From Harvard Business Review Blog

Do your Knowledge Workers have a Bitsmith?

This post presents a wonderful concept that points out the need for specialized tools for the knowledge era.  That of a “Bitsmith”.   Bitsmiths, according to the post ” are people who have deep knowledge of both the work content and the tools used to support the work. In other words, they are almost as expert in derivatives or computer design as they are in computer-programming languages. Because they understand both the domain and the tools, bitsmiths can take an idea from concept to implementation quickly .”

The article makes the case that high performance teams need to have a “bitsmith” just as many towns in the “old west”  had blacksmiths to create the tolls they needed.

What do you think of this concept?

From PDMA Visions

Portfolio Pain Points

This study, once again points out how poorly we manage our NPD Projects.  We do not seem to think of the collection of projects as a portfolio and do not manage them as such.  If we are to achieve our strategic goals for NPD as well as our objectives for each of the projects we have in process, we need to manage them as a portfolio.

Too many projects and poor decision making is at the root cause of poor success rates for both strategic and tactics objectives.

This research connects to a previous post regarding an article by Robert Cooper   Cooper Article

What do you think?  Am I overly concerned?

From Harvard Business School

“The Evolution of Science-Based Business: Innovating How we Innovate”

This working paper discusses the concept of the emergence of small, technical and science-based firms that are doing much of the innovating because “The professions of management and of science are still largely separate: Scientists receive no formal training in management, and MBAs receive no training in science. This is a striking gap.”   I would say the same is true for engineering thus pointing out the importance of engineers and scientists to secure degrees in business and management.

What do you think?

From Strategy and Business

Profits Down, Spending Steady: The Global Innovation 1000

“Booz & Company’s annual study of the world’s biggest corporate R&D spenders finds that most companies have stuck with their innovation programs despite the recession — and many are boosting spending to compete more effectively in the upturn.”

My take: Innovation should ALWAYS be a priority. R&D for New Products, a priority.

What do you think?

From CIO Insight

Expert Voices: James Champy

“In many of the companies I wrote about, IT was absolutely central to the business model. The CIOs were very front and center in the design of the business. Even if the companies weren’t IT-based, there was a sense of IT as the great enabler that allows them to do much of what they do.

That’s contrary to the notion that IT is no longer strategic because it’s ubiquitous. That’s a very dangerous argument, because the extension of that argument is that because it’s ubiquitous and no longer strategic, it can be relegated deep into the organization.”  “At every one of these companies I’ve written about, IT was very strategic and enabled them to adapt and develop new business  models. Therefore, it was critically important to the executives and the founders to understand not just how IT was working inside their company, but what it could do.”

And there you go.

What do you think?

From Wired Magazine

The Good Enough Revolution

Craig’s List?

Twitter?

Kindle?

Should we be designing products that are “good enough” (good enuf) but not great?   Is there a “good enuf rvlutn” going on?

From Talent Management Magazine…..

Virtual Teams: Narrowing the Performance Gap

This article talks about how virtual teams are becoming more common, however, there are problems with cohesion, collaboration and focus.  The article offers some suggestions to deal with these problems.

The article describes the “work revolution” as:

“From local workplace to global work webs: People used to travel to a workplace, but increasingly the work is traveling to them, wherever they are. Freedom from “place” also means we are collaborating more often with customers, partners and colleagues in transitory virtual teams that cross multiple geographic, cultural and organizational boundaries.

From physical presence to technological presence: Being fully present and connecting with others is important on any team, but it becomes more challenging in virtual environments, where isolation and alienation are common.

From command and control to collaborate and control: Managers leading distributed workgroups understand that command-and-control micromanagement is dysfunctional in a virtual environment. To paraphrase a Pentagon saying: It’s pretty hard to turn a screw with an 8,000-mile-long screwdriver.

From information value to connection value: The right information at the right time still has power, but information is everywhere and easily accessible. Connections are becoming the new currency — not simply the number, but the access many give to new knowledge, influence, skills and resources.

From fixed structures to fluid structures: New technologies enable agile working and teaming. Virtual project teams can be formed and dissolved quickly to promote speed, responsiveness and innovation. The best global talent for a job can be mobilized and leveraged to solve customer problems or create new sources of value.”

What do you think of the Six C’s?  Cooperation, Convergence, Coordination, Capability, Communication, and Cultural Intelligence.

Are you using virtual teams?  Do you see these trends and problems?

Thanks for the link Hugh.

How Jobs Transformed APPLE

The Decade of Steve

And, my favorite link   Jobs’ Greatest Hits — A Timeline

So, is he the CEO of the decade?  Is he one of the most innovative manager/leaders ever?

What do you think?

Now that I have your attention, Hugh shared this video.

Vampire Power Video

Or, you can pull the plug or switch off the Power Strip.

Are you helping save the planet and your hard earned $?

Thanks Hugh

GOOGLE Maps Navigation (Beta) Video

Scroll Down for Video

Awesome!  Perhaps we know why some are predicting  iPhone  domination by the Droid!    Can I build this into my car?  Are you listening Toyota?

Check out the slide shows too!

Voice command.  FREE no ads (for now)

What do you think?

An article on “strategy+ business” entitled “Profits Down, Spending Steady: The Global Innovation 1000″

” Booz & Company’s annual study of the world’s biggest corporate R&D spenders finds that most companies have stuck with their innovation programs despite the recession — and many are boosting spending to compete more effectively in the upturn.”

Within the article we read quotations from business leaders  “Innovation is what drives our competitive position in all three of our markets — automotive, professional, and consumer — and therefore we can’t back off,” says Robert Lardon, corporate vice president for strategy and investor relations at Harman International Indus­tries Inc. Adalio Sanchez, general manager of IBM’s System X server business, echoes that point of view: “I would argue that the recession is a catalyst for in­creased innovation.”

This is encouraging for new product developers and a welcome sign that innovation is live and well, and in fact, an imperative for survival — long term.

What do you think?

Here we go, the rumors are starting?  The New Your Times’ Bill Keller ranting about the end of newspaper publishing (the coming of Googlezon?) and the potential of an iTablet?  Is this good marketing — pre-announcement?  Market Research?  Apple iTablet

What do you think?  Marketing?  Rumors?  Advance, off the record, notice?

A recent HBSP blog post “What Baseball Can Teach Us about Innovation” teaches us that statistics, and the use of widespread use and availability of statistics help baseball improve.  The posting suggests that statistics can help innovation efforts.   From the blog “Companies should create an internal encyclopedia in which they highlight the year they started work on each innovation, what type it was, how projections about its market potential changed through time, its key characteristics, and its ultimate performance. The encyclopedia would facilitate statistical analysis to help the company increase its success rate.”

What do you think, can better categorization and measurements of innovation efforts help us be more innovative?

Thanks to Hugh for the link.

Well, here it is the Barnes and Nobel Nook using the Android System, ATT partnership, wirelesss connection,  and some cool electronics, we have a challenger to the Kindle.

What do you think?

Thank you Kathy and Catherine for this referral.  (Two students recommended this same video)

Great TED Talk on a device that can serve as our “SixthSense”

Amazing and not too far away!

What do you think?

I have been reading more about the “networked” body and decided to add some of the articles to this blog.  I find it very interesting as it applies to “pervasive computing” ,  ”mobile computing”, “wireless computing” etc. that we are seeing an ever increasing array of products that work with our bodies.   The article “Test Driving the Networked Body” talks about the device as well as the service that augments the accelerometer for fitness measurements and the program to improve fitness.   From the article, ” The 3-D accelerometer has transformed mobile gaming (hello, iPhone), console gaming (thanks, Wii!), and now…fitness? The tech that accurately measures your movements has birthed a new generation of health monitors that track your daily activity and present it through a data-rich Web site. The big question: Can all that data be translated into a healthier lifestyle?”.

Do you think you will try something like this?  Will we all have devices prescribed by our doctors?  What do you think about just about “everything” being trackable?

Ok, here is some more information and a look at the Plastic Logic eReader.   Looks pretty cool to me.

Plastic Logic Que e-Reader

We read that the Que may be actually targeted at something other than the Kindle. ” But Archuleta also repositions the Que as something a little different to merely being a Kindle killer e-reader device. He notes “Que enhances business performance and gives you a competitive edge.” The business angle’s also played up with mention of support for PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel…and there’s even the intriguing phrase “powerful tools for interacting with and managing the content.” That implies you may be able to do more than just annotate documents on the Que–will you be able to actually edit them, or run a Powerpoint presentation? We can’t tell yet, but it certainly seems that Plastic Logic’s Que will enter the e-reader game right at the top end, perhaps tending toward limited Tablet PC capabilities.”

What do you think?  Pretty cool?  Will the market handle a “premium product”?  Does this seem to square off with the new tablets that we read are coming?  DO you want one?

A blog post at Harvard Business School states that the USA cannot make the Kindle.  The article gives lots of insight into the design and manufacturing of the Kindle.  More importantly, it raises the questions associated with the importance of our (USA) ability to manufacture a product such as the Kindle.

The US Can’t Manufacture the Kindle and that’s a Problem

What do you think?  Does the USA NEED to be a manufacturer?  Why?   Is this “killing innovation”?

I learned about this new book from an article and short video on the INSEAD KNOWLEDGE website.

The article is “The Innovation Manual“  and we can see from the perspective of a marketing professor a number of key points, many of which we have discussed in our classes, but it serves as a great reminder about the “basics” .

David Midgley, the author of the book, uses the example of the Apple iPod and the business model it created.  Once again, we see this model coming out as a key to success. Further, the role of customers in product/service innovation and development.  We also read about the importance of an innovation culture and the challenges of maintaining a culture of innovation.  The book promises to tell us all about it.

What do you think of the reminders here?  What should be emphasized more?   Less?

In a Forbes.com  article we learn that this Apple, “App Store” thing is now huge.  The article, “Sony Gets Vicious for App Store” we read of another product that has adopted the service/partner parallel.  Can we launch a product that does not have a service component or an “Information Dimension”?

Will this mean success for Sony’s PSP?  Will it just keep the product in the game?

What do you think?    When should it have thought about this NPM strategy?