and are willing to invest extra money for a higher quality product.

Tags: design innovation origami

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How to manage corporate innovation

Over at CIO Insight, John Parkinson (a former partner at Ernst & Young) offers his take on the difficulties of managing a large-scale corporate innovation program. Innovation has been a hot topic in the mainstream business press, leading many companies to think that innovation is easy. However, as Parkinson suggests, corporate innovation can be a difficult process to manage.

As he explains with a long look back at the risks and hazards he encountered while designing a large-scale innovation program for Ernst & Young, getting people to participate in the innovation process is the easy part (especially if it means just visiting a Web site or attending an innovation workshop). However, generating good ideas is much more difficult. Out of a pool of 25,000 people participating in the E&Y innovation program, about 5,000 people contributed a total of 8,000 distinct ideas. Of these 8,000 ideas, though, only 1,200 represented major product or service innovations that could drive future growth at the company. Moreover, of these ideas, only about 20 were actually viable or made any kind of business sense. The bottom line: even the best-run and well-intentioned of innovation programs may not generate the kinds of results that an organization expects, as Parkinson explains below:

The largest group of ideas (about 45% of the total) was focused on what we came to call "Maslow" issues: ideas to improve the "quality of work-life." Next came ideas for "operational improvements" (about 40%). Last (about 15%) were the ideas for new or expanded business activities - the ones we really wanted...

The 15% of ideas for "growth" were a very mixed bag. Quite a lot were actually illegal for a big public accounting firm (although not for other kinds of business organization). Quite a lot more were good (in the sense that they had a viable business case associated with them) but weren't even slightly "adjacent" to E&Y's core businesses. Zook's Profit from the Core told us that we would not be able to launch these successfully unless we were willing to become venture capitalists and incubate the ideas until we could spin them off—far from a core competency.

And there were plenty of ideas for which there was just no viable business case—for anyone. I was surprised at how little understanding there was amongst highly educated, numerate people about what goes into a business case, even though we supplied a template and a comprehensive guide as a part of the innovation program. I must have looked at hundreds of plans that basically said: "There is a huge market for idea x. We should be able to get 10% of this market—which is still a huge number. So let's go do it!" No thought of working capital requirements, IRR hurdles, route to market, channel strategy, customer acquisition and service, and on and on.

From the 1,200 or so growth-related ideas, we actually found less than 20 that were assessed (by an internal investment advisory board) as viable for the firm, and picked just eight to actually fund. In fact, I had more investment capacity than ideas to spend the money on. Even this very focused agenda raised some new and unanticipated issues.

Even well-intentioned plans to sell some of the more promising "discards" to an outside incubator for development didn't work out as intended. It was also very difficult to come up with an equitable reward system that would please everyone. Finally, as Parkinson points out, the "immune system" response threatened to overwhelm the innovation program once it started to spread throughout the corporation:

In effect, the firm "fought the infection" of innovation by recasting the most original ideas and behaviors into more familiar language, objectives and management practices. I came to call this "normalization to the familiar" and I've seen it happen many times in many places over the past five years. The most innovative individuals and groups are rewarded by being given leadership of projects to realize their ideas, but are required to carry them out using non-innovative processes and management frameworks, generally throttling back on continued innovation and often causing the innovators (and their DNA) to leave in frustration.

So, if someone asks you to get involved in innovation, remember the lessons I learned: 85% of innovation is valuable but not very innovative; many good ideas aren't good business (especially for your business); and try to avoid being too successful until you're sure your sponsors really want you to succeed—otherwise the corporate immune system will get you, too.

Tags: brainstorm innovation strategy

[image: Brainstorms by Jacob Botter]

Posted by dominic at 6:06 AM | Recommend this! (1) | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

May 22, 2006

Weapons of mass innovation

Over at Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow points to an innovative, custom-built PC case that resembles a shiny new WMD. If nothing else, this metallic PC case is certain to make you the center of attention at any business meeting: "Ladies and gentlemen, the clock's ticking. We need to get this deal done..." Anyway, as Cory points out, the case resembles a "shiny, Hollywoodized terrorist bomb, straight out of a Bond flick." On Bit-Tech, there's a comprehensive description of the creation of the "WMD," including a step-by-step overview of the modding process and a link to sponsors who provided design support and components. Earlier on Bit-Tech, G-Gnome (that's his codename, not his real name) explained the inspiration for this faux WMD:

"Think of all the movies you ever saw in which the hero races against time to find and disarm some sort of evil doomsday device. It's a common plot element that has been used and abused in cinema, television and books countless times. Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, Nicole Kidman and George Clooney, Nicholas Cage, Kiefer Sutherland, and many others, have had to deal in recent years with these manifestations of a dastardly villain's twisted mind. James Bond movies, 24, even MacGyver... we've all watched in horror shouting "No, noooo! Cut the (insert colour here) wire!!", or held our breath as fragile green globes of nerve gas have teetered on the brink of destruction, before the day/city/country/planet is once more saved from a hellish nuclear winter at, literally, the last second. All a bit Hollywood really.

Anyway, following in the footsteps of the aforementioned twisted minds and with a healthy 'can do' attitude inspired by DIY TV shows, the breakdown of the former Soviet Union and the looting of certain sensitive Iraqi facilities, I decided to build one myself. I didn't want just any 'ol WMD, however. I wanted a squat, menacing device that oozed danger; all tough, machined, stainless steel complete with keylocks, illuminated warning lights and requisite aura of 'I'm-about-to-wreck-your-day-***wipe!'. I wanted a huge timing device that blinked away the hours, minutes and seconds with glowing red finality - silent, electronic footsteps of doom counting down to evil nuclear annihilation Bwahahahahhahhaaaa! There was only one slight problem with my mad plans... weapons-grade Plutonium. As in I didn't have any. Hrm. Oh well, might just put a kick*** PC in it then."

Anyway, as Boing Boing points out, there really is a "lavish" description of each step of building the WMD device. For anyone working on, say, a Harvard Business School case study on the rise of "modding" and user-generated design, this would be an interesting starting point. (Just be prepared to have your phones tapped by the CIA) What's amazing is that G-Gnome works for the Australian military, so this hypothetical WMD very likely resembles something that the Pentagon braintrust [sic] expected to find in the desert of Iraq.

Tags: innovation design WMD modding

Posted by dominic at 11:44 AM | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

The world's best invention machine

Popular Science magazine has a great profile of John Koza, an adjunct professor at Stanford, who has developed an amazing invention machine that represents a breakthrough in conventional artificial intelligence:

"Koza is the inventor of genetic programming, a revolutionary app