Monthly Archives: July 2009
Real and virtual worlds are about to collide in a big way.In September with the expected release of iPhone OS 3.1, some pretty amazing augmented reality applications will begin appearing for the iPhone 3GS. These applications overlay useful info on your view of the real-world using the iPhone’s camera. The new crop of augmented reality applications due in September make use of common features like an internet connection and GPS, but because they also utilize a compass, only users of the new iPhone 3GS will be able to install them.There are several cool demos floating around which I have shared below, but these applications are using unpublished APIs which prevent them from being allowed on the App Store. Apple, however, told one developer that the tools necessary would become available in the pending iPhone OS 3.1. Here is an application that shows the closest subway stations and how to get … Continue reading
FREE is an idea I’ve played with before. Now Chris Anderson, the brilliant editor of Wired and Long Tail advocate, has turned his attention to the four letter word that is shocking business people everywhere. I remember back in the day when sixties radical Abbie Hoffman titled his most famous publication “Steal This Book.” What a title! It was a book about free – what was free and how to get it. What Hoffman considered worth getting for free says a lot about the times. We’re talking free sandals, free communes, free smoke bombs, and gardening for free ‘herb’. Hoffman’s book even came with its own stolen Library of Congress catalog number! But while the idea of free is old, what is new is the way the digital world has made free a global phenomenon.Chris Anderson’s book “Free: the Future of a Radical Price” is less ambitious than “The Long … Continue reading
I had the opportunity recently to interview Scott Anthony, President of Innosight and the author of “The Silver Lining” about a variety of innovation topics including: ‘The Great Disruption’, barriers to innovation, education, leadership, and commodity businesses.Here is the text from the interview:1. What is the biggest challenge that companies face in the Great Disruption?I think the biggest challenge facing companies is an unwillingness to let go of the past. Companies have to come to grips with the fact that what made them great in the past will not make them great in the future. That doesn’t mean they have to completely walk away from their heritage. But they to constantly question the status quo, think about the businesses they are not in that they should be, and be willing to walk away from businesses before they need to. It’s a tough challenge.2. What stands in the way of many … Continue reading
A couple of weeks ago I received “The Silver Lining” by Scott Anthony in the mail. “The Silver Lining” is a relatively short, easy, and pleasant read. Scott introduces several different concepts in the book in addition to the main thesis – which seems to be that companies must prune their innovation portfolios, refeature their products to meet ever-changing customer requirements, and re-tool their organizations to better deal with the constant change that is becoming the norm in the world today.The first concept that Scott introduces is a term to refer to the current economic dis-equilibrium – ‘The Great Disruption’ – and the rapid change that organizations face. Here is a great quote from the first chapter:”The biggest silver lining for innovation is that the scarcity that is sure to result from the current economic climate is actually a good thing for innovation. Abundance is actually the root cause of … Continue reading
Lots of bad stuff happening in China right now. So let’s talk about some good stuff. Like the design coming out of Shanghai.Innovation, no matter where it occurs, always begins with a burning question (or questions), centered around “Is there a better way?” Artist-turned-designer Lu Kun has almost single-handedly put Shanghai on the international fashion map by pursuing three such questions:Why doesn’t China’s clothing industry pay attention to detail? Why is it so cheap and uninspired? Why can’t we do it differently?Tired of his country being perceived as one big factory, Kun is on a mission to demonstrate that creativity and innovation are alive and well in China. His bold designs are doing just that. Drawing his inspiration from what he knows best – the streets of Shanghai – Kun’s original creations are being hailed as elegant and imaginative, yet at the same time distinctly Shanghainese.Undaunted by China’s lack of … Continue reading
The new dimension of innovation is about having customer as an integral part of the system. Firms can no longer afford to stay separate from customers and still come up with great innovations. The success of social media websites (like Facebook) is frequently attributed to engaging customers in the creation of new innovations – also referred to as crowdsourcing.The topic of innovation is multi-dimensional, which no firm in the globe can afford to ignore today. Being innovative is necessary to stay competitive in the business. The new age of innovation has a lot to do with making the customer an integral part of the innovation system by engaging and involving them with the product or service that the firm is working on.This is all the more true with consumer-targeted social networking sites like Facebook, where the users drive how the product should look. The customer-centric innovation started off with creating … Continue reading
