Jul 9, 2012 | Uncategorized
3-D printing has been around for a while, extraordinary technology evolving rapidly offering many “Oohh, Arrhh” moments, as we saw various items like wrenches, and skeletal joints being “printed” as working models. The technology is now going further, watch here for a look at an exhibition in Paris that is simply fantastic, and an interview with one of the brains driving the development.
7 years ago I watched astonishing designs being done using “Solidworks” software by an SME client in the plastics industry. The software offered 3-D design and animation functionality that was beyond anything I had seen to that time, and seemed to take the product development process of physical products, in this case complicated closures, by the scruff of the neck. It completely changed the drivers of the product design and development model that had been in place.
Now attaching this stuff to 3-D printing enables working models to be built in prototype as they are being designed, at a cost that is almost to the point of being irrelevant.
The pace of change is still accelerating, what are you doing to consider how to stay ahead of the pack?
Jul 5, 2012 | Lean, Management, Marketing, Social Media
It has always been so.
The father of the modern manufacturing revolution, W. Edwards Deeming probably said it first in a management setting, that led to lean, the TPS, 6 sigma, and a host of management articles, cliches, and learned papers, but it has been said before, in many ways. It is also a core component of the Balanced Scorecard.
Measuring advertising has always presented a challenge, throw an ad schedule on the box, and hope it works, has been the dominant method for many years.
Now we have the net , and a whole new set of measurement possibilities across websites and social media platforms. Like anything, simplicity is the gold standard, finding a few measures that get to the heart of the performance is a real challenge for management, as differing measures for differing platforms, differing markets, and platform/market/interest dynamics are always required, there is no pro forma to be used here.
Avinash Kaushik‘s great blog Occum’s Razor concentrates on measurement of digital performance, this entry on the measurement of social media, which should engage the minds of all marketers.
Jul 4, 2012 | Innovation, Leadership, Marketing
Contrary to much common usage, these two concepts are not synonyms, they are very different.
Creativity is the process of dreaming up something new, while Innovation is the process of making use of the new stuff.
How often has Van Gogh, or Beethoven been accused of being innovative? Just sometimes, when the discussion is about the way an artist wields his palette knife, or the structure of a symphony. Usually they are described as creative, because what they created opened a door that had not been opened before, made connections in a new way.
Make no mistake, creative and innovative need each other, one does the art, the other brings in the benefit. Van Gogh after all died mad and broke, must have been creative without innovative, but his brother recognised the value of his work, and made a buck. He was innovative.
Most artists create something for the intrinsic value, it sounds great, looks good, or feels right, whilst the innovator finds a role for the art to add some monetary or exchange value.
To be creative, you need, according to John Cleese who knows a bit about this stuff, Space, Time, Time, Confidence, and Humour. Yes, I know “Time” got two mentions, to understand why, you will have to listen to Cleese’s presentation, which should not be a problem, in fact to my mind, should be compulsory.
Jul 3, 2012 | Change, Innovation
Fast Company’s 50 most innovative companies of 2012, a pretty impressive list, but most are tech companies in one way or another, which I guess reflects the domain of Fast Company magazine.
However, I think the omission by implication of a broarder definition of “Innovation” does a disservice by making light of business model or process innovation, both of which add enormous value. Google may have started as a disruptive technology, but the reality is that it succeeded because it was a disruptive business model, as was Facebook, Alfred Sloans divisionalisation of GM in the 30’s to customer based categories, after Ford totally disrupted the horse and buggy industry, the list can go on.
Then there is this WSJ article that addresses the “what is innovation” question, and presents a view hard to argue with, but is still a narrow view.
We can present stories about disruptions that changed existing industries, or about the many ways in which the network effect, and collaboration that creates the environment for innovation, and all would by themselves be right, but wide of a basic grasp of the nature of innovation.
My view is that innovation is a process that adds value where none existed before, anything that adds real, new value to a market or opens a new market, can carry the tag “innovation”.
Jul 1, 2012 | Management, Personal Rant
If Australia was a company, it would be a case study for the need for a coherent strategy as the basis for commercial sustainability. As it is, the place is a shambles, the Directors are held in contempt, clearly they are not listening to management, and have no ideas themselves beyond short term self preservation, and are simply wasting the proceeds of our collective good fortune.
Lets consider some of the characteristics of an enterprise that is successfully meeting the needs of its stakeholders, while building the foundations of long term prosperity.
- The board has articulated a clear, simple purpose for the business to exist, and a strategy that is well understood throughout the business, and by outside stakeholders. Where individuals, or groups have a divergent view, they see that there has been a transparent “due process” undertaken, so they do not feel, as if their voice is irrelevant, or unheard. Contrast that to Australia’s current “board” in Canberra. There is no coherent articulation of the values we hold dear, but when it suits, hypocrisy and expediency with the truth are paraded out as virtues.
- In a corporation, available resources are allocated across a portfolio of needs, from overheads necessary to keep the place running to projects that will build the foundations for continuing prosperity, and those that are needed to address more short term challenges. Contrast that to the poll driven expediency of our current board, and total lack of any management skill, project or otherwise.
- In a corporation, once priorities have been agreed, resultant activities are driven by the desire for simplicity and consistency in the manner in which the contributions to the outcomes are measured and equated. Consider the inconsistency of the introduction today of the carbon tax. The objective is to, supposedly, make a start to a carbon neutral future, give a fillip to carbon reduction technology, and so on, but at the same time subsidies are being given to the Aluminum smelter in Geelong to keep 600 jobs, while the smelter continues to take 15% of the electricity consumed in Victoria, generated from brown coal. Inconsistent??? If the logic holds, Fairfax and News Corp should be in line for massive assistance. After all, they are semi redundant industries laying off 2,000 workers, so they must warrant assistance, right? Hell might freeze over.
- In a corporation we would get the best people we could to head the functional responsibilities, and they would faced the discipline of the bottom line, and delivery of objectives. Here we get, with a few notable exceptions on both sides, political hacks, deal-doers, and “operators” who have served their time in parties whose membership is small enough to fit in a phone box, and who will do and say anything with impunity, if their skin is thick enough. As a result, Australians have lost faith in their integrity, and ability to deliver anything of value.
- Oh, and by the way, we can put directors who lie to shareholders in gaol, although they usually just get a whopping fine, and are banned from being a director again. This is not just a shot at the current prime Ministers whopper about carbon imposition of a tax, but at the whole body politic who seem to be impervious to the truth, use data in highly selective and misleading ways, and squirm at any notion of transparency and accountability. The same lot however, will legislate to outlaw their behavior when others copy them. Is it any wonder that we have lost all respect for them
