Close your eyes and six months fly by…
Saturday, February 17th, 2007It’s hard to believe that so much time has passed since my last post. I’ve been heads down trying to finish up my graduate degree, help some friends launch a new company, and figure out how to get the concepts we worked on during Mootcorp. Well, what was known as Extension Eleven will be rebranded as Whisper Labs. The solution set has evolved ever so gradually based upon the feeback of folks we have been working with. I can’t wait to get the product luanched and in the hands of folks.
The best part is that timing couldn’t be better. As I reviewed Harvard Business Review’s Breakthrough ideas for 2007, I realized that our solution stands in the nexus of eleven of the 20. eleven –> 11 –> 1 to 1 –> collaboration. 2007 will be a very nice year.
1. The Accidental Influentials *
Duncan J. Watts
In his best seller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell argues that “social epidemics†are driven in large part by the actions of a tiny minority of special individuals. The idea seems intuitively right—we think we see it happening all the time. Nevertheless, this isn’t actually how ideas spread. It’s better to focus on getting enough plain, ordinary people to sign on.
2. Entrepreneurial Japan
Yoshito Hori
Japan’s economic rebound is generally attributed to the turnaround of corporate giants and to industry consolidation. But it is also fueled by the emergence of new companies led by entrepreneurs in their twenties and thirties. An entrepreneurial Japan ”no longer an oxymoron” may ultimately overshadow the much touted start-up cultures of China and India.
3. Brand Magic: Harry Potter Marketing
Frederic Dalsace, Coralie Damay, and David Dubois
Most brands target a specific age group. The big problem with this approach is that it positively discourages customer loyalty and, as we all know, it’s a lot cheaper to keep customers than to find new ones. To get around this problem, companies should consider creating brands that mature with their customers.
4. Algorithms in the Attic
Michael Schrage
For a powerful perspective on future business, take a hard look at mathematics past: the old equations collecting dust on academics’ shelves. Just as big firms need the keen eye of an intellectual property curator to appreciate the value of old patents and know-how, they will need savvy mathematicians to resurrect long-forgotten equations that, because of advancing technology, can finally be applied to business.
6. An Emerging Hotbed of User-Centered Innovation *
Eric von Hippel
Most countries, developing and developed alike, view innovation as a vital input to their economic growth and spend varying portions of their national budgets to support it in companies and research labs, for the ultimate benefit of essentially passive consumers. Denmark is taking a different tack: It’s making “user-centered innovation” a national priority.
9. When to Sleep on It
Ap Dijksterhuis
Use your conscious mind to acquire all the information you need to arrive at a difficult decision, but don’t try to analyze it. Instead, go on holiday and let your unconscious mind digest the information for a day or two. Whatever your intuition then tells you is almost certainly going to be the best choice.
11. Innovation and Growth: Size Matters *
Geoffrey B. West
Newfound general mathematical relationships between population size, innovation, and wealth creation challenge the conventional wisdom that smaller innovation functions are more inventive. They may explain why few organizations today have matched the creativity of a giant like Bell Labs in its heyday.
12. Conflicted Consumers
Karen Fraser
Your customer data indicate strong consumer satisfaction: Repeat purchase levels are high, and many customers have been with you for years. Good news, right? Well, appearances can be deceptive. Buried in the data may be a stealth segment of apparently loyal customers whose ethical concerns make them ready to bolt as soon as an alternative emerges.
15. Act Globally, Think Locally *
Yoko Ishikura
Companies are usually told to “think globally and act locally.” But thanks to their own global information systems and the Internet, knowledge from faraway places can be acquired relatively easily and cheaply. This means that firms have to discover and quickly incorporate good ideas from these diverse sources before their rivals do.
17. The Best Networks Are Really Worknets *
Christopher Meyer
The assumption is that if you build a network platform, people will come. If you expect to get real value from your initiative, though, you must think hard and in advance about exactly what function you want the network to perform. That will help you choose the participants, the nature of their experiences, and the technology. In other words, put the work in “network” first.
19. In Defense of “Ready, Fire, Aim”
Clay Shirky
The bulk of open source projects fail, and most of the remaining successes are quite modest. Still, open systems are a profound threat to many businesses, not only because they outsucceed commercial firms but, more important, because they outfail them.
