Tuesday 26 March 2013

Building $1B Consumer Co.: Find Long-Haul Founders, Don’t Fear Incumbents, Don't Kill Creativity

One billlllion dollars. Naturally you hear Dr. Evil's voice. But how to you build a Facebook, Apple, Linked-In? Find a zealot CEO, Don't even think about entrenched players and never stop creating. Natural you think? You'd be surprised. Here's how some of iGNITIATE's clients focus on not allowing failure into the mix.



The basic rules as set by Jacob Mullins at Shasta Ventures:
average age for insanely successful software start-ups with insane number of users is seven years. Why? Convincing people to join. If your making toilet paper or software the faster you are getting 100's of thousands if not 10's of millions of users with software goods, the better.
Be in it for the long haul — the better part of a decade and build out a team that is willing to dig in and fight hard.
- current internet software business models focus on advertising and subscription. Can you shift your physical product to utilize if not replicate these models? Then you've got a chance.
- for Physical products, e-commerce is the smallest exit multiple as reported by the Goldman Sachs Internet Technology Quarterly Report. So if your a product person, start thinking software if all you want is $$$
- the  most valuable companies have founders who have unusually strong and focused product vision such as Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, LinkedIn, Groupon, Pandora, Zynga where the founder was maniacal about the product and molded it and the company to his own vision. 
a strong common focus on end-user value is what matters: connecting friends; professional, networking and the job searches the gamified life, only the music you want to hear and this is just the software firms. 
- getting people to stick around: keeping users around for days, weeks, months and years after they signed up is the software world. but what of buying a chair? referrals, prizes for referrals, there are millions of ways to get more people using your products. 
invent an entirely new product category or reinvent a market with a better product? there is no answer but with the above and a maniacal founder you have all the ingredients to battle it out - and have no qualms, it is a battle every step of the way.
- often the most valuable products come from where an existing solution is just not up to snuff.
- and naturally, entrenched players? do it better or just tell everyone you are, either way, it is conviction that allows billion dollar companies to emerge

To not kill creativity Howard Jacobson summarizes: 
- Buffering (having plenty of toilet paper on hand, when you need it) stifles creativity, so folders with ideas and notebooks with snipits and sketches much be constantly filled and then evaluated, prototyped and never rested on the laurels of the filled book itself.  
- Artificial Deadlines keep people motivated even if it is a false alarm and the possibility of being empty, of having nothing to offer. 
- Utilizing Red Bull, coffee and self-deprivation for insane potential projects that have the capacity to shock and disrupt cause the mother of invention to appear. If it isn't used now, it can be used later
- Introducing the fear of the well drying up is a cautionary tale of continuing to demand from the team and the client so that new opportunities for creativity present themselves. 

Keep these on a sheet of paper in your CEO playbook or in your COO notebook to find, hire, and cultivate team members who embody these capabilities and one billllllion dollars is right around the corner. 





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Monday 4 March 2013

Desire a new billion dollar industry? A Real Innovation? Supercapacitor = No more Batteries


How many times have you heard the word innovation? How many times was it nothing more than advertising BS? Not this time. Industry proven Supercapacitors are here & originally made, "cooked" right inside a standard DVD burner. How will design be effected? Paper thin batteries that charge devices in seconds & electric vehicles in 3mins. Sound unbelieveable? Watch the video and the physicists behind it - real innovators. Schumpeter, the father of the definition of innovation would be proud.



Where does it all come from? UCLA high-energy-density graphene micro-supercapacitors researchers. What does it mean for products & design? Well supercapacitors are made of graphene, which is thin, flexible and super-strong. Did I say super thin? Super thin. Now your cell phone is 1/2 the size not to mention graphene is carbon & biodegradable and compostable. When you're done with the thing it dissolves right into the soil. Now that's innovation!

Thursday 28 February 2013

Infographics: Your savior in new product launches

It has happened to every designer,  entrepreneur & product developer & it even happens to international firms launching new services - the launch black hole. How is it that designers of new products, businesses and even services miss what's out there? The solution: not utilizing design & market infographics. How do world class companies do it? They do it here:



And, as shown in this infographic of every kitchen utensil made, by type the playing field is defined. More, there are any number of similar examples for every other product and even service out there. A quick look, the 10,000 meter view is what separates innovators from the also rans. How does your firm stack up in the way it looks for new opportunities?




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Thursday 21 February 2013

A Glass Life: everything is about to change

Digital Wallets, 3D printing of objects, food & even organic material, cloud computing, are all incredible however Google's Glass is poised to be the next big consumer market behavior changer & here's how you will use it everyday. 


Computer scientists and social anthropologists alike remember the work of Jaron Lanier one of the fathers of VR - Virtual Reality and Strange Days with Ralph Fiennes and his interactions with "The Hat" but not until Patty Mayes  demonstrated Sixth Sense at TeD viewed almost 7M times and  Pranav Mistry detailed Sixth Sense on TeD India viewed almost 10M times becoming the 3rd & 4th most viewed videos on TeD did the full integration of technology and wearable computing become close to real world. Now models are wearing it in commercials, nerds are coding with it on their heads and  jamming in guitar sessions after work. Soon it won't just be Google just like it wasn't just iOS and iPhones. Get ready for the Next Wave.




Wednesday 13 February 2013

Want Contagious Ideas & Products? Here's how.

Creating beautiful products & user friendly services is a challenge in itself. Having products that are contagious, sticky & drive ROI, that's the challenge, no matter if a firm is producing 500K units or an artist is producing a limited series. But how? Here's how.


1) Social Currency drives the car - we love making ourselves look good, make your product or service make people look good for using it and being involved with it. 
2) Triggers: if it relates to something else you know or do, it's going to stick
3) Emotion: If it trigger a base need it's going to stick, think Maslow's level 1
4) Public: the more people can add to it, pee on it, make it their own, the better
5) Practical Value: If it's something they can talk about at work & share, it's solid
6) Stories: the more it resonates with a story you can tell and retell the more it sells

More aptly are the specifics of Geoffrey More's Book "Crossing the Chasm" summarized here recognizing the need to focus on the early adopters and the expectations of these groups and the necessary mechanisms for driving further involvement by the standard public - the larger portion of any investors hockey stick and why the only way to achieve that is by continually pumping out new products as artists create painting as detailed in "The Longer Tail"




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Tuesday 29 January 2013

Got a product? Make a service = increased ROI

How often do designers define investors ROI, utilizing art, finance, and engineering? Every day. But that's only 1/2  the  equation. Service "stickiness" is the other and what keeps design revenue rolling in.


It isn't enough to design a better camera as in the case of the Lytro camera and as detailed in one of our past discussions - Lytro is by Definition a Breakthrough as the full impetus of the Lytro world is the services associated with it. Fast Company once again does a fine job at bringing the basics of this model, ROI through services to light and as detailed here: How to Turn Products into Services and basics are here:
1) Utilizing a selling to renting Model
2) Expand it through education, work in teams with other brands, etc
3) Digitize it and via #1 and #2 to create stickiness. Best example, apps, renders, etc

Oddly this is defining an entire ego system surrounding the physical design of the object itself and similar to something like the BMW i-drive where a physical design has an exterior set of services that extend into the home.

Where else can you find out about product and service design:
- How Behance sold itself to Adobe for 100m and all based on the design of the service itself
- Oyua, android and full design ROI = millions from kickstarter
- SlideShare extremely simple UI created a purchase price of +100M by LinkedIN

Wednesday 2 January 2013

IBM + HBS: Good design = Good business?

Recently, Fast Company (here) examined IBM's investment in design & direct bottom line ROI. HBS proposed (here) America's need for a Manufacturing Renaissance. What do both miss? That US design demands measurability but not unless Design Thinking Starts at the Top (here)



Throughout the world, particularly in Italy, France and Germany, design thinking is fully integrated in the final end product: the firm itself and it's leadership team. Imagery, functionality, interactivity, user experience + R&D culminate into a firms full offering to its clients. Some summarize this ias "brand development" however branding can sometimes miss engineering or manufacturing queues and likely so, customer interest isn't part of long term R&D models however slowly in the US things are changing as best articulated by Ron Shaich, founder and CEO of the Panera Bread chain, in a recent post “…the chief executive’s foremost responsibility is to identify, develop, and deploy innovations that lead to real competitive advantage. All of the other challenges that weigh on every CEO--meeting the quarter’s financial targets; enhancing the brand; creating a culture where everyone gives their best--are ultimately irrelevant if you haven’t figured out how to invent your company’s future.” - a clear definition of design disruption. 

Sunday 30 December 2012

3D Printing: Bigger than the Internet & the Future of Manufacturing

In 2007 in an address to the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore on the future of design in 2058 and how it will effect global economies the focus to the government of Singapore to pursue: Art, Design & Engineering and 3D Printing education and technologies for it's population. And this isn't anything that people haven't been aware of since 1986 when the 1st commercial 3D Printing company came into existence  The technology, developed many years earlier by who else? The military: for engineers in the field.

Art, 3D Design and Printing has been identified by Venture Beat as the technology of the future and FT has dubbed it "bigger than the internet" in a 10 minute video on how this will take place.

Of course the question is: how is your firm addressing or even embracing this technologies and design directions? Miss it and be in the same position as firms who didn't embrace the cotton gin during the beginning of the industrial revolution or companies who didn't embrace the internet in the late 90's.

The details on how this has occurred in 2012 and how it will continue to occur in 2013 and beyond plus  the companies involved in summary form is right here:








Thursday 20 December 2012

McKinsey's Innovation Battle Test - Ignore Design: THE Game Changer

McKinsey, the bastion for strategy recently detailed how to "Battle Test Your Innovation Strategy". What did it end up detailing? Nothing related to innovation at all. Would Alessi or Bodum be surprised by McKinsey's mentality? No. Because innovation isn't about "lead or leap" it is about (design) disruption and McKinsey misses the mark.

Reactive questions posed by McKinsey focus on: competitive landscapes, price points supply-side dynamics vs. customer demand, geographies or segments, segment overlap, going out of business in 1-3yrs, responses to attackers, next versions and extensions and how to start building now? Living in the present.

Only one 9 questions discussed  address a Proactive, future oriented game changing mentality: How much of a lead or leap—technological or otherwise—must we make in the next generation of our product or service? and still only addressing the "next" iteration, not true "innovation" detailing how design, via physical products or virtual services will impact the direction of the firm. Does Bodun, Lacie, Alessi or any other design-centric firm ignore such factors? No. Ignoring the key factor of innovation: zigging when others zag, pushing when others are catching up and ignoring group think is what determines battle successful firms.

Has your firm embed these mentalities in its DNA? Is failure a mechanism for growth or a limiter of experimentation which ultimately drives trial and error - the battle scars of innovation because the rest, while absolutely necessarily is just good sense - strategic awareness not an embedded innovation mentality for battlefield success.






Wednesday 12 December 2012

Why do developing nations innovate faster? They NEED to.

Mother is the necessity of invention and the famous TED talk, and one of the most inspirational given by William Kamkwamba: How I harnessed the wind shows just how. With no food, no power, and not even able to speak English William innovated broken parts of garbage to build a windmill that saved his village, provided irrigation and actually generated enough power to charge peoples  cell phones for which he created a revenue stream again saving his family from starvation. How? He NEEDED to. Does your company have this need? Are your employees empowered to benefit from that which they disrupt, create and innovate?

This is why some developing nations innovate faster. They have to. Because if they don't those in need will perish. A recent fast company article on this demonstrates how in a simple progression of:
1) It must be directly relevant to the situation
2) Local fixes work faster than top down
3) Long term investment wins: the R&D model
4) Working with the government is actually good: increases roll-out

makes this possible and gives some clues how you can do this inside your organization as well.

Friday 30 November 2012

Spotting Disruption, Designing for Disruption

Recently we were asked, "Anyone can design for a disruption, but how do you spot one" and to this, we realized that the fundamental question is not how do you spot one, it is how do you make one, and more specifically, how can this be accomplished via design.

A recent Fast Company article set's the tone, "Four Ways To Spot Markets Ripe For Disruption" and clearly articulates:
1) Are there Workarounds
2) Are values at conflict
3) Is there inertia and how is this effected by switching costs
4) Should and want are 2 different things and can be leveraged

These are the building blocks for design disruption, for specific tactics and successes, this is the domain of good design and a whole other topic all together.

Monday 19 November 2012

What's "Design", What's "Innovation"? - TED's Top 50 Luminaries


What's "Design", What's "Innovation"? How may times have clients, partners, investors asked this? We've compiled a list of the top 50 TED lectures by some of our friends and worlds top luminaries to help our clients, partners, and investors better understand these two crucial topics and now we share this here.

WHAT IS DESIGN:
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http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/43   
Paul Bennett: Design is in the details   
Showing a series of inspiring, unusual and playful products, British branding and design guru Paul Bennett explains that design doesn't have to be about grand gestures, but can solve small, universal and overlooked problems.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/5   
Chris Bangle - Head of BMW Design: Great cars are Art   
American designer Chris Bangle explains his philosophy that car design is an art form in its own right, with an entertaining -- and ultimately moving -- account of the BMW Group's Deep Blue project, intended to create the SUV of the future.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/50   
Stefan Sagmeister: Yes, design can make you happy   
Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister takes the audience on a whimsical journey through moments of his life that made him happy -- and notes how many of these moments have to do with good design.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/122
David Kelley: The future of design is human-centered   
IDEO's David Kelley says that product design has become much less about the hardware and more about the user experience. He shows video of this new, broader approach, including footage from the Prada store in New York.    TED2002

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/197   
Philippe Starck: Design and destiny - Why design?   
Designer Philippe Starck -- with no pretty slides to show -- spends 18 minutes reaching for the very roots of the question "Why design?" Listen carefully for one perfect mantra for all of us, genius or not.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/207   
Paola Antonelli: Treating design as art   
Paola Antonelli, design curator at New York's Museum of Modern Art, wants to spread her appreciation of design -- in all shapes and forms -- around the world.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/266   
Yves Behar: Creating objects that tell stories   
Designer Yves Behar digs up his creative roots to discuss some of the iconic objects he's created (the Leaf lamp, the Jawbone headset). Then he turns to the witty, surprising, elegant objects he's working on now -- including the "$100 laptop."

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/356   
Stefan Sagmeister: Things I have learned in my life so far   
Rockstar designer Stefan Sagmeister delivers a short, witty talk on life lessons, expressed through surprising modes of design (including ... inflatable monkeys?).

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/396   
Isaac Mizrahi: Fashion, passion, and about a million other things   
Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi spins through a dizzying array of inspirations -- from '50s pinups to a fleeting glimpse of a hole in a shirt that makes him shout "Stop the cab!" Inside this rambling talk are real clues to living a happy, creative life.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/414   
Eva Zeisel: The playful search for beauty   
The ceramics designer Eva Zeisel looks back on a 75-year career. What keeps her work as fresh today (her latest line debuted in 2008) as in 1926? Her sense of play and beauty, and her drive for adventure. Listen for stories from a rich, colorful life.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/427   
John Maeda: My journey in design, from tofu to RISD   
Designer John Maeda talks about his path from a Seattle tofu factory to the Rhode Island School of Design, where he became president in 2008. Maeda, a tireless experimenter and a witty observer, explores the crucial moment when design met computers.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/431   
Rob Forbes: Ways of seeing   
Rob Forbes, the founder of Design Within Reach, shows a gallery of snapshots that inform his way of seeing the world. Charming juxtapositions, found art, urban patterns -- this slideshow will open your eyes to the world around you.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/436   
David Carson: Design, discovery and humor   
Great design is a never-ending journey of discovery -- for which it helps to pack a healthy sense of humor. Sociologist and surfer-turned-designer David Carson walks through a gorgeous (and often quite funny) slide deck of his work and found images.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/455   
Milton Glaser: How great design makes ideas new   
From the TED archives: The legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser dives deep into a new painting inspired by Piero della Francesca. From here, he muses on what makes a convincing poster, by breaking down an idea and making it new.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/480   
Don Norman: The three ways that good design makes you happy   
In this talk from 2003, design critic Don Norman turns his incisive eye toward beauty, fun, pleasure and emotion, as he looks at design that makes people happy. He names the three emotional cues that a well-designed product must hit to succeed.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/501   
Jacek Utko: Can design save the newspaper?   
Jacek Utko is an extraordinary Polish newspaper designer whose redesigns for papers in Eastern Europe not only win awards, but increase circulation by up to 100%. Can good design save the newspaper? It just might.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/520   
Niels Diffrient: Rethinking the way we sit down   
Design legend Niels Diffrient talks about his life in industrial design (and the reason he became a designer instead of a jet pilot). He details his quest to completely rethink the office chair starting from one fundamental data set: the human body.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/590   
Eames Demetrios: The design genius of Charles + Ray Eames   
The legendary design team Charles and Ray Eames made films, houses and classic midcentury modern furniture. Eames Demetrios, their grandson, shows rarely seen films and archival footage in a lively, loving tribute to their creative process.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/646   
Tim Brown: Designers, think big!   
Tim Brown says the design profession is preoccupied with creating nifty, fashionable objects -- even as pressing questions like clean water access show it has a bigger role to play. He calls for a shift to local, collaborative, participatory "design thinking."

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/649   
Stefan Sagmeister: The power of time off   
Every seven years, designer Stefan Sagmeister closes his New York studio for a yearlong sabbatical to rejuvenate and refresh their creative outlook. He explains the often overlooked value of time off and shows the innovative projects inspired by his time in Bali.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/691   
Mathieu Lehanneur: Science-inspired design   
Naming science as his chief inspiration, Mathieu Lehanneur shows a selection of his ingenious designs -- an interactive noise-neutralizing ball, an antibiotic course in one layered pill, asthma treatment that reminds kids to take it, a living air filter, a living-room fish farm and more.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/891   
Marian Bantjes: Intricate beauty by design    
In graphic design, Marian Bantjes says, throwing your individuality into a project is heresy. She explains how she built her career doing just that, bringing her signature delicate illustrations to storefronts, valentines and even genetic diagrams.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/937   
David McCandless: The beauty of data visualization   
David McCandless turns complex data sets (like worldwide military spending, media buzz, Facebook status updates) into beautiful, simple diagrams that tease out unseen patterns and connections. Good design, he suggests, is the best way to navigate information glut -- and it may just change the way we see the world.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/953   
Seth Godin: This is broken   
Why are so many things broken? In a hilarious talk from the 2006 Gel conference, Seth Godin gives a tour of things poorly designed, the 7 reasons why they are that way, and how to fix them.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/971   
Eben Bayer: Are mushrooms the new plastic?   
Product designer Eben Bayer reveals his recipe for a new, fungus-based packaging material that protects fragile stuff like furniture, plasma screens -- and the environment.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/991   
R.A. Mashelkar: Breakthrough designs for ultra-low-cost products   
Engineer RA Mashelkar shares three stories of ultra-low-cost design from India that use bottom-up rethinking, and some clever engineering, to bring expensive products (cars, prosthetics) into the realm of the possible for everyone.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1002   
Emily Pilloton: Teaching design for change   
Designer Emily Pilloton moved to rural Bertie County, in North Carolina, to engage in a bold experiment of design-led community transformation. She's teaching a design-build class called Studio H that engages high schoolers' minds and bodies while bringing smart design and new opportunities to the poorest county in the state.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1051   
Thomas Thwaites: How I built a toaster -- from scratch   
It takes an entire civilization to build a toaster. Designer Thomas Thwaites found out the hard way, by attempting to build one from scratch: mining ore for steel, deriving plastic from oil ... it's frankly amazing he got as far as he got. A parable of our interconnected society, for designers and consumers alike.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1101   
Hans Rosling: The magic washing machine   
What was the greatest invention of the industrial revolution? Hans Rosling makes the case for the washing machine. With newly designed graphics from Gapminder, Rosling shows us the magic that pops up when economic growth and electricity turn a boring wash day into an intellectual day of reading.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1147   
Thomas Heatherwick: Building the Seed Cathedral   
A future more beautiful? Architect Thomas Heatherwick shows five recent projects featuring ingenious bio-inspired designs. Some are remakes of the ordinary: a bus, a bridge, a power station ... And one is an extraordinary pavilion, the Seed Cathedral, a celebration of growth and light.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1243   
Richard Seymour: How beauty feels   
A story, a work of art, a face, a designed object -- how do we tell that something is beautiful?  And why does it matter so much to us? Designer Richard Seymour explores our response to beauty and the surprising power of objects that exhibit it.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1340   
Bjarke Ingels: Designing Hedonistic sustainability   
Bjarke Ingels' architecture is luxurious, sustainable and community-driven. At TEDxEast he shows us his playful designs, from a factory chimney that blows smoke rings to a ski slope built atop a waste processing plant.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1383   
Kelli Anderson: Design to challenge reality   
Kelli Anderson shatters our expectations about reality by injecting humor and surprise into everyday objects. At TEDxPhoenix she shares her disruptive and clever designs.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1410   
Chip Kidd: Designing books is no laughing matter. OK, it is.   
Chip Kidd doesn't judge books by their cover, he creates covers that embody the book -- and he does it with a wicked sense of humor. In one of the funniest talks from TED2012, he shows the art and deep thought of his cover designs. <i>(From The Design Studio session at TED2012, guest curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell.)</i>

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1419   
Tal Golesworthy: How I designed & repaired my own heart   
Tal Golesworthy is a boiler engineer -- he knows piping and plumbing. When he needed surgery to repair a life-threatening problem with his aorta, he mixed his engineering skills with his doctors' medical knowledge to design a better repair job.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1449   
David Kelley: How to build your creative confidence   
Is your school or workplace divided into "creatives" versus practical people? Yet surely, David Kelley suggests, creativity is not the domain of only a chosen few. Telling stories from his legendary design career and his own life, he offers ways to build the confidence to create... guest-curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1463   
Sebastian Deterding: What your designs say about you   
"What does your chair say about what you value? Designer Sebastian Deterding shows how our visions of morality and what the good life is are reflected in the design of objects around us.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1471   
John Hodgman: Design, explained.   
John Hodgman, comedian and resident expert, "explains" the design of three iconic modern objects. From The Design Studio session at TED2012, guest-curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1474   
John Hockenberry: We are all designers   
Journalist John Hockenberry tells a personal story inspired by a pair of flashy wheels in a wheelchair-parts catalogue -- and how they showed him the value of designing a life of intent. From The Design Studio session at TED2012, guest-curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1519   
Michael Hansmeyer: Building unimaginable shapes   
Inspired by cell division, Michael Hansmeyer writes algorithms that design outrageously fascinating shapes and forms with millions of facets. No person could draft them by hand, but they're buildable -- and they could revolutionize the way we think of architectural form.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1549   
Timothy Prestero: Design for people, not awards   
Timothy Prestero thought he'd designed the perfect incubator for newborns in the developing world -- but his team learned a hard lesson when it failed to go into production. A manifesto on the importance of designing for real-world use, rather than accolades.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1559   
Kent Larson: Brilliant designs fiting more people in cities
How can we fit more people into cities without overcrowding? Kent Larson shows off folding cars, quick-change apartments and other innovations that could make the city of the future work a lot like a small village of the past.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1591   
Tim Leberecht: 3 ways to (usefully) lose control of your brand   
The days are past (if they ever existed) when a person, company or brand could tightly control their reputation -- online chatter and spin mean that if you're relevant, there's a constant, free-form conversation happening about you that you have no control over. Tim Leberecht offers three big ideas about accepting that loss of control, even designing for it -- and using it as an impetus to recommit to your values.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/48   
Saul Griffith: Hardware solutions to everyday problems   
Inventor and MacArthur fellow Saul Griffith shares some innovative ideas from his lab -- from "smart rope" to a house-sized kite for towing large loads.


WHAT IS INNOVATION
-----------------------------------------------

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/63   
Charles Leadbeater : The rise of the amateur professional   
In this deceptively casual talk, Charles Leadbeater weaves a tight argument  that innovation isn't just for professionals anymore. Passionate amateurs, using new tools, are creating products and paradigms that companies can't.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/105   
Jeff Bezos: After the gold rush, there's innovation ahead   
The dot-com boom and bust is often compared to the Gold Rush. But Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos says it's more like the early days of the electric industry.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/641   
Evgeny Morozov: How the Net aids dictatorships   
TED Fellow and journalist Evgeny Morozov punctures what he calls "iPod liberalism" -- the assumption that tech innovation always promotes freedom, democracy -- with chilling examples of ways the Internet helps oppressive regimes stifle dissent.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/866   
Johanna Blakley: Lessons from fashion's free culture   
Copyright law's grip on film, music and software barely touches the fashion industry ... and fashion benefits in both innovation and sales, says Johanna Blakley. At TEDxUSC 2010, she talks about what all creative industries can learn from fashion's free culture.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/892   
Charles Leadbeater: Education innovation in the slums   
Charles Leadbeater went looking for radical new forms of education -- and found them in the slums of Rio and Kibera, where some of the world's poorest kids are finding transformative new ways to learn. And this informal, disruptive new kind of school, he says, is what all schools need to become.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1489   
Nirmalya Kumar: India's invisible innovation   
Can India become a global hub for innovation? Nirmalya Kumar thinks it already has. He details four types of "invisible innovation" currently coming out of India and explains why companies that used to just outsource manufacturing jobs are starting to move top management positions overseas, too.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1168   
Daniel Kraft: Medicine's Innovation future?
There's an app for that    At TEDxMaastricht, Daniel Kraft offers a fast-paced look at the next few years of innovations in medicine, powered by new tools, tests and apps that bring diagnostic information right to the patient's bedside.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1217   
Edward Tenner: Unintended consequences   
Every new invention changes the world -- in ways both intentional and unexpected. Historian Edward Tenner tells stories that illustrate the under-appreciated gap between our ability to innovate and our ability to foresee the consequences.

Friday 2 November 2012

Want double digit growth? Design Disruption is the way.

When Harvard Business Review speaks, people tend to listen. Especially when phrases like double digit growth are bantered about. In a recent HBS Article entitled "The Idea that led to Double Digit Growth" past Chair and CEO of Medtronic, Bill Bill George describes how his firm consistently was a leader in their field and simplistically, it's a +2 rule, two extra percentage points above the industry standard 10% invested in R&D each year. 

iGNITIATE blog entry for Double Digit Design Growth Gregory Polletta

Medtronic is a leader in specific technological tools and devices. They can be, for the most part, not considered a "Design Disruption" firm even though, yes, their devices are designed, engineered, and launched as products. Medtronic is a healthcare technology firm. But, they clearly adopt a strong R&D window, a specific design and innovation launch process and have embedded in the organization a DNA of breakthroughs. How? Three simple rules: 

1) increasing R&D budget from 9% to almost 12% of revenue. 
2) separate venture group from existing business units - no fiefdom politics
3) selected acquisitions of new technologies to expand into related product categories. 
4) top executives supported the ventures group spending time in the labs with them, understanding their work, and championing the adoption of venture labs investments

So how does this translate into firms not steeped in technological advancement or the development of game changing business models? How does this work within the areas of "design" specific products? Surprisingly Tom Ford has a very specific approach as detailed in "Design and Business Insights from Tom Ford" and enumerated as: 
1)   Once your on top, you're on the bottom
2)   Design is an architecture exercise. 
3) Design disruption comes from doubt and questioning
4) Success =  work and obsession: relentless drive, focus, passion and toughness 
5) Business = a "survival mechanism”
6) There is no retire 
7) THE difficulty is creating and disrupting on demand
8) creating a specific design team identity &  which is different or individual

R&D and Design are a mix that when carefully applied produce results beyond what only 1 can specifically achieve on it's own. 
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