Innovation and Advantage

Looking for a place to rent in NYC?

2009-11-30T22:19:00.004-06:00

Where will you start making your research? Probably most of us will feel inclined to get the local newspaper or, if affordable, go to the Real States broker that can help us to make up our mind about our ideal home.

I was fascinated to read that New York City renters will be more informed about their options and rights in Playing House: Two Cool Tools for New York Renters (Nov 2009), thanks to the Center of Urban Pedagogy (CUP) and many partner organizations who worked together to make this information easy to understand. CUP has used its expertise about “making educational projects about places and how they change” to explain NY neighbors about what affordable housing implies. It is an interesting way to match a need with an innovative way to reach the population with digital and material/tactile tools. The idea of developing these tools for conventional and digital learners implies to be aware about different ways to reach the target population, in a wide spectrum: NY citizens! If such a big city has found ways to interact with their local inhabitants, is it not possible to assume this challenge from the non-profit and the public sector?

The Envisioning Development Toolkits includes a map (the Flash Map and/or the Felt Chart) as well as a guide that provides the orientation about their use. Additionally, as part of this novel idea, a Tenant’s Rights Guide has been developed as a friendly boxed set of 30 flash cards. In all the cases, the digital formats are free and the other ones imply a lower cost. There is no option to postpone civic participation with IT possibilities and, especially, to make it a user friendly experience.

Does the clients’ opinion matter?

2009-11-30T15:41:00.005-06:00

During our course, we have talked continuously about the innovation process. One of the main motivators is related to the identification of a need that has not been (completely) fulfilled. So what happens when a client decides that he will not only point out what he needs to a company but also he decides to be proactive and provides an improvement to that organization’s offer? Will that initiative be appreciated by the organization rather than disregarded? Is the phrase “the client is always right” not important when we talk about innovations?

I found an interesting article called Why American Airlines doesn’t fly online, and what they should do about it (November 2009). Dustin Curtis felt tired of trying to deal with the AA.com booking a flight. In his condition of a user interface designer, he wrote to AA to offer an alternative user friendly website. After that, he received an anonymous mail from a member of their design team making reference to “the culture and processes employed”. Then, branding seems no longer paying attention to clients’ voices, especially in a big corporation. As this anonymous person expressed, “AA.com is a huge corporate undertaking with a lot of tentacles that reach into a lot of interests. It’s not small, by any means”. Then size matters... it can take to inertia (Customer's Site Redesign Exposes the Sad Truth about Corporate Inertia, November 2009). It is time to innovate not only in customer service but the whole customer experience, as Curtis expressed in his article (The response, May 2009). Will, then, corporations start developing meaningful innovations for their clients?

School Lunch Revolution: The Rise of the Healthy School Lunch

2009-11-23T00:53:00.002-06:00

Similar to Professor Silver’s Liquid Lens, Chef Ann Cooper’s innovative cafeteria system aims to improve the world on a smaller but equally valuable scale. Chef Cooper, who transformed Berkeley School District’s cafeteria lunches, is calling for a complete national transformation of the standard school cafeteria system. She hopes to transform school lunches across America from highly processed food that could potentially make children ill to fresh, locally-grown healthy food. Partnering with Whole Foods, Cooper recently launched the “Lunch Box,” a program that provides schools, cooks, and parents with information and resources on how to make their cafeteria lunches healthier. Launching with the Berkeley, Harlem and Boulder School Districts, the program’s offerings include healthy cafeteria menus, recipes, nutritional guidelines, and financial and educational tools.

Given the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity, diabetes and other childhood health problems, the need for providing healthier lunches at school is certainly pressing. For the first time in U.S. history, children born since 2000 face a shorter life expectancy that the previous generation. Cooper proposes revising the Child Nutrition Act by increasing the funding that goes directly toward healthy foods. Surprisingly, many public school cafeterias do not even own essential cooking equipment, such as stoves and knives. To solve this problem, Cooper suggests increased funding to build and properly equip a “central district kitchen,” that can service all the schools in the school district. On the food front, the program calls for a local community approach, where local farmers and food producers are the chief food providers. This will engage communities in the common goal of healthier children, reduce food-shipping costs, and build more sustainable local businesses. Given increasing childhood obesity rates, it seems imperative to redesign our cafeteria systems and provide children with healthier lunches.

Since kids’ school habits tend to become part of home and family life, I think Cooper’s healthier & locally-grown school menus could revolutionize our youngest generation’s eating habits. Indeed, the Lunch Box program is a both a product and process innovation. It aims to provide better products – healthier lunches – and a more effective, and beneficial process – a healthier food preparation process. Greater nutritional awareness alone, however, cannot cure the increasingly poor eating habits of today’s youth; I think bottom-up community & parental activism must play an active role in actually getting Cooper’s system implemented across the country. Only time will tell as to whether Cooper’s innovative cafeteria system actually gains support and funding in school systems across the America.

Do you think Cooper’s “Lunch Box” program is truly an innovation? Why or why not?

For more information, check out:

http://www.chefann.com/blog/

http://blog.ted.com/2009/09/renegade_lunch_1.php

www.thelunchbox.org

A creative way to deal with global warming

2009-11-19T06:01:00.002-06:00

Patrick O. Brown is a biochemist at Stanford University and proposed a solution- elimination of animal farming on planet Earth- in order to combat global warming, because compared to cars, trucks and planes in the world, livestock, such as cows, pigs and chickens, have bigger greenhouse impact. His desire is to change the way the world farms and eats. From his point of view, diets are changeable. He said there was no high fructose corn syrup 30 years ago, but now most American consumes it. Therefore, his project will focus on two different things. One is to work with famous chefs and food researchers on tasty vegetarian dishes, since delicious vegetable-based food is essential to make a change in diets of the public from meat to vegetable. The other is to design economic models to explain ways that animal farming is likely to become extremely expensive.

I agree with his ideas. It is true that feeding livestock is detrimental to current environmental situation. In an effort to offer meats to eat and survive, we need to plant crops to feed both animals and ourselves, which requires more lands. Plus, his notion of making yummy vegetarian food to tackle the issue of global warming is very creative. Indeed, the key point of going to which restaurant or eating which dish depends on how tasty the food is. On the other hand, changing diet is not an easy. If your family and friends are not vegetarians, you are the only vegetarian person. It is easy to give it up, because you do not want them to give up their favorite dishes with meats or restaurants where only serve meats. Changing takes time not overnight. I am curious about how long it would take or maybe it is possible to fail because people can not remove their habit that quickly.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1130/thought-leaders-mcdonalds-global-warming-drop-that-burger.html

A Culture of Innovation at Disney

2009-11-18T23:48:00.004-06:00

Last week’s discussion about building a culture of innovation brought to my mind an organization that I believe does this exceptionally well: the Walt Disney Company. Having worked at Disney World through the College Program internship, I know that ingraining a strong organizational culture that its employees can connect with is one of the top priorities at Disney. Innovation and creativity are at the cornerstone of that organizational culture – in fact, it is number one in the list of ‘shared values’ that Disney lists as defining its culture:

“Innovation, Quality, Community, Storytelling, Optimism and Decency.” Disney has developed a four-phase model for fostering a culture of innovation amongst its employees (called “cast members”) across all levels:

1. Define the culture: Disney does a great job of building a strong organizational culture specifically through their orientation and training programs.

2. Align the ideas: To ensure all new ideas are aligned with the company’s mission and identity, and make good business sense, Disney stresses the importance of the 3 “W’s: Who you are - understanding your core competencies. What you do - delivering your product. Where you're going - knowing your goals and strategies.

3. Design a process: in which an idea moves easily through the organization from conception to implementation, conserving the resources of time, money, and employee passion. This is done by being consistent in how ideas are evaluated, creating consolidated checkpoints and having defined deliverables.

4. Refine the product or service: This refers, obviously, to a continuous process of trial and error. According to Disney, an important part of their innovation process is encouraging cast-members at all levels to think of ways to continuously improve processes, and especially valuing ideas generated by front-line employees who are closest to the customers.

What resonated with me most about Disney’s culture of innovation was something we have mentioned several times in class this semester, and that is the willingness to constantly make, and learn from, mistakes. As we discussed last week, to build a culture of innovation, the commitment to innovation must start from the top – and it certainly does at Disney, in my opinion. Walt Disney himself always encouraged experimentation and taking risks, while learning from mistakes. When asked about the key to Disney’s success, Walt once said, "To some people, I am a kind of Merlin who takes a lot of crazy chances but rarely makes mistakes. I've made some bad ones. But fortunately, the successes have come along fast enough to cover up the mistakes. When you go to bat as many times as I do, you're bound to get a good average."

Paypal and attempts to spur innovation

2009-11-18T23:27:00.002-06:00

Paypal president Scott Thompson says the financial sector is and has been highly resistant to innovation.

In order to take advantage of an increasingly cashless society, Paypal (in a very K-Strategist fashion) is taking the apple route, and opening it's platform up for use and development. By crowd sourcing, Thompson hopes to tap the diverse resources brought about by convergence of websites and internet services thanks to Web 2.0.

While this approach is not particularly innovative, I believe it's an insightful move that will lead to innovations of a disruptive nature.

I think this is the case because Paypal can potentially compete in a number of markets. Just to name a few: it is a safe way to purchase online goods, can act as a no frills (and thus no fees) bank account, and can even be used to transfer money via social networking websites (Twitpay). These services can provide value in and of themselves, but imagine the linking of your own personal account across all these functions.

Paypal is such a multi-purpose/multi-form tool that Crowd-sourcing can provide the value of multiple uses (even if they are minority uses) without the cost of retaining a software development team.

Ultimately the power lies in the application of Paypal's concept, and the possibilities are as great as the crowd that gets sourced.

Facing Disaster, Trustmark Launched a Renaissance

2009-11-16T18:35:00.000-06:00

This article caught my eye for two reasons. First, it mentions that the focus of the story, Trustmark, was looking to Apple and American Girl (two organizations we have discussed), for its future plans. Second, the article discusses ways to encourage a culture of innovation, something else we have discussed extensively in this course.

Trustmark is a health and life insurer and benefits administrator that was facing a difficult situation in 2006. They had been working to their finances in order for years, but had consequently paid little attention to the outside market. David McDonough, the CEO, knew that they needed to innovate to stay afloat in a changing marketplace. He hired an innovation consultancy firm, Play, and together they worked to create a culture of innovation. They took employees of Trustmark on a tour of CompUSA, Apple, and American Girl stores, and a museum. This exercise opened employees’ eyes to the fact that they could be more like Apple.

The company had faced barriers to innovation because of their weak financial situation, and the conservative culture among their employees. Insurance companies are not generally as innovative and liberal as, say, designers. It is in situations like Trustmark’s that organizations see stalled growth, and often the cure for this is outside knowledge and perspective, which Play offers.

Although this story takes place in 2006, it is applicable to many organizations today. Right now, there is definitely a market for innovation consultancy firms. So many companies are trying only to stay afloat and cut costs in today’s economic climate. They are missing out on opportunities to use the changing marketplace to their advantage. Those who take innovation seriously, like innovation consultancy firms, can help businesses see outside their current situation to what could happen in the future.

A Better Education For Inmates

2009-11-16T17:20:00.007-06:00

Wesleyan University, a selective, private liberal arts college in Connecticut, has expanded its academic programs to a local prison and is offering courses to inmates. While earning a degree from Wesleyan University while in prison is unobtainable, instructors of the courses insist that the same rigorous standards held in the classrooms on campus are held in the prison.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/college-ivy-sprouts-at-a-connecticut-prison/?hp

Here is my argument for this as a disruptive innovation. Wesleyan Professors are teaching the same courses to both inmates and traditional students at its main campus. From the article, instructors state that standards are identical and that "an A in prison is the same as an A on campus and that the inmates will be entitled to use the university’s career services upon release." However, traditional students at Wesleyan University pay approximately $51,000 for the course (tuition, room, and board) while the inmate's education is supported by public and private prison education funding. Wesleyan is taking a risk in its position as a reputable university. With college budgets shrinking, its interesting to see a university add such a program when the return on investment of educating criminals (many who will likely not re-enter society until many years down the road) is very low.

Wesleyan University maintains a good reputation as an institute of higher education through rigorous admission standards. For inmates, these standards mostly apply. What does the value of a degree from Wesleyan University hold when a once convicted criminal, released from prison, is out in society applying for jobs with "Wesleyan University" atop their resume? If an inmate, having taken classes in prison, was released and applied to the main campus of Wesleyan University in order to complete their degree, should they be given the same opportunity for admission that a honor-role high school gradate applicant would? As a parent of a student, or student yourself, would you want convicted criminals of serious crimes on campus everyday?

Please don't misunderstand me and think that I am against education in our prison systems. I am a huge advocate for rehabilitating the incarcerated. But I do see this as a move within education that could undermine a major concern for colleges and universities: prestige. This is an innovative position to take for a prestigious university when the role of educating inmates typically rests with community colleges and separate prison education initiatives.

So You Think You Can Innovate?

2009-11-16T06:52:00.003-06:00

Bring your innovative ideas to the chapter planning meeting for the

Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM)!

Tuesday, November 17th

7:15-8:15pm

Commons Towers 107

Refreshments will be provided

(aka free pizza!)

****The attendee who brings the most people to the meeting will win a Starbucks giftcard!****

A bridge is not a bridge…

2009-11-15T20:06:00.005-06:00

In my approach to bridges, the only purpose of them has been associated with taking me to the opposite point from where I start. Well, it seems that bridges can be more than the merely connection of two points as you can see in Copenhagen, Denmark by artist Olafur Eliasson. He is considered for some people as a demi-god of art for his fabulous projects such as the Weather Project in London's Tate Modem, the New York City Waterfalls and other places, and, this time, he has decided to create something different that will “slows them [people] down, and creates a meandering public space”, that is projected to be ready on 2012. You can see the difference:

I kept in mind the discussion of our last two classes, especially for the key questions that Malone (2009) introduces about collective intelligence: who and why, what and how. I felt curious about Eliasson's work and I was fascinated to find out that he has a studio in Berlin, which can be conceived as a laboratory for spacial research. He is not alone in this enterprise: there are 30 people in his team (engineers, architects, craftsmen and assistants) “who conceptualize, test, engineer and construct” large projects. But also, it is interesting to know why Eliasson has given this orientation to his work. He talks about “it makes a difference whether you have a body that feels a part of a space rather than having a body which is just in front of a picture”. Furthermore, he says that “having an experience is taking part in the world. Taking part in the world is really about sharing responsibility”. I expect I can follow his work, it has opened a new dimension for me.

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/cliff-kuang/design-innovation/olafur-eliasson-puts-art-hold-designs-bridge

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/olafur_eliasson_playing_with_space_and_light.html

The Apple Tablet and Steve Job's Legacy

2009-11-15T15:16:00.002-06:00

The Apple Tablet is a potential saving grace for print media. What is it you ask? Well it’s so new and top secret that even Apple is not discussing the Apple Tablet. According to Wired, “the tablet remains a technological unicorn -- a mythical beast whose beauty, elegance and singularity we can only imagine”.

What need does the Apple Tablet fulfill for print media? According to the article, “Many have defined the problem -- people are abandoning old media for new in droves -- but nobody has come remotely close to figuring out the formula to monetize this audience in a way that ensures the range and level of news and periodical content and offers the rich experience advertisers will pay a premium to be part of”. Jobs has a flair for innovation, and as he considers his legacy with Apple, “saving journalism would be the Holy Grail”.

In order for the Tablet to succeed, “The device will have to make readers forget -- really forget -- the printed page. E-readers, for all that they do, don't do this yet”. E-readers such as Kindle have much invested in them and Apple is studying the trends of this and hoping to adapt it to fit the Tablet.

Part of the innovation of the Apple Tablet is that “the unveiling of an Apple Tablet will have to be accompanied by a fundamental policy change. Apple will have to let publishers roll the dice on pricing and cede control of the customer relationship it has jealously guarded”.

While it seems like a tall order to Apple to succeed in this innovative venture, “Jobs' resume is one long treatise on paradigmatic yet somehow pragmatic innovation.” He brought new life to animation when he joined Pixar. While at Apple, Jobs “Apple fixed their business with an iTunes/iPod ecosystem and a one-price-fits-all policy that made sure not all music was going to be provided by pirates”, thus changing the way music was shared over the internet. Another example of Job’s innovative streak is with the iPhone. Apple was able to bust through a “mobile phone market controlled by a tiny band of hide-bound telcos and handset makers”.

As one ponders Job’s legacy was he truly a great innovator, or was he at the right place, right time with the right people to succeed in these ventures? Did he capitalize on the failures of other innovations and just improve them?

Is the Apple Tablet something that will be successful and change the future of print media? Is it truly innovative or just improving upon things such as the Kindle?

Since not much is known about the Apple Tablet, other than it has enormous potential to change an entire industry, I think it is a truly innovative device that will succeed and build off the successes off things such as the Kindle. Steve Jobs will add to his legacy as a great innovator.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/09/apple.tablet.jobs/index.html

A Litl voice in a loud world

2009-11-15T13:59:00.002-06:00

In his TED speech in February of 2003, Seth Godin spoke in the wisdom of selling to early adapters. His argument was that in a world in which we are flooded with advertising, that it makes sense to target those precious few who may actually be listening to what you’re saying. For most innovative new products the logic seems sound, but it seems like there is at least one situation in which this may not be true. That is when the innovation is actually a simplification or refinement of current technology to make it appeal to the masses. How would Henry Ford have launched a car for the common man in today’s noisy market? I think the Litl may be a good modern example. The Litl is a small home computer that is not a laptop, desktop or netbook. The idea is that most home computer users only access web content, to surf the web or watch videos. To better meet this need the Litl has no hard drive, a super simple operating system, and is designed to be able to blend into a home’s ascetic. It also has an HDMI output for attaching to a TV and playing hi-def videos. The main selling points are ease of use, the non-computer ascetic, and a lack of excess features. This is the exact opposite of what early adapters would typically want, which is the whole idea. How then, do they get heard and noticed? I really don’t have an answer to this. I think I would love the Litl,, but for two reasons. One is the $700 dollar price tag, another is that you can only buy it online. I can’t see it and play with it before I buy it, although they are offering a money back guarantee to add incentive. The founder has completely self funded this project because he wants the company to be able to tolerate more risk than investors would tolerate. I think this is well advised. I think Godin’s theory is incomplete. Certain companies earn a voice even in a crowded market. If Apple launched this product, I think we would all have heard of it, and I might have one. As it stands now, I doubt I’ll ever own a Litl.

Innovation in Employee Compensation - Efficient but Unfortunate

2009-11-12T01:54:00.002-06:00

Our country is fairly quietly experiencing a major transition in the ways that professionals are compensated. The shift at hand causes services to be measured in more discreet increments than ever. The new ways that professionals are paid can be seen in medicine, law, and banking. Furthermore, the reforms in each undoubtedly will cause major change in the nature of each industry.

Putting aside the healthcare reform discussion for a moment, doctors currently are paid on a procedure-by-procedure basis, a system which some argue creates a strong economic incentive to over-prescribe procedures. One suggested answer so far has been to compensate physicians on an "episode-by-episode" basis, which would mean paying, for example, for a few months of cancer treatment at a time. The idea is to provide less incentive to over-prescribe, while staying away from simply paying one price for all healthcare.

Similarly to paying for "episodes of care," many law firms are switching to flat-fee arrangements. This fee-for-service approach means rather than paying attorneys by the billable hour, companies will pay a single price for services rendered. An example of fee-for-service would be paying one price for bundled tax service rather than paying by the hour. The shift will likely hit corporate attorneys first, and will almost always result in reduced earnings. Some companies have reported anticipating 15-20% reductions in legal expenses.

Investment Banking has taken national spotlight lately, especially with regards to employee compensation. In the wake of our economic collapse, G-20 (The Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors) has put forth new compensation guidelines. According to a Wall Street Journal article about the ways one company has adjusted to satisfy G-20, "the guidelines focus on shifting bankers' pay away from annual cash bonuses toward a compensation model based on deferred stock and the potential for firms to claw pay should performance suffer" (Wilson). Again, the emphasis is on being paid for no more than the necessary services - in the case of investment banking, only paying for services that create profit.

New, industry-wide pay systems are clearly innovative because they represent new ways of solving an old problem - namely, how to properly pay for services rendered. Each industry's approach to this problem has its own origin: purely from governmental regulation in the case of investment banking, from perceived societal needs in the case of medical care, or from general market forces as seems to be the case in the legal industry. Whatever the cause, though, each industry has an expressed need for new ideas about employee compensation. I think these innovations in employee compensation strive to increase efficiency throughout the economy. However, as an individual interested in two of the three professions mentioned above, I am not very enthusiastic about these changes.

Goldstein, Jacob. "Beyond Fee-for-Service: Paying Doctors for ‘Episodes of Care’." Web log post. WSJ Health Blog. Wall Street Journal, 30 Jan. 2009. Web. 11 Nov. 2009. .

Koppel, Nathan, and Ashby Jones. "'Billable Hour' Under Attack." Web log post. WSJ Law Blog. Wall Street Journal, 24 Aug. 2009. Web. 11 Nov. 2009.

Wilson, Harry. "Commerz Revamps Pay System." Wall Street Journal 11 Nov. 2009: C2. Print.

Volunteering and Tourism…Voluntourism!

2009-11-12T00:28:00.004-06:00

Are you familiar with the idea of voluntourism? For me, I encountered this strangely coined word for the first time in a recent article in the Time Magazine--Silver-Spoon Voluntourism: Luxury hotels offer day trips to help vacationers connect with communities. Voluntourism, also known as Volunteer Vacations, means doing voluntary work while you tour. Only after Googling did I realize that voluntourism is nothing new. In fact, it was recognized by the Travel Industry Association of America as a growing trend in tourism back in 2005. According to the latest poll by travel web site Travelocity, the percentage of travelers planning to volunteer during vacations in 2007 nearly doubled from the previous year, jumping from 6 percent to 11 (forbestraveler.com). Following traditional travel agencies and some NGOs, luxury hotels now jump in line and start to offer voluntourism trips to wealthy clients. Designed to connect tourists with the communities they visit, many short-term voluntourism projects involve hard labor. For instance, the Mandarin Oriental in Miami offers a two-night package in which guests spend a morning removing invasive plants and assisting with recycling programs in Everglades National Park. But unlike programs such as Habitat for Humanity that pair weeklong projects with unglamorous accommodations, “hotel-organized excursions generally take up no more than a day, and participants can cap off the experience back at the ranch with $15 cocktails and a night on high-thread-count sheets.”And do guests get discounts for being do-gooders? They don't. In some cases, hotels charge participants an extra $40 or more to cover transportation and other costs associated with their manual labor.

Having trips with a heavy focus on voluntary services sounds interesting. But is it innovative at all? Do you think it innovative for luxury hotels to offer voluntourism excursions? Presumably, participants in luxury hotel-organized trips are rich people who care about local communities.Thus so-called silver-spoon voluntourism claims another goal, which is to link local charities to potential donors. Unsure of how well this social function can be served,I see offering voluntourism trips as a clever move for luxurious hotels to address emerging consumer needs-just like adding another hotel amenity. In this regard, it is a well-received innovation, or even a Blue Ocean strategy--it creates a less competitive market for voluntourism where ordinary travel agencies can't easily enter because of its high-end nature.

Twitter’s Workout Plan?

2009-11-11T22:50:00.004-06:00

For all those seeking weight loss, Twitter could be the answer! A company named Withing has developed a WiFi scale that will not only monitor your weight, BMI and body mass, but will also share your information on Twitter..Incorporating fitness into social networking from the standpoint of motivation, could be a new key to weight loss. It's definitely an innovative addition to traditional social networking. Many people are drawn to social networking sites everyday to “check up on their friends”, but with this new technology your friends can see your weight loss or gain. Although, it sounds like the Wifi Scale will share too much of your personal information, think of how much personal information one is willing to post on Facebook, MySpace or other similar sites. In actuality, the Twitter function is not a default setting, but rather, it has to be enabled upon purchasing the scale. In this way, users can determine whether or not they want this information to be shared. If sharing is desired users can configure their scale to send their stats to "the Twitter" either daily, weekly, monthly, or each and every time they weigh in. Nike has benefitted from fitness products that report one’s personal metrics. However, will “tweeting” your weight be enough to do for dieters what Nike has done for runners?

For the bargain price of $159.00, this scale could be a revolutionary tool in the world of personal fitness and health. By making one’s weight a trackable item, it opens the door for more motivation as well as personal accountability because it will be more public. I think it would be cool to have friends across the nation working out and tweeting the results. I would personally love to try this product! Would you want your weight to be “tweeted” by your scale? Does it sound like it could be a successful venture? Or is weight the one thing that people might not disclose on the a social networking site?

Marketing the Innovation: Organic Beer

2009-11-11T22:35:00.001-06:00

In an interview, the founder of an organic brewing company states that in the beginning there was no market for his innovation, 99.6% organic beer made from pesticide free hops from the United States and New Zealand. When Peak Brewing Company came on the scene in 1998, CEO John Cadoux says that “people were puzzled by our product because consumers were not asking for organic beer.” This got me thinking about our innovations, because some of them, like Pomegranate Wheat Ale with Acai, are niche products that may not have a wide market.

For Peak Brewing Company, the answer to reaching a larger market was all in the six-pack packaging - trying to reach out to the undecided beer drinker who stands in the beer aisle for about 5 minutes trying to pick. In order to try and capture interest, Peak had devotees send in pictures of their own “peak” moments to make the six-packs interesting and attractive.

How do you go about marketing a product or service that there isn’t much initial interest in? This gets into the discussion of R vs. K strategists, but should you keep pursuing something that there isn’t a market for and hope that there will be in the future, or should you move on?

http://www.foxsmallbusinesscenter.com/entrepreneurs/2009/11/06/peak-brewing-beers-ceo-jon-cadoux-small-businesses/

Groupon

2009-11-11T21:25:00.004-06:00

So I maybe behind the times, but today was the first day I heard about the website Groupon. For those of you that have not heard about this yet, it is an online group-buying service. What that means exactly is that this site offers daily deals on products and services, but the deal has to reach critical mass for your purchase to go through.

To me the idea of online group-buying was new, however the more I read about Groupon I found out that few websites like this appeared during the dot-com era, but failed soon after starting. Clearly, Groupon is a k-strategists here, however what I find interesting is that multiple businesses doing this nine and ten years ago failed but Groupon is profiting after only one year.

The founder of Groupon, Andrew Mason, saw a need through his other start up, The Point, and reinvented a previous business models to fit today’s society. The huge factor I believe that has allowed this business to thrive the second time around was the timing, as we discussed was the case for RedBox. This time consumers are comfortable and often buy products online and during a recession people are looking to save money. Another factor is that Mason chose to make the site localized, which I see as a success factor largely because of the economy. Right now families are taking fewer vacations and searching for inexpensive local activities. It is obvious that the founder has a clear understanding of his environment, but because both success factors I have listed have to do with the economy has he done scenario planning for after the recession.

After the recession is this business model going to continue to thrive? I am having a hard time thinking of a company that would want to be on this site during a thriving economy, because currently companies are using this site as a marketing tool to get people in their door at a time when consumers are focused on saving. Are you able to think of any other markets Groupon could move into during a healthy economy?

I would also like to touch on the fact that no competitors have been identified. However it would be easy for one to enter and potential disrupt Groupon’s business, especially if Groupon is slow to reposition itself for a flourishing economy.

Below are two articles I found that discuss Groupon.

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/11/groupon-local/

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hUEFe0rOOO5UfALNMi3f1DGk4W5wD9BC9VRG0

Here is an article about Mercata, one of the similar websites created during the dot-com boom.

http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-250529.html

What makes blue oceans blue?

2009-11-10T22:28:00.002-06:00

Duh! I am coming to believe that the best innovations elicit that response when they reach the public. I have consistently been struck this semester by the simple innovations that have constituted a reimagining of an idea that I thought had reached its pinnacle in development. When I read about the “freedom leg,” I was struck by the simplicity of the technology, concomitant with the leap in thinking about the issue of mobility. FWD Mobility innovated the crutch…the crutch. And why not? Tiny Tim used the same crutch design that you or I would use if we broke our leg today. The freedom leg is a prosthetic leg that augments an injured leg instead of replacing a missing leg…a cell phone can be a cow. The freedom leg offers two significant advantages over the traditional crutch, it allows the user to use his hands, and prevents the leg muscles from atrophying. Clearly this product offers significant value, but I’m wondering if it is a disruptive technology? Will the crutch market scramble to compete with this innovation? I have my doubts, but to me that makes it no less innovative. The Freedom Leg seems like it has the potential to make a lot of money while providing value to customers. The crutch industry is about a $280 million industry, and to carve out a portion of that could still be valuable. It seems that an ocean is not just made red by the fact that there are many competitors, but by the ferocity with which competitors will fight for that market space. The crutch has become such a generic device that is only one of many medical devices produces by the companies that produce them. It doesn’t seem worth their time and investment dollars to compete with this new product. This provides another space for innovation. Not just where competitors don’t exist, but where a product has become so generic that it is ubiquitous.

Can An Innovation Center Be An Innovative Way To Combat Brain Drain?

2009-11-09T23:30:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, Indiana University’s President, Michael McRobbie, dedicated the 40,000 sq. ft., $10 million, state of the art IU Innovation Center. Being from Indiana and the child of two IU alumni, this article intrigued me. Indiana is a state plagued by brain drain. Despite its many highly rated public academic institutions (no, Purdue is not a private school), after graduation, many alumni leave the Midwest. They often head to larger costal cities for greener economic pastures. The opening of this Innovation Center makes me wonder if such programs could work to combat Indiana brain drain?

At first this article seemed to indicate that it could. The IU Innovation Center holds facilities for not only university researchers but also for private start-up companies. One goal of the center is to take the most innovative products and concepts that are created there to the marketplace with the help of staff and students alike. The article sites two prior success stories of Angel Stories and Therametric Technologies; companies that after going public have remained in Indiana. However, the relationship between the university and private start-up companies left me with many concerns about reproducing this initial success. What is to say that these companies and researchers will remain in Indiana once they have developed their big-idea? When does IU stop worrying about innovation and start worrying about profit margins? Who has the IP rights?

Speaking of IP rights, another source of concern I had with this announcement from IU newsroom was the focus on patent development. The announcement celebrated that last year IU filed a record 167 patent applications. After our class discussion on the topic, I would argue that filing numerous patent applications is not always productive, nor always indicative of innovation. As detailed in my previous blog post on the backlogged patent process, patents are often just the first time someone has put an old idea on paper. How exactly do you see the relationship between patents and innovation? What do you think IU can do to keep the focus of the IU Innovation Center on innovation and not on patent applications filed and profits grossed?

For more on brain drain: http://www.midwestbusiness.com/news/viewnews.asp?newsletterID=15792

Getting to the top of the class

2009-11-05T06:44:00.003-06:00

Interactive whiteboards are introduced to almost a third of K-12 classes in the U.S. It replaced a traditional blackboard and it is not only a blackboard but also a computer. More than half interactive whiteboards all over the world are made by Smart Techonologies. The husband-and-wife cofounders are David A. Martin and Nancy Knowlton. The motive of their invention comes from the idea that “We want to change the way the world works and learns.” Therefore, they create interactive whiteboards to increase student enjoyment, decrease behavior problems and also translate into better student achievement in order to help students get more actively involved with learning.
This invention has two benefits. The first one is that it reduces the environmental pollution. In the past few years, teachers used either a blackboard or a whiteboard when they taught their students. Chalk and white board marker were utilized. In fact, both of them produce indoor air pollution. During instruction, teachers and students are unconscious of inhaling chalk dust and the toxic fumes from their whiteboard markers, which harm their health. Therefore, interactive whiteboards prevent teachers and students from this danger. Also, the cost will go down in the long run, because schools do not need to buy any chalk or markers. Another benefit is that visual aid is an effective tool to improve learning. Showing a video, a chart, or photographs is conducive to strengthening the impression. Additionally, abstract explanation can become simple and easy to understand by visual aid. Accordingly, this innovation not only enhances the effectiveness of children’s learning but also lessens pollution.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1005/technology-smart-technologies-getting-to-top-of-class.html

Disney's "Princess" - Method vs Application

2009-11-05T00:46:00.004-06:00

Does an idea have to be anything new in order to be innovative? Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” will be its first hand-animated full-length film in six years. Obviously the animation techniques of hand-drawn films are nothing new, but the context of the animation has changed. Over the past several years, moviegoers have seen an influx of 3D movies – not only fancy 3D graphics like those seen in Shrek, but movies that require the use of special glasses such as Meet the Robinsons or, currently, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. In an era when movies literally pop off the screen, a film that features a traditional animation style has the potential to stand out as something different, even new-feeling.
I think that this movie represents innovation because it breaks from the current norm. It seems to me that old ideas, methods, and technology, if applied in a new situation or context can be considered innovative. Old ideas can be solutions to new problems, causing the application of these old ideas to be innovative.
Disney’s return to old animation techniques seems to indicate that as a production house, it is open to free-thinking – or at least is now. In 2003, Disney made a commitment to computer-based animation after several “hand-drawn flops” (Smith). The studio has changed this strategy, though, acknowledging that this films failed on account of poor writing, not bad animation.
Can an idea exist separately from its application? In my mind, to consider Disney’s return to hand-drawn animation as innovative implicitly states a separation between the technology, method, etc. and its application. Both can be innovative independently.

Smith, Ethan. "For 'Princess,' Disney Returns to Traditional Animation Style." Wall Street Journal 2 Nov. 2009: A1. Print.

Innovation or Fashion Fad?

2009-11-04T22:30:00.003-06:00

This blog is a spin off of Brittany's earlier blog about dolls and our discussion during the last class about marketing. The two unique dolls I've heard of recently include Plain Pamela and Palm Beach Sugar Daddy Ken. These dolls really make me question whether they are examples of innovation or marketing fads.

Plain Pamela is a homely doll that was designed to boost the confidence of young girls. This doll has psoriasis, ugly clothes, unattractive figure, and is programmed to say things like, "I wish I was as pretty as you". The argument is that Mattel believes there is an existing need to combat the female self-image issues that Barbie's unrealistic attributes have caused in the past. But is this product really being innovative in addressing the need? I argue that while it is a different and considerably creative concept, it is not being innovative in cultivating positive image in young girls. What would need to be changed about the doll in order to address the need more effectively? To truly be considered an innovative product, I would suggest the delivery of positive messages along with dolls that could be considered more culturally diverse, as Brittany discussed previously.

I'll leave your thoughts on Palm Beach Sugar Daddy Ken. I would argue that the Ken doll was yet another one of Barbie's accessories but this doll is different and described as the ultimate metrosexual or gay male socialite. Is this innovative? Does it really fill a need?

Implantable Antenna's: The Future of Medicine?

2009-11-04T20:16:00.001-06:00

As technology continues to change, so too does the practice of medicine. Medicine benefits from new technology in a huge way—arthroscopic surgeries, non-invasive surgeries are all things that have benefitted the medical field as technology has changed.

A new device that is in the works is an implantable antenna. It would use new wireless technologies and allow for patient care to occur outside of the doctor’s office. According to an article in Wired,” New low-power wireless technologies make it possible to implant monitoring devices in people's bodies, to help keep an eye on blood pressure, metabolism and other vital statistics”.

While this seems like a great idea, there is huge challenge that the creators need to overcome in order for this to be a success. According to the article, “one of the challenges of these new wireless devices is designing a suitable antenna that can operate within the human body where fat, muscle and skin tissue create challenging conditions for wireless signals”. This antenna must also be to work in various conditions, as each person’s body is different from the next.

The implantable antenna uses “the 402-405MHz Medical Implant Communications Service (MICS) frequency band. Combined with a custom integrated chip or a system on a chip, device makers can use the antenna in pacemakers, neurostimulation devices, and swallow-able imaging and diagnostic systems.” The device would also allow for doctors to follow blood pressure, heart rate, metabolism and numerous other vital functions.

This has the potential to change patient care. It would be a paradigm shift, as people who were implanted with this device would no longer need to go to the doctor for a routine check-up. Doctors could do it all on-line. Would this eliminate the need for general practitioners? Would it create a new specialty—one that would have to do with digital monitoring of these wireless antennas? As in the article by Malone, would this encourage a group of those who monitor vitals to work together in an electronic way? Is this a new form of collective intelligence?

Another question I have about this is does it have the potential to turn into a “Big Brother” situation, where employers or government workers are able to monitor vitals of whoever they chose?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/28/future.gadgets/index.html

Grassfitti and Internet Search Movies

2009-11-04T14:12:00.003-06:00

This week's reading about crowds, electronic data, and collective intelligence reminded me of an incident in 2006 in which AOL accidentally released keyword data from 3-months worth of internet searches. I wondered whether anyone had attempted to mine that data and what they might have found. In researching that, I came across this. It's a documentary made using search terms from one of the users. You can watch the full thing here.

That got me thinking about the ways in which innovation is about connections, whether it be through networks or just one person's individual realization (a cell phone can be a cow!). I also wondered why we haven't talked much about art (secret innovation projects and Marge Simpson aside) in our class discussions, because I think that art (broadly including film, photography, literature, etc) is also often about those connections. That's not to say that art always equals innovation, and maybe there's kind of a gray area between what's innovative and what's not. What do you think?

Also, on the same website, Guerilla Innovation, which some of you may be familiar with, there was a link to a video about Grassfitti "sustainable graffitti"(grass can be graffitti!). The whole video is kind of long, but if you skip to about 2:00 in you can see the actual process and results.

Build Your Dream Car

2009-11-04T12:20:00.002-06:00

After active duty in Iraq in 2005, John Rogers attended Harvard Business School with a mission - to build a new, sustainable car company – not in the alternative fuel, eco-friendly sense, but in reducing waste from mass-production of cars. Local Motors (LM”), which launched in March 2008 after Rogers raised $4M, plans to differentiate itself producing vehicles on-demand in local “micro-factories” where buyers watch and can participate in building dream cars. The LM site calls for designers to submit dream car sketches, and they can enter their ideas for specific cars to win contests (even up to $30K).

LM has 4,000 active contributors. It will release its first original vehicle, the off-road Rally Fighter (pictured), in June 2010. The Rally concept received rave reviews after being posted on LM, and Rogers thinks it will reach an under-serviced niche market for off-roaders. Interested buyers pay $99 for dibs to purchase the car, are invited to Wareham, MA to help build the car when production starts, and can buy the completed cars for $50K. Twenty-three orders exist.

The idea intrigued me for a couple of reasons. First, the concept of submission and critique of ideas on the site incorporates design thinking in a way I had not thought about – Rogers is putting the onus on customers rather than paid designers such as those employed by IDEO. This follows the principles of design thinking that Brown laid out in his article (2008) and which we have discussed. Presumably, members of LM’s community are the would-be users, or at least interested enthusiasts, who can connect design to utility. This seems effective to me, and something we could think about in developing final projects.

Also, Rogers has his eye on other disruptive innovations in the automobile market (such as other, green-focused entrepreneurs like Tesla Motors) and is taking this concept into an under-shot section of the market – custom design and build for niche customers – and skipping the possibly over-shot green car market. (Anthony and Christensen 2003).

Rogers claims he is trying to “rethink rather than overtake the traditional auto industry.” Regarding our discussions on targeting niche markets: If an innovation only stays within this specific market, has it been a successful one? Or does entrance into the niche market have to lead to a disruption of the larger market share?

So, Rogers is not interested going mainstream. However, manufacturing cars is a complicated business involving safety, environmental implications, manual labor, expensive parts, and more. Can a small customer base like Rogers’ sustain the resources it will need to stay afloat in this complex, and currently very troubled, market.

I think it’s iffy – especially given decreases in discretionary spending and negativity associated with the auto industry. The framework in which Rogers has built LM, with the online community of design thinkers and the focus on customer interest and input is effective, but I’m not sure making cars is the right place to employ it.

On the other hand, is Rogers preparing a business that will boom when the economy does recover, i.e., is he taking a risk to predict the future state of the industry that will pay off as we recently discussed?

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/oct2009/id20091028_848755.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+%2B+design_top+stories

Rent-A-Goat

2009-11-03T23:46:00.008-06:00

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/10/rent-a-ruminant-goats-clearing-brush-photos-before-and-after.php

What has 4 legs, a huge appetite, and might someday edge out heavy tools or tractors for the use of brush clearing? You guessed it: goats. Seattle-based landscaping company, “Rent-A-Ruminant,” contracts herds of goats out to landscaping jobs needing large amounts of brush and overgrowth cleared. For larger jobs, up to 60 goats are hired and are capable of clearing 10,000 square feet in approximately 3-5 days. What are the benefits of using goats instead of tools, manual labor, or machinery? Well, the goats are environmentally friendly (zero carbon emissions), are walking fertilizers, and can easily go places machinery and people would struggle to get to like steep inclines and uneven terrain. Laughing? Well, when cities, counties, and contractors are willing to pay $800 a day to use a herd of your goats for a job, you might not be.

The use of goats as a replacement for machinery or manual labor holds many implications of a disruptive innovation. One project manager in Seattle estimates that by hiring goats he saved $6,000 to $9,000 and at least 3 days of labor on a job that would typically require the use of heavy machinery and a crew of laborers at least a week to complete. On top of that, his decision was very popular with the neighborhood as the goats substituted noisy machinery and gave the kids and adults plenty to talk about. Gardeners and landscapers are scooping this idea up because of the large amounts of free fertilizer they are able to gather as the goats get busy eating away weeds and brush.

The value these goats create is substantial. They are less expensive than the alternative (manual labor and/or machinery). They are environmentally friendly and their waste is in high demand of gardeners and other people needing fresh, natural fertilizer. It improves upon a process and benefits all three components involved: the goat gets to do what it does best and enjoys most, and that is eating; the owner of the goats earns money from an animal that typically lives inactively in pastures; and the contractor who has rented the goats can complete a job more efficiently and with a less negative impact on the environment.

For more information and to see some great pictures, follow the links below:

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/319789_goats14.html

http://inventorspot.com/articles/renta_ruminant_unusual_livestock_landscaping_company_34156

Innovation at iTunes University

2009-10-30T02:40:00.005-05:00

I was exploring iTunes U and came across a University of Cambridge course on Innovation that I thought I'd share with you all. It consists of fourteen audio clips of lectures by global business leaders on interesting topics such as "Creativity in China," and "Evolution, Revolution - or Business Collapse". The lecture I particularly enjoyed was "Bottom up Innovation," in which the speaker discusses innovative ideas that came from villages in India.

You can find this course under the Business category in iTunes U - check it out if you're interested!

"The Business of Innovation" show on CNBC

2009-10-29T18:05:00.003-05:00

There is a 3-part TV show airing on CNBC about the business of innovation.

Description from website: "Through detailed analysis and discussion with visionaries, problem solvers, provocateurs and people on the ground floor, the series will examine not only how technology will benefit our cities, healthcare and workplaces, but also the derivative plays of new technology that will infiltrate other systems."

Learn more and watch each episode online here: business of innovation

Upcoming TV air times :

Reshaping Cities
US: Monday, November 9th 9p | 1a ET

Redefining Healthcare
US: Monday, November 16th 9p | 1a ET

Rethinking Work
US: Monday, November 23rd 9p | 1a ET

DELL's Re-positioning Effort

2009-10-28T22:39:00.007-05:00

A recent issue of Business Week features an in-depth account of Dell's strenuous effort to re-position itself in the rapidly changing PC market through complete restructure, under the leadership of Michael Dell. Dell's strategic make-over is primarily a forced (and maybe also a much delayed) response to its plunging stock and shrinking market share. As illustrated in the graph below, Dell has retreated steadily in the past years while rivals Apple and HP enjoyed substantial growth.

The old Dell succeeded by undercutting rivals on price. Mastery of logistics and supply chain, together with minimal investment in R&D, allowed Dell to operate at a low cost. Investing less than 1% of its revenue in R&D, Dell used to rely on Microsoft and Intel for most innovations. But as computer technologies advance and consumer needs change, this same strategy that gave Dell its price advantage proves to be irrelevant in a changed market. Lack of innovation comes to hurt Dell’s business.

In this situation, Dell plans sweeping shifts along four lines: distribution, innovation, acquisitions and management. To read the full account of Dell’s shifts in process and personnel, please go to
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_43/b4152036025436.htm.

Now I’ll just comment on moves where I see most innovation.

In search for “a heavy-hitter to go up against Apple and HP,” Dell invited Ed Boyd, an experienced designer at Nike to join the crew. Recognizing customers’ desire for more personalized products, Boyd introduced a feature called Design Studio, where customers pay an extra $85 to get certain designs on laptops. A large and ever growing selection of more than two hundred designs is available. Although personalized laptop decoration is nothing new, Dells makes a pioneer in PC manufacturers to provide this much discretion to customers. This can be seen as Dell’s first attempt to find its Blue Ocean—introducing value-adding features without heavy invests in the development of core technologies. Some may say that this Design Studio option doesn’t amount to a real Blue Ocean, since it appears to be easily copyable to other PC manufacturers. I’m not sure how copyable this actually is. Understandably, personalized product will incur more production and shipping cost and pose challenges to the company’s customer services (e.g. guarantee & return policy). It demands more from the management of supply chain and distribution network. Without actually knowing relevant costs, I expect the above-mentioned implications to give Dell some room to play with. If the Design Studio feature work well with Dell’s existing distribution network, it will give Dell advantage as a first-mover and merit the concept of Blue Ocean.

Another evidence of Dell’s re-positioning and rebranding effort. With increased investment in R&D, Dell is developing a new flashy product line, the Adamo Series. The Adamo XPS, world's thinnest notebook, at 0.39-inches thick will be launched pretty soon. Garriques, head of Dell’s consumer division, says the $2,000 computer will serve as a statement about Dell. "This isn't going to be a high-volume product for us, but it's going to be a product that says, 'Wow! Dell did that. What else does Dell have?' " How will it work? Let’s wait and see.

Germany's Internet Copyright Proposal

2009-10-28T18:49:00.000-05:00

Germany’s publishing giants and news outlets are trying to change copyright laws in Germany to help protect traditional media from the internet. Chancellor Angela Merkel “has pledged to create a new kind of copyright to protect online journalism.” Really, German publishers are tired of seeing companies like google “exploit their content” without paying any royalties or anything for the information. The coalition government has said that “the Internet cannot be a copyright-free zone.” Critics say that this proposal is only happening “because German publishers have failed to build successful business models on the internet” and that the internet should stay as unregulated as possible.

The core of the coalition’s proposal is to give publishers a “neighboring right” whereby a license would be required for any “commercial use” of published material online. Private use of news articles would not require a license.

What it really comes down to is the same thing that 20th century business models in every industry are dealing with: adapting in the digital age and for a digital future. The “Internet Manifesto” that journalists wrote after German publishers proposed the new copyright, they said that “copyright must not be misused as a lever to protect outdated distribution methods and to secure new business and licensing models.”

Is this copyright innovation a quick fix for Germany’s publishers, or is it necessary to protect news media in the age of the internet? Because of the EU, legislation in member states does not exist in a vacuum. How would a copyright change like this work out in the EU, or in the US?

From “Germany Looks at Ways to Protect Online Journalism” by Eric Pfanner, The New York Times.

Google Enters Yet Another Market

2009-10-28T18:19:00.003-05:00

Google announced today that they are going to offer a FREE navigation system for mobile phones. This was clearly the next step for Google considering they already have all the information for the navigation system. This new feature is part of the latest version of Google Maps for Mobile. Today Verizon and Motorola unveiled the Droid (Motorola Droid pictured), which is a smartphone powered by Android 2.0 the system by which Google Maps for Mobile will be operated.

Verizon and Motorola are undoubtedly partnering with Google as part of the ongoing battle with the iPhone. Verizon had previously offered a mobile navigation system, but it was $10 a month. I am interested to see how the iPhone will fight back. Will iPhone also partner with Google, the k-strategist in this situation, or will they remain with MapQuest whose directions are inferior to Google Maps (in my opinion)? There are a lot of features that Google Maps for Mobile will offer that is not being offered currently by the iPhone. These features include live updates on traffic conditions and voice command recognition.

There is also another huge point to be made with Google’s product innovation. Will it be disruptive to the TomToms of this world? There is no doubt in mind that it will be disruptive, but how soon will this disruption occur? It is going to take time for the new Droids to get in people’s hands and therefore I do not believe that the disruption will happen immediately. Because of a recent introduction by TomTom of an iPhone app that costs $100 I believe that the company understood that a disruption was underway. Though the $100 is better than the cost of their $300 device it is nothing compared to free. How is the GPS industry going to combat the “low-end” disruptive innovations being introduced (Anthony and Christensen)? Do you think that it is feasible for the GPS industry to create a competitor to the free mobile navigation devices popping up? I think it is impossible for the GPS makers to offer a free mobile application because they have to make money. What do you think they should do next? Is there anything they can do?

Tired of Gym? Meet Mat...

2009-10-28T18:12:00.004-05:00

When I think of yoga the first thing that comes to mind is a group of hippies sitting around meditating. Not anymore! I came across Hot Yoga as an innovative alternative to the traditional workout regimen with a focus on inner tranquility and strength. The practice and stances belong to Bikram yoga, which was intended to correct western culture's propensity for physical and mental stress. Yoga has been around for centuries but you have to admit that Hot Yoga is a creative twist to the classic form of meditation. Not only will you find the 'hippy types' in a class but also people of all ages, sizes, and walks of life. The craze has even spread to professional athletes!

The room in which the yoga is conducted is kept in the range of 100-105 degrees with a humidity of about 60%. From the heat and humidity alone it is easy to distinguish the innovative delivery of the yoga stances. The heat also allows one to focus more on strength and flexibility within the stances and less on muscle strain. When I googled the practice I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the Bikram yoga stances are patented. There have even been some legal battles over copyright protection but that's not completely surprising considering all we know regarding patent infringement, trolls, and overall system abuse.

I challenge you to experience Hot Yoga first hand! If you'd rather pass, check out the link below and think of other ways Hot Yoga has become an innovative practice.

Namaste :)

www.hotyoganashville.com

SkyMall (you know you need a Spy Pen)

2009-10-27T20:48:00.009-05:00

Founded in 1990, SkyMall originally operated as a delivery service- maintaining warehouses near to or on selected airport properties for same-day delivery of its catalog products to customers. Frequent travelers may recognize it more readily in its current form, described by their website as “a multi-channel, direct marketer offering high-quality, innovative merchandise from top direct marketers and manufacturers through its SkyMall catalog and web site.” If you’re not familiar with SkyMall, get thee to their website and check it out. You might even find something you need (who doesn’t need a cat box disguised as a potted plant or a home neck-traction system?).

As far as innovation goes, the product lines they feature (most often from other companies’ catalogs) vary widely in how innovative they are- I’ll let you judge for yourselves. (CEO Christine Aguilera believes the products they feature are innovative, as you can see in this article when she says “What is recession resistant is innovation.”) SkyMall itself, however, serves as both an innovation and a market for fermentation to occur.

According to their website, their catalog, distributed primarily in the seat-backs of airplanes, “is seen by approximately 88% of all domestic air passengers reaching more than 650 million air travelers annually." That’s a lot of potential customers viewing your product, and each and every one of those people is strapped in for the duration. This potential customer base is the source of both their ability to be a so-called “Blue Ocean” innovation and a market in which fermentation can occur.

In order to best understand how SkyMall is a Blue Ocean innovation, we have to focus not on the products they offer, but rather on the catalog itself as a part of the direct marketing industry, with product developers as its customer (buying advertising space in the magazine). Traditional direct marketing products (catalogs, “junk mail” advertisements, etc), focus on the mail as their primary distribution method. By opening up delivery to the captive audience of air travelers, SkyMall has succeeded in creating what Kim and Mauborgne refer to as a “value innovation” for its customers, and therefore creating a new and specific market within the direct marketing industry.

Likewise, they may also be providing an opportunity for product testing and ferment. In the New York Times article linked above, it is mentioned that the product selection changes with each issue of the catalog (issued four times per year). Some items, those that sell the best, may remain from issue to issue. This allows companies to expose a broad range of customers to each product they develop and judge which one sells best. Additionally, you may see similar products made by different manufacturers listed in the same catalog, which allows them to compete against one another, creating an environment hospitable to the ferment process by which potentially disruptive innovations emerge.

Innovating Executive Pay

2009-10-27T20:48:00.004-05:00

BMW has announced plans to link the pay of top managers to those of their assembly line workers. This innovative pay structure comes after much scrutiny over executive compensation during the current economic crisis. The compensation plan, starting in 2010 will use a common formula to link upper and lower level employees to the company’s performance. This means that management will have the potential to lose more than workers for poor performance. They believe that this will create a more transparent and sustainable organization.

This pay structure is an innovation in paradigm at BMW. There is a change in the organizational culture. Their old culture placed a greater emphasis on performance for the workers and now their culture will place performance emphasis on all employees. This shows they are concerned about creating sustainable personnel policies. Do you agree that this pay structure is innovative?

While I believe that this is a good idea, I also believe that it presents a lot of risks for BMW. One risk I foresee is that management will work towards the performance objectives that are measured and not the overarching strategic objectives of BMW. Do you think this a good idea? Are there any risks that you foresee?

Another risk I foresee is that it will discourage technical innovations in the firm. This compensation structure could cause both management and workers to focus on current production and financial numbers and not the future of BMW. However, I also think that it could encourage innovation by creating a more collaborative work environment. Do you think this initiative will affect technical innovations at BMW?

I believe that this type of pay structure, where pay is linked to performance, could be used in any organization. The difficulty lies in creating fair measures of performance. One industry that I believe this could be easily implemented is the banking industry where C.E.O. compensation has also been highly scrutinized. Can you think of other industries that this would work in? Do you think that other companies will follow BMW and create similar pay structures?

Paging Dr. Movie Selection...

2009-10-25T23:28:00.003-05:00

... or whatever it was?

I was just thinking about your dilemma and wondered if you had decided on either a movie website or an art for kids innovation.

I was also wondering if you had though about combining the two ideas- maybe take your movie website idea and turn it into educational software that helps kids figure out what kind of art resonates with them? I think that's what got me into art originally- finding something I liked, learning more about it, and branching out from there. There are a million directions you could go with that...

Or maybe you already have something. I was just curious as to how that was going, and I'm sure I'm not the only one- let us know how you're doing.

Don't overuse technology just because you can

2009-10-25T21:31:00.001-05:00

This article from businessweek.com uses four watches to show that just because innovators can use a new and trendy technology in their product, doesn’t necessarily mean that they should. Three of the watches have touch screens, while one does not. The author shows that the touch screen watches are no better than the one without a touch screen. He draws attention to his own theory, the Long Nose of Innovation. In this theory, he asserts that any technology which is likely to make an impact over the next 10 years is already at least 10 years old, and in the process of being perfected. Thus, simply incorporating what you think is a new innovation (like a touch screen) into your product is really not innovative at all.

This led me to also consider the Blackberry Storm, which seemed to represent a scramble for Research In Motion to keep up with the iPhone. However, Blackberry Storms have received terrible reviews, and loyal Blackberry customers have tended to stick with more traditional models with a screen and full keyboard.

This article also led me to consider Malcolm Gladwell’s article, Smaller. While it was incredible innovative for diaper companies to come up with ways to make their diapers more compact, this was not a trend that other industries needed to follow. For example, throughout the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, mobile telephones were becoming smaller and thinner as time went on. One was not able to tell if we would one day be using cell phones like that in Zoolander. However, more recently a shift has occurred and people want their smart phones to have bigger screens and interfaces. Cell phone manufacturers who continued to make their products smaller - just because they could - likely missed out on this opportunity to appeal to a new audience.

Thus, this article and several examples from historical trends show that copying another innovation’s technology is not a sure way to gain equal success.

Welcome to the University of iTunes!

2009-10-22T01:28:00.005-05:00

In the article we read and discussed last week, “How You Can Benefit by Predicting Change,” authors Anthony and Christensen state that it is crucial for leaders to be able to identify early signs of industry change, so that they can “have the best chance of creating new growth by bringing disruptive innovations into a marketplace.” Apple’s iTunes University, and other open courseware technologies, in my opinion, can be considered a hugely disruptive development in the academic world. I have always been intrigued by the idea of disruptive innovations in education, and how schools and universities can leverage new technologies as instructional tools, as well as marketing vehicles.

So far, hundreds of universities have recorded lectures and seminars to be available to their students and the general public via downloads through iTunes University. This has proved to be immensely successful as a supplementary instructional tool in the traditional learning environment – HEC’S MBA program even provides each student an IPOD Touch so they have access to recorded lectures and even use it for class activities. In addition, iTunes U has been used by many universities as a distance learning tool, delivering course content to students whose schedule or location prohibits them from attending class on-campus. Of course, iTunes U has also made university curriculum and content available to those who may not have access to it otherwise, enabling anyone to “attend a class” at prestigious universities such as Yale and HEC Paris without having to pay thousands of dollars in tuition. As Anthony and Christensen stated, exploring ways to “meet the needs of overshot customers, undershot customers and non-consuming customers” is one of the most important ways organizations can predict change and leverage disruptive developments, such as web-based learning, to their advantage. For many universities, the primary incentive for participation has been marketing and advertising – sharing a sample of their curriculum in order to spark public’s interest in their academic programs and increase enrollment.

This, of course, brings me to another article we read for last week’s class, “Open Courses: Free, but Oh, So Costly” which criticizes universities’ use of open courseware sites merely for marketing purposes (versus offering credit), and discusses the challenge of universities to find a profitable business model for offering open courses. While I am certainly not a higher ed. expert, I believe having some sort of mechanism for distance learning has become crucial in universities today. University of Phoenix was a blue ocean strategist initially when it started offering online degrees, but now it seems that the majority of universities recognize the value of distance learning technologies in reaching a wider audience and adapting to the needs of a changing market. I think there is great potential in using tools such as iTunes University as part of a distance learning strategy and leveraging this “disruptive innovation” of open courseware sites to benefit both learners and universities. What do you think a profitable business model for this would look like?

Are new Black barbies too much or not enough?

2009-10-22T00:03:00.002-05:00

Mattel just recently introduced a new line of Black Barbies. While, this new endeavor may not seem so novel, it’s definitely a new spin on something that has been around for awhile, and thus qualifies as innovation. The new line of Barbies have features like fuller lips and curlier hair that aims to better represent African-American women. Although, these are significant improvements when compared to the first Black Barbie, Christie, that was launched in 1969, there are still critics. Some say that the Barbies features are “unrealistic,” that the long, straight hair could be replaced by braids or an afro. Others , like a person who comments below the article, contend that “Barbie has always been white, and to change her race and keep her name, for the sake of profit or any other reason, is just sick”. Clearly there are very different viewpoints including those that applaud the new line.

This criticism of the new Barbie shows how innovation can be difficult for people to accept because it involves changing their current way of understanding the world. For some it may be easier to picture Barbie as White, while for others Barbie isn’t Black enough. At what point does innovation survive on it’s merits? Do we have an innate need for incrementalism? Clearly, some people want Barbie to have an Afro, but will this innovate too much? Is there such a thing? Does innovation have to be a complete transformation? Or can Barbie keep her long, straight hair and still be innovative? I, personally think this particular innovation is strong because it makes a small change that makes a big difference . I think Mattel should “envision the future” a little bit more and use it’s past offerings to inform how they can improve them and create more diversity on the store shelves. Doesn’t a Latina Barbie seem like the appropriate next step?

"The New Untouchables" in the workforce

2009-10-21T14:56:00.002-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/opinion/21friedman.html?_r=1#articleBodyLink

The link above leads to a great article from yesterday's New York Times about what it's going to take to stay competitive in the American labor market after the current recession. The writer calls for an upgrade in the public school system, but also maintains that in order to remain employable in the future, people must be creative, innovative, and strategic. Ultimately, the workers who go to work each day waiting for work to be given to them will be in constant danger of being victims of any cut-back. Timely advice for a class learning how to constantly stay innovative in any career we each choose.

The More the Merrier for Innovation?

2009-10-21T12:37:00.004-05:00

I recently read an entry in the NY Times’ Economix blog by Casey Mulligan, University of Chicago economics professor, regarding the relationship between population and innovation. His article refutes a Unicef study that promotes the benefits of family planning and population control for environmental health (via reduced carbon emissions and resultant climate change). Mulligan counters that population growth increases the chance for innovative minds to come up with alternative energy solutions or to mitigate effects of carbon emissions.

In our dicussions regarding the right conditions for innovation, I haven’t thought about how the number of people on this planet affects innovation. At first, Mulligan’s position seemed easily defensible. Even if brilliant innovators will still be born regardless of population control, he says, their incentives to innovate would diminish. Incentives are important for innovation, he says, as evidenced by our patent system that protects (in theory) the innovator’s financial rewards. Indeed, we had an in-depth lecture on the complex US patent system and the incentive to innovate related to property rights (Gilbert 2006). In addition, Mulligan continues, market size stimulates innovation: pharmaceutical research is more intense for widespread conditions. We have supported the concept (e.g., our discussions about orphan drugs). Plus, it just makes common sense that the more people there are, the more chance there will be that innovative ideas will come to fruition. Right?

I think the network perspective article we read would support that –weak ties are a strong tool for innovation (Conway and Steward 2009) and the larger and more diverse the universe of connections, the more weak ties there will be among networks.

However, Anthony and Christensen might say that fringe markets (overshot and undershot customers) are most ripe for innovation. I’m not personally advocating population control, but looking into the relationship between markets and innovation from this population angle was interesting. If the universe of the markets shrinks, wouldn’t that change the dynamics of the “battle for existing customers in existing markets” (Anthony & Christensen 2005) so that more markets become fringe markets? I think a smaller market universe might force smarter, more specialized, more disruptive innovations.

Specific to this article, is population control a viable solution to environmental problems, or does population growth increases the chance of innovative environmental solutions?

More generally, would a smaller population make spotting trends in Anthony and Christensen’s methodology easier and therefore inspire more disruption? Would it reduce the size of the blue ocean competition and spark more red ocean ideas?

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/the-more-the-merrier-population-growth-promotes-innovation/?scp=1&sq=innovation&st=cse

Liquid Lens: The “Silver Glasses” $1 Solution in Repairing Third World Eyesight

2009-10-21T10:41:00.003-05:00

Affordable Price + Optician-free Spectacle Design = Innovative solution to increasing Third World eyesight

As many of us prepare for Thanksgiving, it may be worthwhile to spend some time appreciating those innovators striving to improve the world. Professor Josh Silver aims to do just that with his innovative Harry Potter-esque “Silver Glasses,” which are designed to improve the vision of those without access to an optometrist. Although people in wealthy countries have little trouble accessing an optometrist or purchasing a pair of glasses, it’s not so easy in less developed countries. According to Silver, there is a significant lack of optometrists in Africa - about 1 to every 8 million people. In England, on the other hand, optometrists are much more plentiful- about 1 to every 10,000 people. To solve this problem, Dr. Silver, a former professor of physics at Oxford University, discovered a new way to alter the curvature of lenses while studying mirrors in his lab. Silver then applied this method to create a new form of water-filled corrective lens that easily adjust and correct over 90% of users’ vision. This is particularly useful for people in developing countries, where optometrists are costly and unavailable.

Given that half the human population has impaired vision, Silver’s product innovation satisfies a pressing need and offers numerous benefits. First, the glasses can be easily mass-produced. Rather than manufacturing a variety of unique lenses – each tailored to users’ specific needs - Silver can easily mass-produce millions of the glasses. Although this one-size-fits-all design may not succeed in highly developed countries like the U.S., Silver’s goal is to help the millions of people in impoverished countries who suffer from poor vision. Secondly, the “Silver Glasses” are very cheap and affordable (around $1) for consumers in developing countries. Thirdly, international literacy rates will significantly improve following distribution of the glasses. Given that good eyesight is required for good observation, the glasses can also promote innovation and scientific discovery in developing countries.

So far, about 30,000 “Silver Glasses” have been distributed to people throughout 15 impoverished countries. However, Professor Silver’s end-goal is far more ambitious. Ultimately, Silver hopes to distribute the glasses to over one billion people by 2020 by distributing 100 millions pairs annually.

Despite Silver’s humble claim that his invention was merely a “glimpse of the obvious,” I think his innovation is groundbreaking. Given that the glasses are entering a new, untapped market – the cheap, nonprescription glasses market- Silver’s product innovation is a blue ocean strategy. Venturing into this unknown market, the “Silver Glasses” are creating demand rather than fighting for it. Moreover, Conway and Steward argued that organizations must actively involve and leverage their “networks” to achieve sustainable innovative value. Revolutionary innovations, such as Sony’s Betamax, typically require widespread support from key organizations to achieve success and sustainability. Similarly, I think Professor Silver must utilize support from his network’s key “players” (Non-Profits, the UN, national & local governments, companies, etc.) to establish a distribution infrastructure and deliver innovative value. Without such network support, the “Silver Glasses” innovation may fail to deliver large-scale value to the international community.

How can Professor Silver use “organizational networks” to deliver his innovation on a large-scale, global level?

What are the disruptive implications, if any, of the “Silver Glasses”?

For more information:

http://blog.ted.com/2009/09/adjustable_liqu.php

http://www.vdw.ox.ac.uk/

Innovation in an Inhospitable Environment

2009-10-21T01:59:00.002-05:00

So, I am in Maui this week (don’t worry, I’m keeping up with my schoolwork). I have been hanging out on the beach and seeing the sights, and along the way noticed that although the Hawaiian Islands are (obviously) incredibly beautiful, they are also in some ways not very hospitable to human inhabitants. There are beautiful beaches, and in some places fields of sugar cane as far as the eye can see. But because Maui is a volcanic island, there are also some places that look like the surface of the moon. And there are hazards caused by those volcanic cliffs that go beyond just volcanic eruptions; specifically, falling rocks from erosion and earthquakes. To combat this problem, Maui County has put up chain link mesh along certain cliff faces to contain falling rock. This chain link is comprised of an outer layer of regular chain link, like you would see on a fence, and an inner layer of interlocked steel circles, maybe a foot each in diameter, that help contain volcanic rocks when they crumble and fall. It does not look like it could hold an entire cliff together, but judging by the pile at the bottom of the fenced in area, it does seem to prevent rocks from falling into the road.

These fences brought to mind our reading at the beginning of the course about the engine incubators, and the video about GrameenPhone (which Pierre also referenced in his post this week). In this case, Maui County has come up with an innovation to deal with life in an inhospitable physical environment (and variations on this system are used around the world). GrameenPhone and the engine incubators were inhospitable economic and resource-limited environments respectively, but the motivation is the same- taking something you have and using it in a new way to solve a problem.

I can only find one photo of these fences on the internet, and haven’t been able to take any of it myself (most of these fences are along windy, two-lane, cliff-lined roads with nowhere to stop), but you can see above what they look like from afar.

Aloha everyone- see you next week!

Science vs. Technology as the innovation trailblazer

2009-10-20T14:57:00.003-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/science/20books.html?_r=1&ref=technology

I found this New York times article interesting. It's a review of the book, "The Nature of Technology: What it is and How it Evolves".

In the book, author W. Brian Arthur evaluates the relationship between science and technology as part of an effort to more comprehensively define innovation. He explains that it is a symbiotic relationship where technology takes lead, saying, "...technology is more fundamental than either one." He argues that technology gives rise to science and the economy, and innovation arises as a preconceived solution to a social problem.

All this made me think about our class on law, policy, and the government's use of Universities to pursue the "science” behind technological innovations.

I wonder how Arthur's understanding of the innovation would affect the government’s policy toward subsidizing innovation.

I believe it would generate a greater focus on NGOs and small business that solve social problem (like Grameenphone). These organizations would be encouraged to solve social issues while creating innovations for the use and benefit of other organizations in society. Perhaps we would also see Universities more actively carrying out their service missions as well.

What are your thoughts?

Flight and Airport Innovations

2009-10-16T12:56:00.002-05:00

This article appeared on cnn.com today. We've talked a lot about innovations involving baggage checking, parking problems, and other in-flight issues. Just thought this was interesting and relevant.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/10/16/flight.innovations/index.html

Creative Giving- The Bill Gates of Switzerland

2009-10-15T03:03:00.000-05:00

Stephen Schmidheiny is a social philanthropist and launched Avina Foundation fifteen years ago. Every year he puts 30 million dollars to help entrepreneurs in both Central and South Aerica in an effort to reduce the poor population. Also, what he cares about is corporate environmental responsibility. The approach The Avina Foundation utilizes is to encourage the poor to become entrepreneurs rather than to provide them welfare, including aiding latin America’s waste pickers in Brazil to raise their earning and training the poor to run business in rural areas.
This article makes me associate with the idea of Zipcar. Reducing emission of carbon dioxide is the vision of Robbin Chase, the founder of Zipcar, so she combined carsharing with technology to come up with very cool concept, Zipcar. Schmidheiny has the same vision as Chase. They all want to tackle the social problems- environmental problems and create very special approach. I like the way Schmidheiny used to move toward his vision, because it is very positive and meaningful. His creative approach- not hand poor people welfare but train them to obtain knowledge they don’t have- is beneficial to not only environmental protection but also the personal development of the poor. Teaching people how to enhance their income through being an entrepreneur is much more important than giving them grants. Only grants instead of instruction are passive and impossible to deal with the real problem. People still do not know how to make more money to improve their life. As a philanthropist, Schmidheiny definitely proposed the effective policies to assist poor people away from poverty and dedicate to the reduction of pollution.

http://rate.forbes.com/comments/CommentServlet?op=cpage&sourcename=story&StoryURI=global/2009/1005/creative-giving-philanthrophy-bill-gates-of-switzerland.html

Innovation by the DOT?

2009-10-14T23:49:00.003-05:00

It has always intrigued me to consider the ways in which locations are connected by an unbroken series of roads. Since 1994, the Federal Department of Transportation has made a commitment to innovation related to roads. This innovation does not have to do with the materials, design, or construction processes of engineering public roads, but with their financing.

The Department has traditionally funded the construction of highways by offering grants of up to 80% of project costs. These days, the nation's demand for new road construction is too great for the traditional grant program and as a result, the Department has turned to "innovative financing" - new and creative ways to finance the production of public roads. Two examples of these innovations are Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicles, also known as GARVEE bonds, "whereby future Federal funds provide the revenue stream needed to pay debt service and other bond-related costs for debt-financed projects" and “Credit Assistance Strategies,” through which the government aids in providing credit enhancements to improve the financial feasibility of such projects.

The Department's approach to project finance by means of debt instruments is by no means new. Obviously the Department of Transportation was not the first organization to make use of credit enhancements or to take on debt in order to lever a project off the ground. The DOT's approach is nonetheless innovative on the grounds that it has taken existing infrastructure and applied it in a new way to provide financing solutions.

Some would say that it was creative financing that got our economy into trouble. Particularly blamed are credit default swaps, which created a giant web of liability among our nation’s investment banks. Do you think innovative finance has a place in our economy anymore? What effect do you think increased regulation would have on such innovation? Do intellectual property rights play any role in this discussion?

Re-thinking higher education institutions

2009-10-14T23:29:00.003-05:00

Globalization has arrived and revisionism about what we do, how we do it and why we do it too. The higher education sector is not the exception. The need of renewing its business model is mandatory (Francis and Bessant, 2005).

I found an interesting calling to review liberal arts education by Liz Coleman (Jun '09), the Bennington College President. She describes how the expert model is privileged over the educated generalist in American higher education institutions. Furthermore, her critique is directed toward educators: "when the impulse is to change the world, the academy is more likely to engender a learned helplessness than to create a sense of empowerment".

It is interesting Coleman’s remark about the connections between politics and leading educational institutions. Also I found a worthy comment about how the last ones may foster access to personal wealth but they may not play in their responsibility for installing democracy. Is not the role of higher education to educate citizens?

Following the same reflection, Bobby Allyn’s article “Among privileged students, I’m an outsider”(Oct '09) condenses her reflection as a senior, first-generation college student, coming from a low economic status. It also makes me think about challenges that higher education institutions must assume and keep on postponing, if not denying. Maybe it is the time of real disruptive innovations (Anthony and Christensen, 2005) that redefine the required value for customers, that is, the students and citizens, nowadays.

Megacrete: The Building Material of the Future

2009-10-14T19:51:00.000-05:00

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure and Pliny Fisk III lives by this adage. Fisk is an architect in Texas and his mission “is to develop environmentally-sustainable building materials and to fundamentally change the way we build our communities”. He has recently launched a “prototype test of his latest invention -- an environmentally friendly cement and building structure” called Megacrete.

Megacrete is made “of magnesium oxide and phosphate from brine, which is a by-product of petroleum and water treatment facilities”. He is taking what would be considered waste and making into a renewable resource. Fisk hopes that ‘the cement will hold together building modules that are essentially self-contained structures created from local and regional building materials.”

Fisk is trying to reduce carbon footprints and by trying to do so, he is being innovative in process. He is taking something that was considered to be waste and turning it into low-cost building materials. For now, the prototype has just launched, but if successful there could be many positive impacts. Megacrete is low-cost so it could be used in a variety of different building opportunities. Fisk envisions it be used with local and regional building materials.

Fisk is innovative in that he is expanding upon what is already available (petroleum and water treatment facilities waste) and making those by-products and processes more valuable by turning them into an eco-friendly form of concrete. If Megacrete is successful in its prototype test, there are endless possibilities for it. If successful, it has the chance to change the building process. The paradigm would shift towards being much more eco-friendly and would do without harming the environment and at a lower cost. And since its easy to manufacture, it can be adopted in cities where there are petroleum and water treatment facilities.

At a time when people are very concerned about going green and reducing carbon footprints, this seems like it has the potential to be a huge success.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/10/13/going.green.pliny.fisk/index.html

Obama Administration Pledges to Address Patent Reform

2009-10-13T20:49:00.002-05:00

Last Thursday, the new director of the Patent and Trademark Office, David Kappos (seen left) got rid of legislation, developed during the Bush administration, aimed at accelerating the patent process by limiting the number of patent claims a company could file and the support information they could submit after the claim was filed. As we talked about in class submitting additional information after filing a patents is common of pharmaceutical companies, used to prolong their patent protection. This came as the Obama administration announced its plans to push through legislation to overhaul the patent process that, as we also discussed in class, has primarily stood unchanged for the last five decades except through the increasing number of judge made rulings. A Senate bill created through a compromise between pharmaceutical and technology companies to replace the Bush administration legislation would implement a “first to file system.” This bill would be the first of many step towards overhauling the patent system.

After our lecture on IP rights, I agree with the Obama administration that there needs to be an overhaul to the patent system. I believe that the Bush administration legislation would have helped to get the patent office back on track financially and logistically but I do not believe it would have made the patent system better. I do not think that a “first to file system,” catered to the pharmaceutical and technology industries is the solution either. I wonder what will happen to IP rights if a “first to file system” is implemented. Doesn’t this get away from the purpose of patents to protect the intellectual property of the inventors? What are bills that you would propose if you were a part of crafting the Obama administration’s patent reform?

Other Articles of Interest: Obama Admin Backs Proposed Changes To Patent System, Patent Reform: Obama Favors Major Changes to Patent Law

"Innovate or die," right?

2009-10-13T18:59:00.017-05:00

Problem: popular men's magazine is losing readers.

Solution by Innovation: re-think the product's content and expose (pun intended) an unusual generational icon to it's target demographic to regain the attention of their readers.

Playboy magazine has been seeing a decline in readers as the magazine industry as a whole is decreasing steadily. In an effort to re-attract readers and continue evolving with it's audience, this month's edition of Playboy features popular cartoon character Marge Simpson from the long-time running animated TV show "The Simpsons."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/12/marge.simpson.playboy/index.html

The success behind Playboy's product has always relied on shock value by offering readers a unique "insight" into the lives of celebrities and sex icons. Playboy has thought beyond its typical subject matter and has shifted into relatively unknown territory: the sexual exploitation of a popular cartoon character. Their problem was a decline in attention to the print portion of their business, so their solution was to expand the content of their product and attract the attention of a television sitcom's audience that reached 7.6 million viewers last week (tvbythenumbers.com). "The Simpsons Movie," a feature-length film, was released in 2007 and earned an impressive $527 million worldwide (boxofficemojo.com). These numbers give Playboy an optimistic look into the environment in which they are releasing their most current product. Clearly, the demand for "The Simpsons" is very strong after 21 seasons on the air. Playboy is trying to grab the attention of a massive, well-established fan-base and is anticipating a positive turn in circulation as a result of this month's edition, known as "The Marge Simpson Cover."

Jimmy Jellinek, Playboy's editorial director, said "We knew Marge's pictorial would appeal to a large demographic. This cover and pictorial is just another example of how we're evolving our editorial content to continue to reach men in their 20s, and also maintain the elements of the magazine that have attracted readers for more than 50 years."

If this proves to be a smart move for Playboy resulting in an increase in magazine sales amidst a struggling print industry, then how can we, as innovators, use Playboy's example of evolving a product to appeal to a large, established demographic in order to keep our product alive?

The Recession-Proof Martin Guitar: Innovation & C. F. Martin’s 1 Series model

2009-10-13T17:50:00.002-05:00

Recession + Embracing Low-End Market = Increased Profits?

Legendary guitar manufacturer, C. F. Martin & Company recently introduced the “1 Series,” a new guitar line that costs less than $1,000 – more than 50% cheaper than its classic all-wood guitars. In response to the economic slump, the company is reorienting its focus to the struggling consumer with its new line of affordable-yet-quality guitars. Customers have reacted very positively to their innovative strategy. Given that luxury guitars are usually early victims of reduced spending in economic downturns, the company was forced to think creatively about its price and product. Through market research, the company found that products priced $1,000 or less are not significantly affected during economic slumps. With a price slightly below $1,000, the company made luxury affordable and sold its first production supply of 8,000 guitars in less than two months following the April release.

So far, the company’s new guitar line has successfully connected with today’s increasingly value-conscious customers. Given that Martin is not the first premier guitar company to introduce a cheap model (Taylor Guitars also did this), Martin is a K-strategist. As Martin executives acknowledged, the tone quality and musical action of their traditional, high-end guitars is not comparable to that of the 1 Series. The 1 series is not a disruptive product innovation- there will always be the need for high-end, luxury guitars with superior tone and playing capabilities and there will always be a need for affordable, basic guitars. The innovation lies in Martin’s ability to tap into a new customer base and expand their market.

Similar to Tide’s Basic line, I think Martin’s 1 Series concept is an interesting BUT very risky idea. The innovation process involves careful consideration of both short-term and long-term goals and visions. With their 1 Series, I think Martin may have not carefully considered their long-term goals and how this new line may dilute their brand value. If their long-term goal is to offer both top-quality, expensive guitars AND cheap, basic guitars, then the 1 Series makes sense for them. However, if the company is merely using the 1 Series to boost profits and improve their bottom-line during the recession, I think their strategy will ultimately damage them in the long run.

Given that C.F. Martin’s core company values include an “unparalleled reputation” and “exceptional quality,” I think the 1 Series is misaligned with the company’s overall mission. The main risk with Martin’s “back to basics” approach is that these cheaper, lower-quality guitars may ultimately weaken the Martin brand. Because their guitars have long been viewed as premier, high-quality instruments, the basic 1 Series may taint and devalue Martin’s sustainable brand value.

Questions for you:

Do you see any risks involved with Martin’s 1 Series? Could this more affordable guitar line decrease the brand’s value and credibility in the long-term? In other words, does a company have to protect its brand name in order to maintain long-term profitability?

Are certain companies more equipped than others when it comes to introducing cheaper, basic product lines? Is P&G’s Tide in a better position to offer their cheap Tide Basic line than C.F. Martin?

For more information, you can visit:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124683752846098045.html

http://www.theoneseries.com/

Google Sidewiki- Blue Ocean Innovation?

2009-10-13T07:58:00.002-05:00

So, Google has come out with a new (for now, beta) addition to the Google toolbar. It's called Sidewiki, and it is essentially a way for people to leave comments on a website for others to read, regardless of whether or not the company itself enables or accepts comments themselves. You can read more about it here:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/help-and-learn-from-others-as-you.html

I, for one, am super-excited about this- it has some really exciting implications for web browsing, and I think it will give retailers and companies even more incentive to provide good service and the best possible products. As an example, the website TripAdvisor is a forum that allows people to review hotels and local attractions (because from a hotel's website you can't necessarily tell how clean the bathrooms are, how thin the walls might be, or what the service is like). When researching destinations for our honeymoon last year, I can't tell you how long I spent with two windows open in my browser- one to a hotel website, the other to TripAdvisor, comparing. This would eliminate the need for that, and more importantly allow people to post anything from how socially responsible a corporation is, to help navigating the site itself. It also has some interesting implications for the pharmaceutical industry:

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/10/google-sidewiki-impact-drug-company-websites.html

I think this is definitely a so-called "blue ocean" innovation- it took the technology out of the red ocean of developers who design the typical comment programs for website owners to use, and moved the process to the user side, rather than the provider side. Judging by some of the comments in the Google Help forums, there are a few people who are pretty angry about this. They feel like they are losing control of their web content, but it kind of makes me wonder what is wrong with their websites and companies that they need to object so strenuously.

As a consumer, I can't wait for this to reach widespread use. What do you guys think?

Iridium is back

2009-10-12T13:06:00.002-05:00

In a Sept. 29 IPO, Iridium raised $200 million with its plans for reinvention and earning $54 million in profit from $320 million in sales last year. We’ve had extensive discussion about Iridium’s mistakes in the 1990’s (to name a few: excessive development spending in an engineering vacuum by a team desperate for a project; lack of regard for the environment where cellular was becoming the viable mechanism for mobile voice communication in Iridium’s target market; moving forward without proper testing and despite signs of product deficiency) (HBR case study). We have analyzed why its launch of satellite voice service was such a colossal disaster with a $5B-plus price tag.

Here’s what they are doing differently this time:

· focus on new market (90% of earth not covered by wireless service) rather than compete with existing wireless market

· machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, monitors equipment in remote locations and to tracks shipments en route

· within M2M market, 200 companies incorporate Iridium products into their own goods in aviation, shipping, and oil industries (e.g., Iridium sells a satellite data modem to Garmin to who incorporates it into its aviation products

· DOD and other government entities rent space on existing satellites rather than building satellites

The move from selling to a market that has the alternative of using cellular is an obvious but promising improvement. But Iridium has to make enough money to cover a $2.7B replacement of its satellites in 2014.

Will the use of its existing resources (the satellites) as outlined above be enough to foster a feasible second chance? Has it learned from the many mistakes we have discussed in class?

I think the M2M market is an option they should have focused on in the first place. If 90% of the earth (airspace, the sea, and mountaintops—where shipping, logistics, oil exploration and gas exploration companies need ways to communicate) does not have wireless coverage – Iridium can fill a niche market there.

Is this move into M2M a red ocean or a blue ocean strategy? Does M2M communication as a strategy for growth “part with traditional models focused on competing in existing market space”? Does it “alter the boundaries of the existing satellite communication industry” as defined by Kim and Mauborgne (2004)?

If Iridium can pull this off, is its story one of success? Or does the blunder of the 1990s taint any progress it makes in the future?

For more information on M2M satellite communications and Iridium’s attempted comeback, http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2009/tc2009106_078908.htm

Boeing 787 Dreamliner - Feasible?

2009-10-08T23:47:00.004-05:00

Today in class, Professor Robbins mentioned feasibility as a critical requirement for useful innovation. It struck me that idea of feasibility could in part be a relative term - a product that is infeasible to produce for one firm may be possible for another ; what is too soon for one market demographic could be long awaited for another.

That said, I read an article today about the Boeing 787 Dreamliner - the massive jet whose construction, suffering from more than two years of delays, seems all but cursed. Part of the problem, as this diagram shows, is the result of what has ended up being a nearly-infeasible innovation: nearly every part of the jet originates from a different nation. This approach to construction was rooted more in finance than in design - due to the sheer cost of the plane (approximately $10 Billion), Boeing parted from its usual strategy of in-house construction and instead opted to share this cost (and mitigate the associated risk) with foreign engineering firms.

This unique approach was originally championed by investors, "lifting Boeing's stock price from a low around $31 to a high above $107 in July 2007" (WSJ, article information below). In a manner that is somewhat reminiscent of credit default swaps, though, this innovative approach to funding the jet came with risks that could (and would) stall the entire project. The Dreamliner is newsworthy right now because of the steps Boeing is taking to fix the problem - additional innovation involving many language translators and high-definition video cameras make the distance between the various countries involved in this plane a bit smaller.

To return to the idea of feasibility - looking back on this project, should it have been considered feasible? Should it have been funded the way it was? If you consider the approach feasible, does this innovation add value?

Michaels, Daniel, and Peter Sanders. "Dreamliner Production Gets Closer Monitoring." The Wall Street Journal 7 Oct. 2009, Marketplace sec.: B1-B2. Print.

Innovation at Genentech:Focus on a long run

2009-10-07T21:01:00.005-05:00

Genentech is a South San Francisco-based biotech company enjoying a long history of developing revolutionary drugs, such as cancer fighter Avastin. In FORTUNE magazine's latest Top 100 Companies to Work For list, Genentech ranks No.7. Being able to bring about important scientific breakthroughs and to maintain a nurturing working environment at the same time is no accident in Genentech. There is an organizational answer to how the company keeps innovation flowing so well.

Among all of its innovation-friendly features, I consider Genentech’s postdoc program as a unique approach. Genentech’s research department includes about 1,100 researchers, scientists and postdocs. Notably, Genentech is the only pharmaceutical company to offer a postdoctoral program, where up to 120 Ph.D. holders are awarded fellowships for four years. Fellowships are strongly encouraged to pursue projects of interests in addition to work towards the company’s goal. Besides developing therapies for unmet medical needs, the company puts an explicit emphasis on conducting fundamental research.

This creates a win-win situation. For postdoc fellows, by collaborating with Genentech scientists, they receive rigorous scientific training in a supportive environment and have constantly published papers in prestigious peer-reviewed journals. For the company, as Genentech’s head of research put it, “The postdoc program keeps a constant flux of young people with different backgrounds and technologies moving through Genentech. This keeps the real innovative, entrepreneurial, creative spirit around Genentech research.” As a result, Genentech's scientists have secured approximately 7,400 current, non-expired patents worldwide and have about 6,250 patent applications pending worldwide.

As we’ve talked about in class, innovation is seen as a structured process in Genentech. First, they create this postdoctoral program to attract a high-quality talent pool, allowing talents meet and ideas thrive. Second, they encourage fundamental research in an inspired, purposeful, and resource-rich environment. The keywords here are “fundamental research” and “purposeful.” These two concepts don’t conflict. Although the beauty of fundamental research lies in the fact that no one knows where the research will exactly lead to before actually getting there, it doesn’t mean fundamental research is done without a purpose. There is a purpose, but not an immediate one. By upgrading the existing scientific toolkit, fundamental research could later apply to potential products. While the idea of Design Thinking typifies problem-solving-oriented innovation process, Genentech’s approach is like a long-term investment.

Housing Paradigm Shift

2009-10-07T16:56:00.003-05:00

Architecture firm Morphosis recently presented plans for what could be the next great innovation in housing; the FLOAT house. The FLOAT house is built with guideposts that allow it to rise up to 12 ft without being damaged in the event of a severe flood. The FLOAT house’s roof collects rainwater for use and includes solar panels sufficient to power the house completely. It also includes energy efficient appliances, and is heated and cooled geothermally. Despite the incredible synthesis involved in this product innovation, (the houseboat has been around for years, and a key piece of technology was developed at GM of all places) the most innovative feature of the FLOAT house is in offering a new paradigm for affordable housing.

Using New Orlean's 9th ward for inspiration, this new paradigm offers affordable, safe and green housing that appeals to the unique style of a particular neighborhood or individual. Typically, low-income housing has been utilitarian at best, and particularly susceptible to natural disasters. In designing the FLOAT house, Morphosis has employed the most consistent lessons of innovation; market research. Not only have they designed a useful product, but incorporated market tested design, safety and ecological elements as well.

This seems to be an example of TRIZ at work. Morphosis, P&G, Grameen Bank, Grameen Phone and other companies are using a similar abstract growth strategy; meeting the needs of lower, even the lowest economic classes can be profitable. These ventures seem to be financially successful, and yet they go against traditional financial trends. Will this new paradigm last and effect significant social and economic change, is it a fad, or are there possible negative unforeseen consequences that will kill this innovation?

Could Instant Messaging reduce office interruptions?

2009-10-07T01:52:00.003-05:00

In class we’ve learned that an innovation can be an improvement upon or a change in a certain product or process. Essentially, there are innovative ways in expand upon what is already available making those pre-existing products and processes more valuable. I came across an article on Instant Messaging (IM) in the workplace, which challenged my view on how the technology is currently used.

A study conducted by researchers at Ohio State found that IM may actually be less disruptive to the daily business operation than other forms of communication like telephone, email and face to face conversations. The study showed that employees use Instant Messaging strategically to find out the availability of their co-workers in lieu of causing a distraction by visiting personally.

I believe instant messaging to be a viable tool for office use. When considering the number of times that people could randomly “drop by your office”, thus distracting your work, instant messaging seems to be a lesser distraction. Ohio State Communication Professor R. Kelly Garrett, who co-authored the study, suggests that while “instant messaging led to more conversation on the computer, the conversations were briefer”. Often, a co-worker may want a short answer, for which instant messaging would be ideal.

The idea of using IM in the office sounds like the perfect way to communicate without delay and also a viable way to decrease inbox clutter. However, given the current reputation of instant messages as a tool for social communication only, do you think this innovation will be accepted in the average workplace? Can you foresee any major problems? In my opinion, the current stigma of IM as being a social outlet will slow its implementation into routine business activity. However, if companies can look past the stigma, IM could become a tool to save time and increase productivity.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080603120251.htm

Exploiting Chaos and Celebrating Failure

2009-10-06T00:10:00.001-05:00

Laura’s post about failure got me thinking about today’s economic climate and its impact on innovation. It seems that today, many companies are merely trying to get by until they have enough cash on hand to support more research and development. They also may be afraid to do anything rash because of the possibility of going under in this economic environment. However, this article reminds its readers that the most important innovations come out of times of stress, chaos, and rapid change- times like now.

The article discusses Jeremy Gutsche’s book, Expoiting Chaos. In the book, he gives examples of times that crisis situations led to remarkable progress. Although he was not necessarily referring to difficult economic times, some of his points are very applicable in today’s market:

· Innovation is not about market timing; it’s about filling an unmet need

· The failure of others should not hinder your own innovation efforts

· You will only answer the problems you are trying to solve

· To navigate chaos, organizations require the speed and capability that can only exist when employees are empowered.

These statements led me to the conclusion that innovation is important no matter what else is going on. Every innovation that we have discussed in class, from diapers to fabric-thin running shoes, has helped improve the lives of its consumers. Secondly, today, as businesses spend less money on innovation, they have less successful developments, which can lead others to assume that they too will fail. The third statement shows that research and development are necessary all of the time. Problems must be meticulously outlined and studied in order to be solved with an innovation. And lastly, organizations must continue to provide support and money to their research and development groups because if they feel undervalued, they will not navigate through the recession with a constant stream of profitable innovations.

Overall, I was happy to see that innovation is important in times of chaos- economically or within an organization or industry. New products may increase customer base, new organizations can capitalize on changing markets, and new processes can make existing organizations more profitable.

"Innovation Works" in China

2009-10-05T21:45:00.001-05:00

Kai-Fu Lee is an engineering whiz who has left Microsoft and Google to start his own venture to promote and fund innovation in China. It is called “Innovation Works” and it will give Chinese entrepreneurs opportunity and structure to brainstorm and build companies “to the point that they are ready to get multimillion-dollar funding” from Innovation Works’ angel investors. This is the first organization of the kind in China, and Lee refuses to call Innovation Works an “incubator” because of associations with the dot-com crash in Silicon Valley.

Lee talks about how Chinese entrepreneurs are different from western ones in that they have a lot less experience, and he claims that it has nothing to do with the culture or government. Because of this, Lee is making room for a lot of structured mentoring and “hand-holding” at Innovation Works. It will not be as “loosely and organically organized like in Silicon Valley.” Lee admits that this kind of organizational model requires “a very unique kind of leader” to make it work in a place like China.

There are a few points that I want to bring up about this venture. In class last week, Prof. Robbins stressed that everyone can be innovative, which is something that I agree with. However, I disagree with Lee that Chinese entrepreneurial inexperience is not related to culture or governance. At the same time, I think that the kind of education system a person is taught in affects a lot of their technical and critical thinking skills. Additionally, I can’t help but think that growing up in ideologically different places will also create differences in people’s willingness and practice of thinking critically and a desire to innovate.

Secondly, Lee’s system at Innovation Works, with a lot more structure in brainstorming and organization-building, is good for inexperienced entrepreneurs in the United States as well as in China. If American innovators can’t learn from missteps, they need more opportunities for mentoring and structure in creating innovation. Would this kind of hand-holding in American organizations limit innovation?

All of the quotes in this post come from this interview with Kai-Fu Lee, by Rob Hof, Sep 06 2009. http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2009/09/post_18.html?chan=innovation_innovation+%2B+design_innovation+strategy

Inside Honda

2009-10-04T23:29:00.003-05:00

I happened upon four short documentaries created by Honda, which I found insightful and creative. I am not a car fanatic, so it was weird when I found myself wanting to watch more of these videos. I realized I was interested because they were giving examples of what we have talked about in class. The first video that caught my eye was Failure: The Secret to Success. This video discussed many of the failed innovations Honda had experienced and how these failures helped them create successful products. One story specifically reminded me of the Iridium case. A new employee suggested creating an orange car, but when the dealerships found out they called for the production to be stopped immediately. If the new employee had done any research or simply asked one of the dealerships the idea would have stopped there. There was absolutely no diversity here, they took one person's idea and ran with it.

The other video that I found interesting was Kick out the Ladder. Kick out the Ladder is a metaphor Honda uses to describe setting challenges that put pressure on the employees. One example was in developing the Insight, a hybrid vehicle, Honda's President and CEO told the media their target cost, which put enormous pressure on the development team to reach the target. This immediately reminded me of target innovation from one of our first readings; where you set the target and figure out how to get there. Many of the Honda employees described the challenges asked of them as impossible. For this method to work you have to employ creative individuals who are persistent and like to solve complex problems. Do you think this is an effective way to promote innovation?

Click here to see the videos.

Painful Lesson on Patents

2009-10-04T16:53:00.005-05:00

I just read an interesting article on InsideHigherEd.com,about how Stanford University lost a lawsuit it had brought accusing the pharmaceutical company Roche of infringing its patent on a technology that measures the concentration of HIV in blood plasma."Federal court's ruling denying Stanford rights to researcher's invention points to tension over policies on institutional vs. faculty ownership."

If interested, you may follow the link (click the title of this post)and read the whole article.Plus,remember go to the Comments Session by the end of the article and read Prof.Robbins's comment, which provides addtional insights into this case.

Ethics and Innovation

2009-10-01T21:02:00.003-05:00

When I was in Japan this summer, I attended a lecture about something called Minamata Disease, which is a form of mercury poisoning (click on the link to learn more, but be warned, the disease and its effects may be kind of disturbing). The story goes like too many others we've all heard before- a big company develops a product and begins producing it, and in the process, knowingly or unknowingly contaminates the surrounding environment with a dangerous chemical that makes local residents seriously ill. In this case, the company was Chisso Corporation, and today it is one of the world's largest producers of chemical components including those in Liquid Crystal Displays like you would find in your television or laptop. More than half of the officially recognized victims have died from the disease.

I started thinking about this situation earlier in the course when we were discussing outside factors that limit innovation, and Nida also touched on this in a peripheral way in her blog post earlier in the week about the malaria vaccine. In this case, as a result of its own testing, the company knew that the methyl mercury it was releasing was making people sick, but continued to do so anyway for reasons unknown. They have never formally admitted liability or apologized to the community, even though their own documents indicate that they were aware of what was happening at the time and they are currently still paying restitution.

So how do ethical considerations play into innovation? They can certainly be a limiting factor if you choose to embrace them, but the trick here is that unlike legal considerations or resource limitations, ethical considerations are determined almost entirely by the innovator. When you consider the implications of that fact, it becomes clear that there is a lot of personal responsibility involved in many kinds of innovation. I personally think that these considerations provide opportunities for work-arounds and further innovation, but it is interesting to think about how many products and ideas we might not have today if ethics had been a consideration in their development. What do you think? Obviously, Chisso is an extreme example, but how do we as innovators determine where to draw the ethical line?

Social innovation- Catalytic Philanthropy

2009-09-30T23:04:00.001-05:00

Before taking this class, my definition of innovation was only limited to technical innovation, such as ipods and laptops. I never thought an innovation could be a process, idea, or public policy which changes our routine or beliefs to reach a social need or a shared vision ( Westly and Antadze, 2009). Numerous nonprofit or for-profit organizations and governments have put forth some innovative policies or measures, which are called social innovations, in order to tackle current social problems. Nonprofits face some problems, including the lack of funding, and the ineffective policy implementation. Mark R. Kramer, thinks that donors should actively engage in solving the problem, not just write down a check to support nonprofits as in conventional philanthropy. He proposes a new approach “Catalytic Philanthropy.” If philanthropists really care about a problem and are able to analyze it in detail, they would have more knowledge to know how to make the society better. Kramer’s article “Catalytic Philanthropy” in Stanford Social Innovation Review mentioned an example of Tom Siebel, founder of a software company and a philanthropist. He tackles mesh abuse among teenagers in Montana by mobilizing experts and advertising agencies to film ads to inform teenagers how terrible meth abuse is and how it is related to the crime. The result turned out well. The rate of mesh abuse decreased 45 % among teens and 72 among adults from 2005 to 2007. Below are links to the websites about the article “Catalytic Philanthropy” and also about social innovation.

The article “Catalytic Philanthropy”
http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/catalytic_philanthropy/#
Social innovation
http://sigeneration.ca/

I like this idea of Catalytic philanthropy and also agree with his point that donors should make sure their money is used effectively. However, I think that people donate their money to organizations, because they expect the organizations to have experts who can put the donated money to use effectively, very similar to people hiring an investment manager to manage their wealth, because they believe he/she can earn a better return on the invested money.

Google Wave: The New Form of Communication?

2009-09-30T21:38:00.002-05:00

According to an article on CNN, Google Wave will go out to 100,000 Beta testers on Wednesday. Google Wave consists of e-mail, chat, Wiki documents, blogs and photo-sharing sites to create a form of Internet communication called a "hosted conversation," or a "wave." These 100,000 Beta testers will help to get the kinks out before the product is released to the general public for common use.

The creators of Google Wave, Lars and Jens Rasmussen, believe that Google Wave will eventually replace email as the main way people interact on the internet. New features in Google Wave include, e-mail-like communications being edited by several people at the same time. Also, users of Google wave can talk about sections of Wave documents in real time, where people see what a person is typing as it is typed. If a person comes to the conversation late, they can replay everything they've missed.

In the article, Jens Rasmussen said, “e-mail is a computer version of snail mail. Wave will be something new, a real-time communication system designed specifically for today's faster-paced, multitasking Internet.” Many people in the Tech industry have found this to be a great new application. However, there is some concern that is may be too complex for mainstream use.

This product hopes to change the way we communicate online. If people in the Tech industry are worried about it being too complex, how will the general public react when it is finally unveiled? Is this something is can take the place of email in everyday life?

Everything is bigger & better in Texas (and that includes patent litigation)

2009-09-30T20:12:00.003-05:00

According to the LegalMetric research firm, 45% of the patent cases that went before a jury in East Texas were won by the plaintiff- that’s nearly double the national rate of 25%.
These rates may seem coincidental, until you learn that a company doesn't need to have any significant operations in Texas at all. Many small companies and corporate giants are learning that if you want to win a patent suit- take it to Texas.

This is happening to companies with more defined patent boundaries, like pharmaceutical companies, so what can we expect from software companies who have vague patent language and boundaries? Even corporate giants like Microsoft are not immune to excessive verdict rewards doled out in Texas. The company has to pay a small Toronto software firm, i4i, $249 million dollars because of patent infringement with the use of XML language. (You should consider that by 2009 hundreds of XML languages had been designed for software and is used as the default file format for countless companies including Apple.)

Some blame the litigation environment on the jury pool in but I disagree entirely. As we discussed last week, our patent system is in need of reform. Plaintiffs should not be allowed to choose jurisdictions without any rational basis. Such freedom led to an environment where organizations are able to take advantage of poor patent notice to shut out competitors and make a quick buck in the process. Unless something changes the patent environment can only get worse. What are some specific ways to limit jurisdiction eligibility to decrease the abuse of patent litigation?

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0907/outfront-patent-law-texas-plaintiff-paradise.html

Necessity is Apparently NOT the Mother of Invention: More about “Orphan Drugs”

2009-09-30T17:32:00.004-05:00

In last week’s discussion of the controversy surrounding patents and their tendency to sometimes inhibit innovation, we came across the example of “orphan drugs”. Our conversation sparked my interest and I did some research to learn more about this concept of market and profit-driven innovation, specifically related to one of the world’s greatest health problems: malaria.

I found that the US passed an Orphan Drug Act in 1983, meant to encourage pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs for diseases that have a small or unprofitable market by providing them enhanced patent protection, marketing rights and tax incentives. However, this act has not gone far in promoting the development of drugs for harmful diseases that are having catastrophic effects in our world and on its economy.

In the attached article, renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs discusses how diseases like malaria are leading poverty-stricken Africa more and more towards economic disaster. Sachs stated that while big pharmaceutical companies have the scientific ability to develop a malaria vaccine, they lack motivation because of the low potential for profit, danger of competition, and the royalty stack. To help create a larger, more profitable market for the malaria vaccine, Sachs proposed that ‘rich countries’ such as the US, along with agencies like the World Bank, should commit to buying vast quantities of the vaccine on an annual basis at a guaranteed price.

Such an approach, Sachs states, has the potential to significantly change the world we live in today in many ways: most importantly, low-income countries would benefit profoundly and could more easily climb the economic development ladder. The ‘rich counties’ today have enormous scientific ability and financial capability to make a huge impact on the rest of the world, and as Sachs puts it: “In a world in which science is a rich-country prerogative while the poor continue to die, the niceties of intellectual property rights are likely to prove less compelling than social realities.”

The Role of Innovation in "The New Normal"

2009-09-30T08:59:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal published a letter written to customers by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer prior to the release of the new Windows 7 operating system. This letter was primarily written to justify switching to the newest version of Windows, stating that there would be a cost savings associated with the switch because of decreased support costs. He even went so far to say that companies could expect to see increased worker productivity. More interesting to our class, Steve Ballmer spent a great deal of this letter speaking about “the new normal,” and the important role of innovation in the economic recovery of the United States.

In his closing, he stated that the future economic growth of our country would be attributed to technological innovations. This seemed quite contrary to the trends in innovation we discussed at the beginning of our class, such as public policy and business model innovations. However, like my last post demonstrated, it is technological innovation that is recognized and rewarded in the United States. Patent laws seem to me to be a formalized way the United States encourages these technological innovations. Our readings and discussion described how difficult it was to enforce patents on innovations that did not have clear bounds. In light of this, is the innovation trend away from technology real or a dream of researchers and professors alike?