Innovation Survey

Chuck Frey, one of the original writers in the innovation blogosphere with his blog Innovation Weblog, is conducting a survey about how innovation is changing in companies struggling with the effects of the economic downturn.

Your voice is important and you can participate here.

Details Matter

It seems that a Japanese fertility clinic impregnated a client with someone else's baby.1

In hindsight it seems incredulous that the clinic used the wrong eggs. But in the midst of the procedure there are so many things to worry about such as patient vitals, etc. They fact that the wrong eggs were used were but one small part of an overall successful procedure.

Unless explicitly called for, details have the habit of escaping the present mind as they are replaced by more urgent thoughts: how's the breathing, bleeding, etc.?

Notes:
1. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090219/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_embryo_mix_up_1

Emotional Truth

While reading the book Why Customers Really Buy: Uncovering the emotional triggers that drive sales, I was struck by the underlying premise of the book which is that every situation has an emotional truth.

Each and every interaction that we have elicits a personal emotional reaction. We often don't share these reactions because they are self serving or reveal a personal weakness. Sharing these types of reactions to the group shows us to be selfish or incompetent and would result in a loss of status. (Ironically the loss of status is a result of individuals losing faith in what you can or will do for them, itself a selfish behavior). This loss of status results in loss of control, and a worse of personal context, as resource responsibilities get reassigned.

The magic then in achieving anything that requires more than yourself to accomplish is understanding that people are emotionally driven and that they are unlikely to openly share these emotions (that is if they are even conscious of them). Once you know this you can begin to work on understanding what the situations emotional truth and begin to figure out a way to move forward.

Yesterday's Innovation

Gone forever are the days of removing the side trim from your print out.

Image via istockphoto.com

US Navy Drill Team

What the results of practice and discipline look like.

Toto, We're Not In Kansas Anymore

Innovation is problem solving. When changing context brings new problems the winners are going to be the ones who were adaptive enough to solve them. It's fair to say that today's economy is a fairly significant context changer, but not in the way people are talking about today.

Most of the discussion about the economy has been about getting back on track, getting people spending again. But what if the old ways are gone forever? Then what do we do.

The American economy is built on consumer spending. Note that since about the 1970's the percentage of consumer spending as part of the GDP has increased from about 60 to 70%.1 But Americans have been spending money that they don't have. Since about the 1970's Americans have been spending more than they saved (yellow is savings, blue/gray is spending.) The debt has come in the form of credit cards (gray), installment loans (light blue), home equity loans (white), and mortgages (dark blue).2


This means that American output capacity is sized to accommodate American consumer deficit spending. For example, in India where consumers don't have nearly as much access to capital, credit card sales accounted for 30% of all durable goods sales in 2008.

For demand to return to previous levels means that consumers need to return to there deficit spending ways. This is doubtful to happen as the pain and suffering of the current downturn is likely to make a large cultural imprint on anyone 35 or younger who has never felt the effects of a national economic meltdown before.

Spending may not rebound.

The Innovative companies, and they probably won't call themselves innovative as much as they would call themselves survivalists, are going to position themselves to feed this new demand level. They are not going to try and extend right now in order to get through, they are going to believe the data they are being shown and will retool for the profoundly new future.

Notes:
1. Lancaster New Era 12/15/09
2. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/07/20/business/20debt-trap.html?scp=1&sq=consumer%20debt%20graph&st=cse

Hey 3M: Want a Million Dollar Idea?

Racing numbers a produced by the millions every year. Essentially they are pieces of paper with a unique ID that allow the race organizers to track your finish. Eventually they will be replaced by RFID tags, but that is a long time in the future as pieces of paper will be more cost effective for a long time.

The problem? Racing numbers are attached to the runner with four safety pins.

If there was a way to replace the safety pins with a temporary adhesive, think of the race number as a giant sticky note, then you would produce a cheaper racing number that is easier to put on, and it you don't stick your finger during application.

30 Most Important Innovations from Last 30 Years

Next Monday on February 16th PBS' Nightly Business Report is running a feature on the 30 most important innovations over the last 30 years.

I wonder how many on the list weren't known to be innovations when they were first introduced.

Be A Problem Solver

Success in life depends on talent, practice, and luck.

Talent consists of both the IQ and EQ. There are plenty of super smart people who can't get along with others. Likewise there are plenty of super nice people who can't make change for a dollar.

Practice speaks for itself. Those who work harder, on average, do better. Studies show that it takes 10,000 hours to truly master a subject.

As for luck. The newspapers are full of talented visionary who have disappeared or been gun down. The newspapers are less full of the stories of the visionary and talented people who have had their careers derailed for one reason or another. The lucky ones are the ones who make it through relatively unscathed.

So it was veiled in-credulousness that I listed to the mother of a two year old instruct her pre-school teacher that Peter has been working on writing his name and that it would be very much be appreciated if the teacher would reinforce Peter's writing skills while watching the other eight two year olds in the class.

As if somehow knowing how to write your name at two will translate into better mathematics skills at eighteen, which would mean a full ride to Harvard, which of course would produce an inside lead to the Wall Street fast track.

Don't get me wrong. Education is vitally important. But, it's a minute piece of the pie.

Smart people can figure it out. Better to teach her son how to work well with others. So that he can achieve the goals he cannot obtain himself. Better to teach her son resiliency. So that when life knocks him down he has the wherewithal and fortitude to stand back up. Better to teach her son how to be a problem solver. So that he can solve life's puzzles by himself rather than sit idly by waiting for someone to help him.

John Wooden aptly describe success as the peace of mind associated with knowing that you did the best to become that best that you are capable of becoming. This is much more important, and much harder to obtain, than learning how to write at two.

Whale Facts

Things that quite possibly only interest me...

It Aint Good
In the 4th quarter of 2008 New York City lost about 65,000 jobs, saw sales tax revenue fall 5%, home values fall 6%, and office vacancies rise 7%.1

It Aint Good In China Neither
20 million migrant farmers have lost their jobs, about 1/6 of the total. About 6 to 7 million people join the migrant work force each year.2

Innovative Job
Stephania Bell is the injury expert for ESPN.com fantasy.



1 http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/01/29/2009-01-29_mayor_bloombergs_grim_doomsday_budget_cu.html
2 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123359977495740199.html

2009 Prediction Update

One of my 2009 predictions is that the Eastman Kodak Company ceases to exist in its current form in 2009. It looks like this is a safe bet.

When the bankers such as Chris Whitmore from Deutshce Bank are quoted as saying, "People are going to start questioning the company’s viability in its current form," then you have a serious problem.

When you have to lay off 20% of your workforce after you've already gotten rid of half of them (28,000) you know things are not good.

The company itself is estimating that they will have a net change in cash of -200 million to +100 million on an 18% revenue decline. (And this is based on an economic improvement in the second half of 2009.)

When your business plan depends on a hail mary it's time to update the resume. (Well what they actually said was, "it will announce plans to more tightly focus on investments in its breakthrough digital technologies while maximizing the performance of its strong cash-generating businesses and identifying new business models for product lines outside its core portfolio." But that's essentially the same thing.)

And so the cycle of creative destruction continues leaving behind stronger companies with better product.

Innovating Wetsuit Rentals

It is true that necessity is the mother of invention.

Such is the case with Wetsuitrental.com. First time triathletes want to use a wetsuit as the swim portion of the event is often outside. Wetsuits keep you warm. But as a first time triathlete you don't want to spend $200 to $500 on something that you may never use again.

Enter the innovators at Wetsuitrental.com.

For $40, plus return shipping, you get the use of the wetsuit without the commitment of owning a wetsuit.