Guest Post: by Ralph-Christian Ohr Triggered by a couple of recent discussions, I’ve been pondering for a while now over the question how evolution relates to revolution when it comes to innovation. In the following, I’ll try to develop my view on this. Let’s define evolution as continuous and incremental innovations of a firm’s existing […]
The Manic Pixie Dream Girl Nancy and I saw Ruby Sparks last night, and really enjoyed it. It’s written by Zoe Kazan, who also stars, and it absolutely skewers the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. Nathan Rabin defined Manic Pixie Dreams Girls (MPDG) in his review of Elizabethtown: The Manic Pixie Dream Girl exists solely […]
We see many systems these days where all of the intelligence in the system is embedded in the technology. Some examples: Driverless vehicles, in mines and on the streets. Highly sophisticated prosumer cameras. Most tablets – they can’t be programmed at all, really. High speed stock trading. When I talked about this recently, I made […]
As industries mature, they distribute intelligence differently. What do I mean by that? Here’s a diagram that I sketched out when I was at the CEEC Workshop last month: It shows that we can build intelligence about the system in two places – in people or in technology (which can be any kind of tool). […]
John and I were talking last week with a CEO for whom we were doing some consulting. His firm had gone through some major stress during the project when their primary customer switched suppliers. The company is remarkable – they are in a traditional industry with a history of poor workforce relations. Despite this, they […]
There is a huge difference between entering an existing market and building a completely new one. To see an example, check this out – it is the very first Apple product, which Andrew Chen writes about in a terrific post: You can see why IBM didn’t view personal computers as any kind of threat to […]
Two Major Innovations, Two Different Outcomes In the 1850s, infection rates in maternity wards were very high, and this was a big problem. No one knew why, and no one knew how to fix it. Ignaz Semmelweis wondered “what if everyone washes their hands before the come in contact with patients?” It was an experiment. […]
1969 was a pretty interesting year for the Swiss watch industry. That was the year the Omega Speedmaster became the first watch on the moon. Meanwhile, back on earth, there was a serious race to make the first automatic match that included a chronograph. Jeffrey Stein retells this story in International Watch magazine, and it’s […]
How much do we know about innovation in mining (and other mature industries)? Last week I gave a keynote speech at the CEEC Workshop aiming to facilitate a paradigm shift in comminution. CEEC is the Coalition for Eco-Efficient Comminution. Communition is the process of smashing rocks as part of the mining process. The workshop gathered […]
What is the most important innovation ever? I’ve argued before that it is hand-washing in hospitals. This innovation was a major driver in the improved health outcomes that have increased our life expectancies from less than 60 years at birth to nearly 80 in most developed countries. It’s such a simple idea, and so easy […]
