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 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?

CIO Magazine has a Slideshow of statistics from surveys that presents the use of Facebook at work.

Facebook at Work

How can Facebook we used at work where it would be a productive use of work time and IT resources?

The HBSP Blog has an additional article I found interesting.  The article “Getting Started with Disruptive  Business  Design” lists five ideas for getting started.  As my students know,  I am a fan of the work of Clayton Christensen related to disruptive technologies.  By the way, Wikipedia as a great article on disruptive technologies that includes a number of examples of disruptive innovations.

What do you think of the toolkit of ideas?  Helpful?

Hugh suggested the linked White Paper from Eaton regarding the economics of running a data center.

The report is 12 pages long, however, if you are interested, the report is good, especially if you are an IT person or Power Quality person.

Economics of Data Center

I am personally interested in the capabilities of “real time” measurements.

Here is the Abstract:

“IT teams grapple with some inescapable realities. The cost of operating the data center is outpacing the
cost of IT resources themselves. High-density equipment pressures power and cooling systems to the
max. Moves, adds and changes can turn the power infrastructure into a deck of cards, at risk of
overloads, tripped circuits and unplanned shutdowns.
It doesn’t have to be that way. There are practical and affordable ways to ease these concerns without
making major changes in the power delivery system.
High-efficiency power quality systems, greater visibility into power conditions at all levels, flexible options
to power all those dual- and triple-corded servers, modularity for flexible growth… new approaches and
technologies such as these are redefining the economics of running the modern data center.”

What do you think is interesting?

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?

Thanks to Hugh for this recommendation on “The World According to GOOGLE”.

CNN Money published an article called “The World Acccording to GOOGLE” wherein they discuss some of the economic trending that GOOGLE is doing.  Also, we have spoken in class about GOOGLE TRENDS and more specifically, the GOOGLE Flu Trends .  Knowing what people are searching for can yield some powerful trending information.

What do you think about this technology?  How can it lead to competitive advantage?  What would you like trended?

We have discussed Open Source solutions a number of times in class.

For those of you looking for those technologies Check out “SUN Open Office” and “IBM Symphony“ 

Thanks Hugh for letting me know that Symphony is back, well, I guess it has been around for a while. 

Then there are always cloud based alternatives line GOOGLE DOCS and ZOHO

What do you think, are these apps going to replace Microsoft Office?  Why or Why not?

Another interesting article in FAST Company about “AR” (Augmented Reality) — or is it Artificial Reality?  The article entitled ” Is Google Street View joining the Augmented Reality Fray?”  asks “The augmented reality explosion is literally just beginning, and it seems Google’s painstakingly-gathered geotagged imagery is best used as artificial reality. It’ll be interesting to see which tech remains useful and relevant for longer–and will Google find itself relegated to merely being the data pipe that feeds popular AR apps, or will it flip a switch and turn this into an AR app of its own?”.

The article links a video of the “Street View” app.  What do you think?  Cool?

This “Augmented Reality” seems to be picking up some buzz.  What do you think?   Will this catch on (diffuse)?  Where will it go?

I read with interest an article — Waxman-Markey Flunks Math  where we learn that most of our electricity comes from coal, hopefully clean coal, but more importantly, the amount of energy that comes from “green” sources, and how the “math” (logic) shows how difficult it will to be “green”.  BTW, the article points out that 1.1% comes from petroleum.  We are going to get real about the technology we put into solar, wind, water, and biomass as we move forward — based on these numbers.  When we get real about the technology investment, and strategy about technology development because our real lelectric energy needs are going to surpass our dreams of having green energy real quick.  From the article, “Well, what about electricity for the other 295 million of us? You can’t get there from here with Waxman-Markey. At best, solar, wind, batteries, geothermal and cellulosic ethanol combined will meet 20% of our needs by 2025.”

So, what should be our technology strategy, where should we be making our investments (or the behaviour modification penalties) for our future energy needs?  As we invest, or create public policy, we need to take into account REAL NEEDS.  What do you think?

In the innovation game, competition can be brutal or wonderful depending on what side you are on.  We have commented in class and within this blog a bit about the Kindle, we have also looked at the Plastic Logic E-Reader in 2008 within this blog.   

Now we have aFast Company blog article that describes the Plastic Logic E-Reader as a Barnes and Noble product which directly challenges both Sony and Kindle.  The 3 minute video describes and shows some of the cool features.

What do you think?  Do you think the market benefits?  How, why?  or why not?

Thanks Dave (MG-745) for the suggestion.

Digital Grandma

So, how important is education and training to technology diffusion?

Marc Andreessen  (New Lisbon, Wisconsin) speaks on a Forbes Video about what he thinks will be the next big technologies.  If you do not know who Marc Andreessen (Netscape)  is, read the bio.   You will need to sit through some Dell advertising (Embedded Deployment, Enhanced Vitualization?), but it is a good 3:47 second view.

What do you think?  Do you agree?  Cloud Computing? Databases?

Ok, so we had some fun with the Microsoft Surface Parody.

I recently read a FAST COMPANY article online , with a series of short videos on apps for the Microsoft Surface. 

What do you think? Innovative?  Will these apps help diffuse the technology?

One of my favorite marketing gurus is David Aaker.   In an interview in “Strategy + Business” called “Get out of the Silo”  Aaker says that marketing needs to be more strategic and one can start taking down the silos.   According to Aaker “Successful marketing in an era of globalization and the concomitant rise of large, multinational, multiproduct corporations requires that chief marketing officers “become more strategic, more connected to overall business strategy, as opposed to being tactical, the guy who merely generates sales leads or creates advertising or builds Web sites. As soon as you become strategic, you can start tearing down silos.”

Aaker goes on to discuss what companies can do to build brand as well as facing some of the challenges.  Of course, he is pushing his new book where he uses the term silos as a descriptive term for decentralized organizations with tight focus. 

What do you think about his ideas?  Is he right?  What are the problems we will be facing in the near future related to brand building and marketing?

This is a great article, and I expect, a great book.  While I have not read the book — yet– I have read the article in the print version,  and online plus viewed the video and the slideshow (If GOOGLE Ran Your Business).

The article “How the GOOGLE Model Could Help Detroit“  written by Jeff Jarvis, discusses some of the things that GOOGLE does that could be applied to ‘Detroit”.  The print version has a section called a “Management Tip Sheet” (also on the web) which enumerates the “rules” such as “Manage Abundance, not Scarcity”, “Make Misteakes Well”, “Give Up Control”, “Get Out of the Way” and a couple more.

The website also contains a pod cast link.

These rules ARE applicable, we have discussed these in class number of times. 

What do you think?

Well as a professor that teaches classes in strategy, new product managmement and innovation as well as a few others, I could not pass up this article.  It includes a quote from one of my favorite authors and teachers, Gary Hamel  “Influence is like water, always flowing somewhere.”

The article mentions a number of companies that they (editors and their panel of experts) feel are the most influential.  There is a video  that describes a bit about the definition of “influential” and then also talks a bit about social networking.

They profile a number of companies (List of Companies) and I have to agree with them on many of the selected companies.  A few of those that should be no surprise to anyone who attends class regularly.

APPLE         GOOGLE     TOYOTA

Of the other companies named, which do you agree with?  Any you do not?  Why?  Do you like their definition of influence?   Who would you add to the list?

A recent FAST Company article and Scobleizer blog posting titled Sky Fight discusses the differences in the “business models” of Microsoft and GOOGLE. 

From the blog “How you use these two telescopes immediately points to the fundamental differences between the companies. Microsoft, not surprisingly, has tied WWT to the Windows desktop, and users who want it have to download and install it. Google Sky is browser-based and works anywhere you have an Internet connection, even on mobile phones, a vista where the resource-intensive WWT can’t dare to go.”

What do you think?  What are the benefits of each approach to providing information and knowledge?  Which will “win”?  Should one prevail over the other, or is their “room” for both?  Why?    Are there “lessons to be learned” about Innovation, knowledge management, information technology, business strategy?  What are they?

This discussion thread by from Robert Neiman’s Execution Plain and Simple: 12 Steps to Achieving Any Goal on Time and on Budget (McGraw-Hill, 2004). Seems to be some excellent, practical advice on implementing strategy, or rather accomplishing just about any goal.

Execute Your Strategy—Without Killing It

However, his first tip “taking personal responsibility for your company’s” strategy seems VERY hard to actually get this to happen, unless it is a personal commitment.

What do you think about these tips?