January 29, 2007

London braces for a Silicon Valley invasion

As Camille Ricketts of the Wall Street Journal points out, Silicon Valley is "establishing an outpost in London, bringing its laid-back office culture - including company gyms, relaxed dress and office kitchens full of snacks - with it." (The eating habits are particularly difficult for the Brits to understand - they can't seem to figure out why Americans are always stuffing their faces with snacks and soda in the office, yet don't seem to have any special inclination to hang out at the local pub to have bangers and mash or a proper pint). Anyway, the flow of talent and know-how from Silicon Valley to London has been accelerating over the past 12 months:

"Just last year, about 30 California companies opened offices here, and nearly one of every three U.S. companies in London hails from California, including Apple, Google and MySpace. London also has become an attractive springboard for smaller tech companies from the state that are seeking a European toehold. In fact, if California were a country, it would rank second -- after the rest of the U.S. and before Canada -- as a place of origin for foreign companies setting up shop in London, according to Think London, a nonprofit consultancy that recruits foreign companies to the city."

[image: Londonist]

Posted by dominic at 6:17 AM | Comments (1) | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

January 23, 2007

From Russia, With R&D Innovation

Hewlett-Packard announced plans to open up a new R&D facility in Russia that will employ dozens of researchers and focus on inventing ways to manage and mine digital data. The decision to set up a new innovation hub in St. Petersburg is part of a worldwide trend toward the global distribution of innovation work:

"The Russia center will be HP's seventh R&D center around the world operated under the umbrella of HP Labs, the Palo Alto-based company's central research organization. HP Labs was founded more than 40 years ago and has claimed breakthroughs in areas as diverse as pocket calculators, semiconductor devices, thermal ink jet printing and nanotechnology. Its other facilities are in China, India, the United Kingdom, Israel and Japan.

HP declined to say how much it was spending on the new facility, which will be located in the company's existing sales facility in St. Petersburg. Beth Keer, director of the company's Information Services and Process Innovation Lab, will initially oversee the project as acting director while searching for a full-time director and research staff. Keer said the new facility will allow HP to tap into a pool of Russian scientists with a rigorous academic background and help local customers solve region-specific problems arising from fast-growing industries including oil and gas exploration, telecommunications and banking."

Posted by dominic at 5:23 AM | Recommend this! (2) | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

January 19, 2007

Dunkin' Donuts: Time to make the donuts in Taiwan

Everybody has a China strategy these days. Apparently, even the neighborhood donut store plans a little expansion to China. As Bostonist points out, Dunkin' Donuts just opened its first-ever store in Taiwan:

"Soon, our Eastern friends will find themselves as addicted to donuts and coffee as we are if Dunkin' Donuts has its way. Yesterday, Dunkin' Donuts put out a press release to declare the company has opened a store in Taipei, Taiwan. Besides the obvious donuts, the Taipei menu includes "sweet potato, green apple and pineapple doughnuts, and mochi rings." The Wall Street Journal reported that Dunkin' Donuts won't shock the Taiwanese customers with coffee just yet: "Because tea is a dietary staple in China, Dunkin' Donuts plans to emphasize new tea drinks over coffee when it first opens, and then play up its coffee line over time."

What's cool is that Dunkin' Donuts conducted a bit of anthropological research ahead of the new store launch, and determined that it's best to offer donuts in flavors and assortments that include pineapple and sweet potato. (If you've ever wandered the streets of Chinatown in Manhattan or Flushing, you'll know that Chinese sweets look very much different from the traditional offerings at Dunkin' Donuts)

Meanwhile, Starbucks is also expanding to China, but is taking the exact opposite approach. Presumably, who needs anthropological research when there's one billion consumers dying to fork over $4 for cup of coffee? As the Wall Street Journal recently explained, Starbucks thinks it can educate Chinese customers to love the taste of coffee -- despite a thousand-old tradition of drinking tea in the nation. As a result, Starbucks is not taking any special steps to woo over the Chinese customer. On a unrelated note, there's recently been a big backlash against Starbucks in Beijing, with some claiming that the global coffee chain "tramples over Chinese culture."

[image: Dunkin' Donuts in Taipei]

Posted by dominic at 7:34 AM | Recommend this! (1) | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

January 18, 2007

The U.S. is the world's most innovative nation

According to a study of global innovation conducted by French business school INSEAD, the U.S. is the world's most innovative nation by a large margin. Germany was a distant second, while the U.K., Japan and France rounded out the top five. The United Arab Emirates (#14) was the only country in the Top 15 that wasn't European, Asian or North American.

The World Business/INSEAD Innovation Index 2007, researched by Professor Soumitra Dutta and sponsored by BT, ranks nations according to their innovation performance. The ranking takes into account several categories of evaluation: institutions and policies; infrastructure; human capacity; technological sophistication; and business markets and capital. The study also factors in knowledge, competitiveness and wealth. Data for comprising the ranking was based on information provided by, among others, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.

[image: We're #1!]

Posted by dominic at 7:16 AM | Recommend this! (1) | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

January 17, 2007

The best in Australian innovation

Today's a big day for Australian innovation in New York City. The "Australian Innovation Shoot-out," co-sponsored by the Australian Consulate General and Invest Australia as part of the Australia Week 2007 festivities, is a business plan competition for six world-class Australian innovators that are hopeful of commercializing their products for the U.S. market. The panel of judges will be moderated by Alan Murray, Assistant Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal, so there's a strong likelihood that the winner of the Australian Shoot-Out will be featured in the pages of the Wall Street Journal sometime soon. The six finalists include:

(1) Autech Software & Design - a new type of in-store color selection for the paint and decorating industry;

(2) BSD Robotics - integrated bio-sample collection and handling systems;

(3) EvoGenix - conversion of research stage antibodies to high activity products ready for human development;

(4) Iatia Vision Sciences - software that enables materials to be seen with unprecedented depth and clarity;

(5) iCeutica - nano-sized particles to enhance drug performance;

(6) In the Chair - music technology that makes playing music fun and easy.

Then, later in the day in New York, the Australian Science Forum will highlight interesting Australian R&D opportunities that exist for Australian - US collaboration. This panel will be moderated by Dr Richard Gallagher, Editor and Publisher of The Scientist. For more on the innovation- and investment-themed events planned during the period January 11-20, be sure to check out the G'Day USA / Australian Week 2007 website.

[image: A scene from Australia Week 2007]

Posted by dominic at 8:56 AM | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

January 16, 2007

China, now powered by an "artificial sun"

Details are notoriously difficult to confirm out of China, but it appears that a group of Chinese scientists working on an experimental thermonuclear reactor have found a way to create an "artificial sun" power source:

"Designed to replicate the sun's energy generating process, the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak fusion reactor recently garnered positive results in tests being conducting at China's Institute of Plasma Physics, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported. "The new tests show the reactor is very reliable, and we can repeat the experiments," institute official Wu Songtao said.

With tests set to continue until Feb. 10, the experiments will reveal exactly how far the project is from its final goal of creating plasma that can last for 1,000 seconds while giving off its own energy. While many have disputed the project's ability to create such an energy source, Xinhua said many scientists maintain such a fusion reactor could lesson China's energy crisis by providing cleaner endless energy at a significantly lower cost."

From an American perspective, let's hope this is just another Cold Fusion-style hoax.

[image: Chinese thermonuclear reactor]

Posted by dominic at 5:33 AM | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

January 12, 2007

The new Canadian spy coins

Apparently, the U.S. Defense Department is growing increasingly concerned about Canadian coins embedded with tiny RFID transmitter devices that could be used to conduct double top-secret espionage operations against the U.S. In fact, the government has even sent out warnings to its defense contractors about the sinister Canadian spy coins:

"The government said the mysterious coins were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors traveled through Canada. Intelligence and technology experts said such transmitters, if they exist, could be used to surreptitiously track the movements of people carrying the spy coins. The U.S. report doesn't suggest who might be tracking American defense contractors or why. It also doesn't describe how the Pentagon discovered the ruse, how the transmitters might function or even which Canadian currency contained them. Further details were secret, according to the U.S. Defense Security Service, which issued the warning to the Pentagon's classified contractors. The government insists the incidents happened, and the risk was genuine."

Of course, the U.S. doesn't actually believe that our respectable neighbors to the North have anything to do with these spy coins. Instead, all clues seem to point to China, Russia or France - experts claim that all of them "actively run espionage operations inside Canada with enough sophistication to produce such technology." The idea of Canadians spying on Americans: "Unthinkable." At least, that's the official word from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

[image: The Spy Who Came In From the Canadian Cold]

Posted by dominic at 6:45 AM | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

January 11, 2007

Why African innovation matters

Under the radar of many foreign policy experts, China has been quietly consolidating its grip on the African continent, viewing it as a rich source of minerals and raw materials and a dumping ground for cheap products. Unlike the West, which usually attaches strings to its foreign aid packages, China is not at all hesitant about extending aid to crumbling dictatorships and impoverished states, as long as they have unfettered access to the raw materials that are fueling the Chinese economic miracle. So, how does innovation fit into all of this?

Well, on a national level, if African nations fail to innovate, they could very easily fall under the yoke of their neo-colonial Chinese masters. (see picture) Anyway, I recently read about a "grand tour of Africa" by Chinese foreign officials on Yahoo! News, and it made me realize that maybe we're thinking about China all wrong. Maybe the West is not so central to the development of China after all:

"China paid for the marble and tile parliament building soaring above the crumbling homes of this former Portuguese colony, and is also promising a dam and a military hospital — all with none of the political strings Western donors might attach. Intent on cementing ties across Africa, China is active even in impoverished Guinea-Bissau, a small nation with little industry, no oil and few exports. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing ended a two-day visit here Thursday, part of a tour that includes Chad, Benin, Central African Republic, Eritrea and Mozambique. Li arrived from Equatorial Guinea, Africa's third-largest oil producer, where he agreed to forgive about $75 million in debt.

Some nations on Li's itinerary are sources of the raw materials China's booming economy craves. Countries like Guinea-Bissau may not have much to offer today, but could in years to come. In courting them, China has turned on its head the Western aid formula that has tied public works projects to progress in good governance. "China is not like the World Bank, they don't attach all these conditions on the money," said Edmundo Vaz, a former adviser to the Guinea-Bissau Finance Ministry who now runs a bank. "The West makes us wait, but we're a poor country — we don't have time wait," he said."

As the article points out, "Africa has become a crucial part of China's growth strategy." Trade between Africa and China has grown fourfold since 2001, topping $45 billion in the first 10 months of 2006. At a summit attended by 35 African heads of state in Beijing last fall, Chinese entrepreneurs signed deals worth $1.9 billion with African governments and firms.

Interestingly, TED Global plans an innovation-themed conference in Tanzania this June: TEDGLOBAL "Africa: the next chapter". In addition, there are several blogs that focus on innovation from an African perspective, such as the Timbuktu Chronicles and Africa Unchained. (Thanks, Emeka)

[image: Chinese manager and African laborer]

Posted by dominic at 6:02 AM | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

January 5, 2007

Wallace & Gromit teach you innovation

The UK patent office is attempting to jump-start innovation within the all-important 9-to-11 year-old demographic:

"The Patent Office has appointed Bell Design to roll out an interactive campaign to encourage innovation among primary school children. The campaign will be based around an interactive website and feature Aardman Animation characters Wallace & Gromit. It will aim to encourage children aged 9-11-years-old to think about innovation. The campaign will form part of a wider public agenda to move the UK towards an innovation-based economy."

Hey, you're never too young to start thinking about innovation! I'm guessing that some elementary school kids are probably more innovative than some of the CEOs at America's best companies. (However, no elementary school kid is more innovative than an American CEO of a FORTUNE 500 company when it comes to designing a golden parachute).

[image: Wallace & Gromit]

Posted by dominic at 6:35 AM | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

December 21, 2006

The best in Indian innovation 2006

In Bangalore, IT industry association Nasscom showcased the best in Indian innovation for 2006, with a focus on those companies that are driving business model and process innovation within the Indian IT industry. The ten companies nominated are eligible to win one of the Nasscom innovation awards that will be presented early next year in Mumbai:

"Ten homegrown companies including Elitecore Technologies, IttiamSystems, MIEL e-security, Monsoon Multimedia, Newgen Software, Pandora Networks, Strand Life sciences, Image analyzer, and MNCs HP Labs and Intel Technology, which are working on Indian market-specific products have been shortlisted for the awards. Around 160 companies took part in the innovation face-off this year of which ten have been chosen."

More proof, perhaps, that India is turning into an innovation powerhouse that is creating and nurturing the types of companies that are capable of taking on the likes of Intel and Hewlett-Packard.

[image: Kiran Karnik, President of NASSCOM]

Posted by dominic at 7:24 AM | Recommend this! (1) | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

December 19, 2006

Jack Welch: South Korea needs to be more innovative

The Korean media is reporting on comments made by former GE chairman Jack Welch, who criticized the role that innovation plays in the South Korean economy:

"Former General Electric Chairman Jack Welch advised South Korea to boost its technological creativity, saying no innovative product, such as Apple’s iPod, is currently produced by South Korea. In a videoconference hosted by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy on December 15, Welch said South Korea should raise its competitiveness through innovation, as the era of speedy production development and efficiency is gone, he said.

South Korean companies only put their focus on adding new functions after importing innovative products, while they make few inventions of their own, Welch said. In the United States, young entrepreneurs have presented a variety of innovative ideas, he said. To boost creativity, Welch urged companies to set up a rational system of rewards in which "more incentives go to people who have creative ideas or make innovative products."

Which all sounds great until you consider that South Korea is one of the most technologically advanced nations on the planet and boasts a number of world-class tech companies that are hardly laggards when it comes to innovation (Hynix Semiconductor, Samsung and LG). The country has a broadband penetration rate of close to 100% and is emerging as a hub of innovation in robotics. Plus, South Korea is currently building a high-tech utopia known as New Songdo City.

Posted by dominic at 5:40 AM | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

December 18, 2006

The social and cultural backdrop for national innovation

In a discussion of whether or not Switzerland is an innovative nation, the Topics from 192 Countries blog includes a great quote from the 1949 film noir The Third Man, starring Orson Welles as Harry Lime:

"Under the Borgias, Italy had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and all they produced was the cuckoo clock."

Which, of course, begs the following question: To what extent is a backdrop of upheaval and discord a prerequisite for innovation and creativity? The answer might be: It depends. The U.S., for example, seems to function quite well with a backdrop of democracy, peace, and stable financial markets. Other nations (and I'm thinking of Russia specifically) seem to demand something entirely different in exchange for their Bulgakovs, Solzhenitsyns and Pasternaks.

[image: The 3rd Man movie poster]

Posted by dominic at 5:39 AM | Recommend this! (1) | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

November 27, 2006

The best of Swedish innovation: Acne Jeans

Over the Thanksgiving holidays, the latest issue of the David Report ("Communication Through Product") arrived in my e-mailbox. If you're into innovation and design from a Swedish perspective, it's worth a read:

"The new David Report is a pathfinder into the future, a creative hub with a humanistic approach at the intersection of design, innovation and brand communication. In addition to our bulletin we have the David Report blog where some of the sharpest minds from the creative community on a regular basis will share their thoughts..."

For example, in the current issue of the David Report, there's an interview with the founders of the Swedish fashion brand Acne Jeans, who explain why design, innovation and creativity are "the lifeblood of the whole Acne creative collective." Acne started in 1996 with four creative individuals who each had a different field of expertise. Over the past ten years, the original company eventually developed four individual divisions: Acne Film, Acne Digital, Acne Creative and, of course, Acne Jeans.

[image: Acne Jeans]

Posted by dominic at 12:20 PM | Recommend this! (2) | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

November 22, 2006

Managing an orchestra can make you a better innovator

Austrian innovation blogger Hannes Treichl recently interviewed Christian Gansch, a Grammy award-winning conductor, manager, consultant, and author to find out how he translates elements of leading an orchestra into daily management practices. After all, leading an orchestra comprised of 100 or more people has a lot in common with managing a department of 100 or more people: "An orchestra is an outstanding example for bringing together 100 individuals and motivating them for a successful cooperation in order to get out one voice and to follow a common goal which results in fascinating the audience." In the case of management and business, of course, the "audience" is really the consumer.

Gansch has a unique perspective on innovation, suggesting that the process of reviewing innovation projects mid-way tends to stifle the future growth and development of these projects:

"New ideas need space and time in order to be able to develop and grow. Permanent interim judgments and reviews in the middle in the working process are... a popular game to play, but these reviews prevent fledgling ideas from growing. However, please do not misunderstand this line of thought as in favor of abolishing quality controls!"

Gansch also shares his thoughts about leadership, teams and individualism:

"The Mona Lisa carries the artistic touch of only one painter and not of 100 specialists who might have never come to any results. Also, in the orchestra, it's the conductor's vision. Musicians clearly are aware of the fact that the listener asks for one result and does not want to get confused by 100 individual visions of how to interpret Beethoven's thinking."

[image: Christian Gansch]

Posted by dominic at 7:15 AM | Comments (1) | Recommend this! (2) | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

November 20, 2006

The Medici Effect in Bangkok

According to The Medici Effect, the bestselling business book from innovation guru Frans Johansson, the biggest innovation breakthroughs occur when there is an intersection of diverse ideas and cultures. With that in mind, check out the fusion of Swedish innovation know-how and Thai entrepreneurship that could lead to new breakthroughs in Thailand. ScandAsia has the details:

"Sweden takes good care of creative ideas and clever innovations, from idea to market, while Thailand is full of great entrepreneurs making decent incomes and often not much more. The idea behind Rangsit University’s new Master of Arts Program, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Management, is to merge the best of the above from the two nations. That will enable Thai students, who wish to work in an international environment by creating products and services from their visions, to achieve their goals.

RSU starts the program early next year at its Sathorn campus in downtown Bangkok... The programme runs over approximately 18 months. Five to ten months of them will be spent at Mälardalen University in Sweden, [where] innovation and entrepreneurship is taught at the school’s center for creativity/innovation/design. How long one stays in Sweden depends in which country the student wish to write the thesis that rounds off the program."

This is more than just a one-time event for Bangkok. It looks like the city is engaged in a comprehensive effort to create similar types of Medici Effects throughout the economy. On the Medici Effect blog, Frans Johansson profiles the launch of The Medici Effect in Bangkok:

"I did not actually expect to be in Bangkok only weeks later after making that post [about the diversity of Bangkok]. It is actually my first time here and it was for the launch of the Thai version of The Medici Effect. The publishers here provided me with a great tour of both Bangkok and the outskirts of the city - and what I found interesting was that the country’s diversity is so deeply ingrained in its history. Everywhere there are clear signs of how China, India, Burma and other regions has been a huge influence in the country’s development. Thailand is, in some ways, at a huge intersection of cultures and so it makes sense that they are fairly comfortable with this diversity."

Posted by dominic at 9:34 AM | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

Can Russia become an innovation superpower?

Dr. Dmitry Orlov, member of the RIA Novosti Expert Council, explains that Russia must become more than just an exporter of raw materials - it must become an energy superpower that is able to transform oil and gas resources into innovation. Below, he outlines a vision for building an innovation economy in Russia:

"Some experts describe the Russian economy as "an extended raw materials model", while others claim Russia is "an energy superpower." In my opinion, both definitions are true, but one describes the current economic structure, in which energy revenues are mostly accumulated and used, and only partly invested in long-term development. The other is an aspiration... An energy superpower differs from a raw materials supplier in that it turns oil and gas into innovation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin enthusiastically speaks about an innovation economy. In particular, he spoke about it in his spring 2006 state of the nation address. The issue is addressed even more frequently by the economic authorities, notably Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref and IT and Communications Minister Leonid Reiman.

The priority national projects, which Putin initiated a year ago and entrusted to First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, should pave the way to an innovation breakthrough. However, they are so far limited to roughly balanced state programs aimed at increasing allocations to social projects. The time has come to turn national projects into the main tool of the state's industrial and infrastructure policy, or at least to add several innovation aspects to them."

With that in mind, Orlov outlines various projects that could jump-start the innovation economy -- such as establishing new business incubation and innovation zones, working to solve the "digital divide" in rural Russia, and helping the economy to become more energy-efficient. The goal is nothing less than an innovation revolution:

"When everyone has access to these communications and business zones, it will mean that we have achieved what Alvin Toffler described as a fast-paced economy, where any strategy must be agile and flexible. Mobility will become a fact of life, though young people will no longer want to move from rural areas to big cities. Just like the spread of electricity and roads in the 20th century, technology parks and the Internet can change the Russian landscape in the 21st century."

[image: "You - have you signed up as a volunteer for the Revolution?"]

Posted by dominic at 5:27 AM | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

November 16, 2006

INSEAD creates new centers for entrepreneurial research

According to the Wall Street Journal (sub req), French business school INSEAD is in the process of establishing new centers for studying entrepreneurship in Israel, India and China. The B-school's International Centre for Entrepreneurship in Singapore will oversee and coordinate the work of the three entrepreneurial labs:

"Entrepreneurship has always been a challenging topic to research. French business school Insead hopes to glean better knowledge by going to the source and observing entrepreneurs in their own backyards. In May, the Versailles-based business school set up the first of three planned entrepreneurship-research centers in Israel. A second center is expected to open in India by January, and a third is planned for China in the middle of next year. The three centers aim to serve both academics and the global business community alike..."

The goal of the new initiative is to be able to observe entrepreneurs in real-time, starting from as close to the point that they start a company as possible. In addition, INSEAD hopes to shed light on the variations in entrepreneurship that are specific to certain countries and regions.

[image: INSEAD's Singapore campus]

Posted by dominic at 6:36 AM | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

November 14, 2006

Innovation is the best way to grow

At the IBM Solutions Day event in Malaysia, Voon Seng Chuan, the managing director of IBM's Malaysia operations, explained that innovation is the best way for a company to grow. Acquisitions may be faster but are too risky, while regular business expansion is safe but too slow. In contrast, innovation represents the best way to drive economic growth:

"Innovation creates new value by transforming knowledge and technology to drive productivity and economic growth. It’s about finding new ways of doing business, which creates opportunities for sustainable growth."

Referring to a recent IBM Global CEO survey, he said there are three factors on innovation that organizations should consider. First, innovation must be orchestrated from the top-levels of an organization. "It must start from the leaders at the top, who are in the position to implement it across the board," Voon said. "Companies should also look into innovating their business models because that is often more important than the products and services they are offering." He said the study shows that the key ingredient to innovation is collaboration. "If you want to innovate, you have to collaborate," he said."

[image: Voon Seng Chuan of IBM Malaysia]

Posted by dominic at 5:37 AM | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

November 7, 2006

Novartis invests in Chinese pharmaceutical R&D lab

As the BBC News points out, Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis is planning to build a new $100 million research center in Shanghai:

"Novartis chief Daniel Vasella said the center was a symbol of the ever growing importance of China and our willingness to trust the government. "The level of scientific expertise in China is rising rapidly," he said. The 410,000-sq ft center will employ 400 scientists, with construction set to start in mid-2007. The lab will combine modern drug research with traditional Chinese medicine, with an initial focus on the causes of cancer."

The interesting part of the announcement is the "traditional Chinese medicine" angle. If you've ever walked around Chinatown in a city like New York, it's impossible not to miss the amazing number of stores and kiosks specializing in traditional Chinese medicine. Presumably, we'll now have representatives from Big Pharma poking around those stores to see if there's anything interesting they might be able to commercialize on a global basis. Anyway, there's a great caption to Lunanaut's photo on Flickr:

"This is a traditional pharmacy-- with baskets of dried seahorses in front, packages of preserved mushrooms and ginseng root on the shelves, and glass jars filled with odd-shaped, odd-smelling mystery items. It's all still a mystery to me, but an integral part of local culture-- all these prescriptions being filled will soon be brewed up and slurped down in the pursuit of renewed health. Makes American homeopathy look positively postmodern."

[images: Daniel Vasella and Filling Prescriptions]

Posted by dominic at 6:35 AM | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

November 3, 2006

Britain re-thinks science and innovation

In an op-ed piece for the Financial Times, James Wilsdon of the influential UK think tank Demos argues that the British government's view of innovation is no longer appropriate for a global, interconnected world. Instead of pouring more money into basic research and traditional disciplines such as chemistry and engineering, the British government should think in terms of global, interconnected research nodes and interdisciplinary excellence. In other words, "keeping up with China and India" does not necessarily mean out-spending them and producing hordes of new graduates in the sciences and engineering:

"Confronted by daunting statistics about armies of Chinese and Indian scientists and engineers, it is easy to feel pessimistic about our small island's long-term prospects. It is understandable to look for ways of coercing our young people back into the physics lab. But again, this is to misunderstand how and where innovation occurs.

At a recent Royal Society meeting, a senior R&D manager from Unilever admitted he would be relaxed if more of their synthetic chemistry moved to Shanghai, because the unique strengths of their British labs were in combining hard science with a sophisticated understanding of what makes consumers tick, drawn from social and behavioral sciences. As science and innovation becomes more international, Britain's greatest assets may be its openness to international collaboration and its ability to combine advances in basic science with insights from other disciplines, such as psychology, economics, social sciences and law. We will continue to benefit from our own inventions and discoveries, but also from our participation as specialist nodes in global networks of research. A growing number of scientists and R&D-intensive businesses recognize these opportunities and are reorientating themselves to meet them. Now policy needs to catch up."

For more on this, check out The Atlas of Ideas, which is an 18-month investigation of innovation in China, India and South Korea sponsored by Demos. Findings from the study will be released at The Atlas of Ideas event in London during January.

[image: James Wilsdon]

Posted by dominic at 6:20 AM | Comments (2) | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

November 2, 2006

Tata Consultancy Services launches new innovation lab

Tata Consultancy Services has launched the TCS Innovation Lab, an incubation and innovation center for the travel & hospitality industry. According to the CIO of British Airways, the lab will be a great place to test out innovative new business solutions: "IT innovation for innovation's sake has no place in business, but innovation that benefits passengers and hotel guests are most welcome."

For Tata, the new innovation lab could become another way to shed its image in the West as primarily an IT outsourcing organization: "The focus is to go beyond technology innovation, and develop solutions that result in higher productivity and business innovation for our customers." If all goes as planned, the new innovation lab will enable TCS clients in the travel & hospitality industry (airlines, hotels, resorts and travel companies) to access a wide range of domain experts, business process analysts, technology specialists and R&D team members while testing out innovative new product and service offerings.

[image: The Imperial Hotel in Delhi]

Posted by dominic at 6:20 AM | Comments (2) | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

November 1, 2006

What is the future of China?

Beijing-based artist Wang Qingsong spent the summer of 2005 putting together this amazing triptych. In the first photo, a group of hundreds of Chinese demonstrators appear to be rallying against the arrival of Western multinationals in China. In the second photo, you can see the mess and debris created by the protesters. Finally, in the third photo, you are able to see the other side of the banners - they are actually product endorsement banners for a number of Western brands! In his own words, Wang Qingsong explains the significance of the work:

"The triptych gives the viewer three very different images of the same road and landscape. In this work, I use this outdoor landscape setting polluted by “demonstrators” to pose questions such as “What Is Coming?” “Who Is Coming?”, “How Does It Come?”, and “Why Is It Coming?”.... “Why Is It Happening On The Same Road?”Are the crowds generating slogans, garbage, or commercial advertisements? Historic changes of diverse impact often take place simultaneously, while seemingly going down one and the same path. But one thing is certain: The middle road, littered with garbage rather than people, appears silent, but one can see smoke and fire in the distance, hinting at some struggle, chaos, uncertainty or disputes either having come just before or just after the people."

Need any more proof that China is a country of contradictions?

[image: Come!Come!]

Posted by dominic at 12:02 PM | Comments (5) | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

October 30, 2006

Innovation learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan

By now, you've probably watched a few clips from the new film, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, in which British comic Sacha Baron Cohen plays a hapless, dim-witted Kazakh journalist on adventures around America. In between his mangling of the English language and goofy antics, Borat also finds time to make fun of the "glorious nation of Kazakhstan," mocking the country for its supposedly backwards ways and stunted assimilation into the world economy. Hey, it's mostly hilarious stuff and I plan to watch the movie when it comes out, but it's also worth paying attention to the broader economic and innovation potential of Kazakhstan, which has long labored under the shadow of the former Soviet Union.

As the Dinar Standard points out, Kazakhstan is already the investment gateway to Central Asia, as well as an emerging IT and biotechnology powerhouse in the region:

"When the World Economic Forum, in its annual 2005-2006 ranking of the most competitive nations in the world included Kazakhstan for the first time, introducing it at #61 amongst the 117 countries covered, Kazakhstan’s President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, took particular notice and made it a benchmark to further accelerate the growth and global integration of his nation. This included strengthening economic bonds with the Muslim world--presenting a wide array of investment and joint venture opportunities.

In his annual address to the people of Kazakhstan in March 2006, economic reform focused President Nazarbayev, set a vision and detailed strategy to make Kazakhstan one of the 50 Most Competitive Countries of the World within the next ten years. The speech has not only galvanized all sections of society in Kazakhstan, but has also highlighted the tremendous opportunities many in the Muslim world can leverage as a place for expansion or investment into Central Asian markets."

In order to achieve this goal of becoming one of the Top 50 most competitive nations in the world, Kazakhstan plans to grow its economy by 350% over the next 10 years, leveraging its enormous potential when it comes to mineral resources, oil and gas. According to observers in Kazakhstan, economic reforms have already started to show concrete signs of progress, with some companies already planning to list on the London Stock Exchange.

Anyway, if you run across any interesting innovation stories from Kazakhstan over the next week or so, please send them along. It's time to share a few innovation learnings for the make benefit of glorious nation of Kazakhstan. As Borat would say, "Eees niice."

[video: Borat "apologizes" to the people of Kazakhstan]

Posted by dominic at 10:33 AM | Comments (2) | Recommend this! (1) | +dlc | +dig | TrackBack

German innovation on the rise

In Germany, the government is developing a comprehensive new strategy to jump-start innovation and entrepreneurship within the country. For example, the government plans to raise its R&D spending targets:

"During a speech at the Innovation Summit held in Berlin on Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for more private investment in research and development. She wants public and private research and development investments to increase from the current 2.5% to 3% of gross domestic product by 2010. Merkel said she realized investment in research was a long-term venture and required suitable conditions. "It's ambitious, but I think it should be our common goal, to reach the 3%," Merkel said."

Going forward, Germany plans to use its six-month EU presidency, which starts on January 1, to introduce a European innovation strategy.

[images: Chancellor Angela Merkel]

Posted by dominic at 6:12 AM | Comments (1) | Recommend this! |