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Atoms are the new bits - Open source manufacturing

Innovating around innovation

2009 wasn't a good year for large companies looking to find the next big idea - internally. But what about finding good ideas externally? At Boston.com, business writer Scott Kirsner describes how some companies are building businesses based on "crowdsourcing" new ideas.

Business innovation in 2009

BusinessWeek takes a look innovation in 2009.

In 2009 the world was no longer flat; much of it was flat broke. Deflated by slumping sales and income, companies roundly did what innovation consultants say they never should—they cut spending on research and development.

Gain a competitive advantage through design thinking

Roger Martin describes how businesses can gain a competitive advantage with design thinking, that happy intersection between an completely analytical or completely intuitive to generating knowledge. A particular problem for large organizations, this quote illustrates what happens when one of the two extremes prevails.

" ...businesses fail to innovate when they show greater concern for producing reliable (predictable and reproducible) outcomes than valid ones that actually meet objectives"

These slides from Roger Martin, the Dean of the Rotman School of Management, illustrate how design thinking can avoid the extremes.

"What's very dangerous is not to evolve"

In touting his new hit product, Kindle, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos may indeed be channeling his inner Steve Jobs. The device might do for text what the iPod has done for music. But there's a much bigger lesson to be learned, according to Fast Company: "What's very dangerous," Bezos concludes, "is not to evolve."

Seminar: Developing viable business strategies

Today, Dr. Jeryl Schreiner, founder of  IdeaFoundry, in Pittsburgh, is leading a seminar for 60 clients of KSTC and the ICC offices. The seminar, being held in Louisville, is focused on the development of a viable business strategy. In her tools, Dr. Schreiner is helping high-tech companies from around the state integrate all aspects of strategy development - business model, product, positioning, sales, operations.

Matt McGarvey, VP, KSTC. 

Serious games manufacture great experiences

In this brief iMedia Kentucky interview, game designer Jane McGonigal describes the explosion of opportunities in games designed and carried out in real life, not on-screen.

Like smokestacks of another age, such games signal the 21st production of another valuable resource, good experiences. Experience design is valuable to schools, manufacturing, health care, tourism and travel or any industry, really, where happy clients and customers are needed.

Collaborating via games can also help develop new scenarios and contribute in general to the knowing enterprise. And, finally, software derived from good game design, as she points out, is used in businesses to improve teamwork.

Jane McGonigal recently spoke a the 2008 IdeaFestival in Louisville, where she described alternate reality games as "happiness engines".

"Permission-based" innovation

Seth Godin famously came up with the phrase "permission-based marketing" to capture how the business dialog had become a two-way street. Businesses and organizations could no longer simply flood individuals with information and expect a significant return in an attention-challenged word.

Similarly, having successfully captured a significant share of the browser market from Microsoft, the open source organization Mozilla has an idea about how to make innovation a participatory process. In a "best of" McKinsey quarterly interview (free registration required) Mozilla Foundation chairman and former CEO Mitchell Baker had this to say about innovation:

The Quarterly: How do you think about your role in enabling innovation in the communities?

Mitchell Baker: Sometimes, just giving people permission does wonders. Consider our quality control process. We have a public process for finding, tracking, and correcting bugs in the code we’re developing, and thousands of people are involved. When several people within the community began to take leadership in that effort, someone who worked with me said, 'All we need to do is tell these people it’s OK.' So that’s what we did. We said to the leader, 'You’re awesome; keep doing what you’re doing.' And after that, he became our release driver. There are more people like that than you would expect.

Baker also describes how up to 40 percent of the code that makes its way into the browser comes from volunteer community.

Wayne

The future of the MBA

Harvard considers the future of the MBA, the "degree it invented," and finds that it's in danger of becoming irrelevant to businesses and companies seeking top talent.

Google's Eric Schmidt on Innovative Public Policy: Pay for Performance

Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently appeared at the New America Foundation, and according to the foundation, talked about "technology, economic growth and open government." Intangible Economy points out that one of his proposals would incent Detroit's automakers.

Build more fuel efficient cars, get cash. I immediately thought of the auto bailout hearing that just ended and wondered if that proposal was legislatively doable. Schmidt also talked about cash incentives "to get people to study math and science," according to a Twittercast of the event. I can think of one very innovative program in Kentucky that proposes to do just that.