I “attended” (sat at my desk and watched) a webinar yesterday called Innovation @ Google: A Day in the Life. The main speaker was Naveen Viswanatha, a sales engineer for Google Enterprise. His talk was focused on what goes on inside Google’s walls that help the company innovate so consistently. Here are some of my favorites:
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New Business Process, Technology | Tagged: google, ideas, innovation, the web | 
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Posted by Joshua Kutticherry
We devote a lot of brainpower at futurethink to devising new ways to teach and practice innovation. Two things we speak about frequently with organizations are: 1) the power of harnessing a diverse set of eclectic minds, rather than just expert minds to more quickly solve a problem or better generate ideas, and 2) the importance of looking at things from a different perspective.
That’s why I was so glad to read abut the recent Stanford University Innovation contest.
Each year, Stanford’s Technology Ventures group selects an everyday object (this year:
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Posted by Lisa Bodell
IBM, Sony, Nokia, and Pitney Bowes recently announced their Eco-Patent Commons initiative through which the four
companies will be releasing environmental conservation-related patents to the public. The effort is designed to help other companies leverage effective methods of cutting down waste and inefficiency. IBM, for example, has eliminated Styrofoam from its packaging and shipping because of its patented packaging design for a five-sided, shock-absorbing tray. Nokia is giving away patents related to its methods of re-tooling old mobile phone components into new electronics such as clocks and calculators. Together, the four companies are giving away 31 patents, all of which are available on the Web site of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. It’s great to see these companies taking such a progressive leap forward in terms of opening up their intellectual property for the greater good. Learn more at Bloomberg and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
Leave a Comment » | New Business Process, New Communication Channel, Technology | Tagged: eco-patent commons, green, IBM, Nokia, pitney bowes, Sony, the environment | Permalink
Posted by Joshua Kutticherry
TV studios are in a really bad crunch. The writer’s strike continues unabated. New media is eating into their advertising revenue. TiVo fans conveniently skip commercial breaks. It’s becoming increasingly hard to predict audience taste, and hit TV shows are rarer than ever.
So, when push comes to shove, companies begin desperately to look for new ways to innovate and cut costs. NBC recently announced that it is spending too much money on high-budget pilots of new shows. Pilots – 2-3 fully scripted and produced episodes – used to cost $2-$3 million per episode. Now, it starts at $8 million. It doesn’t help that pilots rarely succeed and few go on to become full series.
NBC says they plan on looking at more fully written “first episode” scripts, and approve the ones they like directly into full-length series. It’s a radical change in the way studios operate.
This change, of course, has a number of implications on how NBC will fill and manage their pipelines (these are, after all, the studio’s products). Ans there are innovation lessons for all of us -
First, it forces NBC to look and evaluate many more scripts because they’ll be making significant investments in just a few. That’s an invaluable lesson in innovation – pick your best ideas, and focus your resources on them. Don’t spread your resources over too many projects – you’ll only do a half-baked job across all of them.
Second, because NBC is committing to a longer-term series at the get-go, it has to let all the episodes run before pulling the plug. This actually forces NBC to be a little more patient, and watch how a series plays out. Experts say that this is a good thing. Historically, studios have been known to make harsh and quick judgments and pull shows off the air after just a couple of episodes. Now, some shows can afford to gain ground a little slowly, rather than be instant hits. The moral when it comes to innovation? Don’t be quick to suffocate an idea. A little patience can go a long way. Give it some breathing room, and you might have a big winner.
1 Comment | Media & Entertainment, New Business Process | Tagged: balancing portfolio, innovation lessons, NBC, Television | Permalink
Posted by Chetan Chandavarkar
We love prediction markets. And we love Google. So we were pretty excited to stumble on a little article on internal prediction markets at Google in the New York Times. The article is a great summary of a recently published report by Eric Zitzewitz of Dartmouth College, Justin Wolfers of Wharton, and Bo Cowgill of Google. The report (which you can download HERE) is the result of a two-year study of Google’s prediction markets and how they relate to internal information transfer. While you won’t find out how effective Google’s prediction markets are in the report’s 30-something pages, you will learn some fascinating things about prediction markets and about Google. Among the findings: Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Joshua Kutticherry
Apple recently announced that it will be shutting down traditional cash registers in all of its retail stores (except for tourist-heavy flagship locations). The stores will instead allow customers to check out anywhere on the floor using handheld portable devices, which have already been in use at Apple’s stores for the past few years. This change may seem insignificant, but here’s why we think it’s worth writing about:
Since the portable checkout devices can only perform credit card transactions, Apple will conduct cash/check transactions at the Genius Bar. Here’s to the brave new world of retail. CLICK HERE to read the full scoop at MacDailyNews.
Leave a Comment » | New Business Process, Retail, Technology | Tagged: apple, checkout | Permalink
Posted by Joshua Kutticherry
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