I just stumbled on a great article published at The McKinsey Quarterly earlier this year. In it, Hal Varian, Google’s chief economist, urges executives to sharpen their understanding of analytics and the relationship between technology and innovation. Buried in the article was this quote:
I keep saying the sexy job in the next ten years will be statisticians.
People think I’m joking, but who would’ve guessed that
computer engineers would’ve been the sexy job of the 1990s? The
ability to take data—to be able to understand it, to process it,
to extract value from it, to visualize it, to communicate
it—that’s going to be a hugely important skill in the next
decades, not only at the professional level but even at the educational
level for elementary school kids, for high school kids, for college
kids. Because now we really do have essentially free and ubiquitous
data. So the complimentary scarce factor is the ability to understand
that data and extract value from it.
This is interesting. Zappos let’s you watch shoe purchases pop up on a US map as they happen. Take a look. Kind of mesmerizing. See a live map here.
This screen shot was taken at 8 a.m. ET. No surprise the rest of the country is still sleeping. What are your impressions? Just fun stuff or meaningful information? Could it create impulse purchases?
I stumbled upon this video and related files will doing some research in emerging technologies. Good stuff! The embedded video is a five minute montage of technologies currently in the works at Microsoft Office Labs. Stephen Elop, President, Microsoft Business Division gave a keynote at Wharton a few weeks ago. I was so fascinated by the montage, I was able to track down a video of the entire keynote, text of that presentation and the PowerPoint slides he used. (Note – if the keynote video doesn’t work, visit the text of the presentation page and try to access that one.) According to Elop,
Watch carefully because in every frame there’s something new and advancing in terms of how technology will enable the improvement of productivity for businesses and individuals.
In the keynote video, he actually demonstrates several of the technologies. Keep your eyes open for the following:
Digital newspaper
Coffee cup with embedded thermometer
“Dual sided” wall for cross-world collaboration
Automatic translation
School kids write on wall in own language – auto translation on other side
Digital wallet
o Touch virtual computer to transfer medical records
o Flick to find appropriate “card”
VR helmet
Plant scanner that recognizes plant species
Key chain that acts as a PDA
Medical data entry pads
Wall displays for project collaboration
Ability to transfer data from wall display to personal device by taking a “snap shot”
Dynamic pricing displays at Target
Auto sorting of shopping list based on location in store
Location aware “presence”
“X-ray glasses” type panel that can ID objects inside cabinets
Sticky sorter affinity diagramming tool on a wall
Which do you feel are most probable? Which could have the greatest impact on your work? Fill up the comments.
In Outsmart!, Champy provides many examples of practical results achieved my corporations. Much of the focus is around business models versus product and service innovation. He refers to this type of innovation as “reengineering on steriods” and contrasts it with his earlier work. He mentions that all of the examples in the book make aggressive use information technology.
Many of the companies in the book could not have existed when the earlier books were written because of the changes in technology…Technology today is the great enabler of business and process change…Companies that couldn’t have existed when we wrote the reengineering book, but can exist today because we have a new technology infrastructure that allows us to operate in fundamentally different ways.
According to TK, it’s a quick read full of insight. Looks like one to add to the reading list.
BusinessWeek published an interesting interview with Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com. As a big Amazon.com customer/fan, I’m intrigued by his thoughts on innovation. Here are a few tid-bits:
There’s no bad time to innovate.
Frugality drives innovation. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.
You have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate.
Skills-focused companies focus on what they can do which puts a finite lifetime on a company. A more stable strategy is to start with “what do my customers need?”
You know that when your harshest critics are among your best customers, you can’t be doing that badly.
He includes examples of innovation at Amazon.com such as the Kindle e-book reader. Which, by the way, is on my wish list. I’d love to review one for you but first I’d need to get one in my own hands. Check it out at Kindle: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device.
This month, McKinsey Quarterly published eight technology-enabled trends they feel will help shape businesses and the economy. Trend seven is near and dear to my heart – or should I say head? Putting more science into management falls under the heading of leveraging information in new ways. The authors explore some of analytical topics that are all the buzz in recent best sellers: “ideagoras”, customer segmentation, experimentation, prediction markets and recommendation engines.
Leaders should get out ahead of this trend to ensure that information makes organizations more rather than less effective. Information is often power; broadening access and increasing transparency will inevitably influence organizational politics and power structures. Environments that celebrate making choices on a factual basis must beware of analysis paralysis.
Here’s a great opportunity to help others less fortunate than yourself. If you are reading this, it is probably safe to assume that you have access to a decent computer. I have several computers laying around the house (tough to toss when I upgrade) and I guess I take the opportunity for granted. That’s not the case in many parts of the world. The Give One – Get One program allows you to buy two revolutionary XO laptop computers for $400 for the pair. One is shipped to you and the other to a child in a developing nation. Plus, a $200 tax contribution is sent your way. From what I’ve read, the computer is very unique and is designed to work in adverse conditions. It is spill proof, runs six hours on battery, runs Linux and automatically networks with other similar computers. This laptop is not designed to run Photoshop, or World of Warcraft. Instead, the focus is to provide educational opportunities in developing nations.
Thanks to Tushar Mehta for bringing this to my attention in the Daily Dose of Excel blog. In his post he referenced an excellent article in the NY Times which includes a realistic review of the laptop. Be sure to read it before buying one. Offer ends November 26, 2007.
Cross posted at Random Thoughts.
A few years ago Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres published Why Not?: How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big And Small. The book challenged everyday folk to use everyday ingenuity to solve problems. This innovation primer outlined a simple framework for generating solutions to existing problems and applying existing solutions to new problems. I recently stumbled upon the Why Not web-site. Checkout the idea exchange. Here visitors are encouraged to post great ideas while other visitors vote on their favorites. Most of the traffic is from 2003 (the year the book was published.) It is amazing to see why items were merely “ideas” back then but have now been implemented. Here are a few of my favorites.
Audio-in jacks in cars – I’ve been asking for this for probably 10 years. It is now a reality.
customer/fan, I’m intrigued by his thoughts on innovation. Here are a few tid-bits:
He includes examples of innovation at Amazon.com such as the Kindle e-book reader. Which, by the way, is on my wish list. I’d love to review one for you but first I’d need to get one in my own hands. Check it out at 
A few years ago Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres published 
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