Permanent Innovation Blog

Turning Points: Important events change how we think

noreply@blogger.com (Langdon Morris) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:21:00 +0000

While we experience of accelerating change when a lot of events happen one after another, there is a second type of change that also affects how we feel. This is the huge event that in one moment changes how everyone thinks. Sometimes this is called a ‘turning point.’

Examples of these big events from past would of course include the attacks of 9/11. Following 9/11 millions of Americans were sad and even depressed for many months, and the social and political dialog around the world continues to refer to 9/11 as a landmark event that permanently changed our perceptions of reality.

Another big event was for example, the day of the first atomic bomb was exploded. And what about the first human steps on the moon, or assassinations of well-known public figures? These have all had profound and lasting impacts on our values, beliefs, and attitudes.

We know these things have occurred in the past, and they have been, for most part, unpredicted and unpredictable. As we think about the future of society, it's worthwhile to imagine turning points in the future, consider what sort of reaction there would be to them.

What would happen in the US if there was another large terrorist attack like 9/11? Or what if it happened in Europe?

What would happen if the governments of the world instituted environmental regulations to halt global warming, and the new rules changed how everyone lived and did business?

What if there was a massive Global Economic Recession on the scale of 1929 - 1935?

What if the food supply is poisoned? This in is happenign right now in China, as thousands of young children are hospitalized because their milk powder was poisined with industrial chemicals. Once the immediate crisis is over, you can be sure that there will be a large investigation, a big trial, and perhaps also a lingering trauma across Chinese society. Something similar happened in the US in 2007, when 800 metric tons of poisoned wheat was smuggled into the US from China and used in pet food. More than 4000 pets died.

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This blog post is number eleven in a series on key trends for innovators.

Nations, Corporations, Churches, and NGOs

noreply@blogger.com (Langdon Morris) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:21:00 +0000

While government remains critically important in the modern world, and becomes perhaps more important each day as we careen from crisis to crisis, many other forms of social organization also have increasingly significant social impact.

Corporations wield increasing power through their control of resources. The giant corporations are now thought of as global entities, and they are less and less tied to the values or policies of a particular nation.

Similarly, many religious groups have increasing influence over the beliefs of their members, and display that influence in elections and other social forums. The Catholic Church, for example, has more than a billion members, and its ideological and religious views play a key role in the political lives of the nations where many Catholics live.

And now we are seeing that non-governmental organizations such as Greenpeace are increasingly influential in shaping world opinion, playing an advocacy role for issues and causes that they feel are important.

These four forces - nations, corporations, churches, and NGOs each have their own viewpoints, goals, and needs, and as they seek to fulfill them, they come into conflict over their different visions of the future, creating tremendous complexity in our world.

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This blog post is number ten in a series on key trends for innovators.

War Among the People: The trend in modern warfare

noreply@blogger.com (Langdon Morris) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:21:00 +0000

Retired British General Rupert Smith has written a very interesting book about the evolution of warfare throughout history, entitled 'The Utility of Force.'

He points out that in the past, war was fought between nations, largely over the control of territory. World War II, was the last big territorial war. But today the roots of war are different. Now war is not predominantly between nations, but between ethnic or religious groups, and the goal is not to gain more territory, but to impose cultural, ideological, religious, or ethnic values.

He cites as examples the Balkan War of the 1990s, which was driven by ethnic conflict, as well as the current conflicts in Afghanistan, which is an ideological conflict between the fundamentalist Taliban and those who would have a more open society. There is also the continuing conflict in Israel, and of course the War in Iraq, which involves numerous ethnic, religious, and nationalist groups with conflicting visions for life in their future society, and who are willing to fight one another to assure the predominance of their own vision.

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This blog post is number nine in a series on key trends for innovators.

The Virtual World: Living a Second Life

noreply@blogger.com (Langdon Morris) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:21:00 +0000

What if you were too frightened to go outside of your house? Then what? Well, you might be able to live a decent life in the virtual worlds like Second Life. Perhaps it would even be an interesting one.

And even if you’re not exploring the virtual possibilities out of fear, you may still find a lot of interesting things there to entertain and educate yourself. But you could also just find experiences to reinforce your existing world view.

There are now people in Japan, primarily young people, who stay in their rooms 24 hours a day, afraid to leave, and spending all their time in online worlds. This is an extreme reaction to the stresses of the modern world, to be sure, but the fact that there are enough of these people to constitute a trend gives us a glimpse of the how people can be psychologically damaged by modern society.

And many companies are experimenting with Second Life to conduct meetings, so that people don’t have to travel. British Petroleum has its own private island in Second Life where an advanced research group is experimenting with meeting spaces and project team rooms.

If people stopped going to real meetings, and only went to virtual ones, what would happen to the travel industry?

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This blog post is number eight in a series on key trends for innovators.

Fear & Creativity: Responses to Modern World

noreply@blogger.com (Langdon Morris) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:21:00 +0000

Research by the British firm Henley Centre labels the modern world ‘the risk society,’ because there is so much uncertainty, change, and a loss of traditional institutions and support structures.

The modern world evokes two powerful and very different responses from people. Some react to change by becoming afraid to take risks, pessimistic, and constrained in their lives, and they therefore feel the need for more security.

But many individuals also feel they have the power and freedom to live as they want and to shape their own lives. They embrace risk and assert control in their lives. They feel free, and they are optimistic. They turn to creativity and the desire to create and experience new things.

Almost everyone experiences both at one time or another, and many of us switch between these feelings, depending on what’s happening at any given moment. But these two psychological models have a strong impact on choices that we make as consumers, voters, and members of society.

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This blog post is number seven in a series on key trends for innovators.

remote collaboration - the video version

noreply@blogger.com (dave davison) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:34:00 +0000

This 8 minute video provides insight into the virtual collaboration methodology that is evolving from Ilabs F2F experience. It is worth watching the progression - and how Jay positions the process. This links to Jay's previous posts below, and provides some structure to what Ilabs would provide in a remote setting. Link direct to Youtube for a larger version which is necessary to see the details of Jay's presentation.

A Virtual Collaborative Design Process

noreply@blogger.com (Jay Smethurst) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:53:00 +0000

Based on these inputs, here is a possible model for a Virtual Collaboration Process.

1. Assemble a Core Team
Instead of gathering 50 or 100 or more participants for a multi-day session, we will start by assembling a Core Team of decision-makers. This might be 10-20 people, and should include some diversity.

2. Define Objectives and Outputs
The Core Team will work with us to define their objectives for this collaborative process and the output they want to receive at the end of the project. We will also define with this group the diverse perspectives that we want to explore through this process (stakeholders, time frames, models of solutions, etc.)

3. Distributed Model-Building
The Core Team will then distribute model-building assignments to small teams and individuals throughout the organization (and beyond). These teams will be asked to spend a small amount of time to build a model, document their work and send their outputs (models) back to the Core Team. This activity could be assigned to existing project teams or other groups. They could be asked by top management to spend an hour on this task during a regularly-scheduled meeting. We can engage a very large population with very little disruption to normal operations.

4. Processing the Models
The Core Team will then have to explore the models that have been created and use them in some way. The Core team would then send out the next round of assignments to the same or different teams throughout the organization. The outputs from these teams is again returned to the Core Team for processing.

This process can engage a huge population, but the primary transformation, insights and decision-making will happen in the Core Team. They are the only group that sees all of the divergent models being created. They are the only group exploring the ramifications of these different models. The Core Team will need to get together periodically during this process, but much of their work can be handled remotely as well. This will significantly decrease the client's cost for travel, lodging, etc. compared to large face-to-face meetings while at the same time increasing the breadth of participation and the depth of the exploration of divergent perspectives.

This process looks very different than a traditional face-to-face collaborative experience. But it uses the same core principles to achieve superior results through different tools and methods.

Conceiving of "Virtual Collaboration"

noreply@blogger.com (Jay Smethurst) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:07:00 +0000

There are two possible approaches for exploring "virtual collaboration". The first is to add digital tools to existing processes or to recreate face-to-face experiences digitally. This seems to be the approach of most "collaborative technology" providers -- they want to create digital tools that make it seem like "you're in the same room" with people in other parts of the world. As facilitators of collaborative design, we know that most face to face meetings are highly unstructured and unproductive. Why would anyone want to perpetuate those experiences online in the first place?

The second approach to virtualization is to explore the core principles that makes a face-to-face process effective, and then to apply those core principles to a new, digital environment. The resulting process would leverage the strengths of the new medium rather than faithfully replicating the original face-to-face experience.

So what are the core principles of our face-to-face collaborative design process? What is it that we really do?

Approach to Facilitation and Design
First, there is a rather large universe of collaboration processes. Some processes involve a high facilitator presence (controlling the participants from the front of the room), and some involve a low facilitator presence. Some processes are designed in great detail in advance, and some processes allow the design to emerge through the experience. Plotted on a matrix, these two variable define four quadrants of collaboration.

Templates: Workshops
Most training and workshops fall into this quadrant with high facilitator presence and lots of design in advance. The agenda is established before the meeting and the facilitator runs the whole show.

Coaching: Doyle and Strauss
The traditional facilitation model involves the facilitator as a coach for the group. The group determines the agenda at the beginning of the meeting, and the facilitator focuses on managing the behavior of the participants (ensuring everyone's voice is heard, etc.)

Self-Organizing: Open Space
In this quadrant, there is no design and very little facilitator involvement. The group determines what it wants to do and how it will accomplish it. This is the realm of Open Space Technology.

Design-Intensive: Future Search, DesignShops, etc.
This is the high-design, low-facilitation quadrant where we have historically played and developed our expertise. The design is structured in great detail in advance, but the assignments facilitate the group's work. The facilitator plays a very light and occasional role in the process.

It is my belief that the core of the collaborative methodology that we use ("Collaborative Sessions", "DesignShops", etc.) is model-building. We ask participants to build models of a solution from a wide variety of perspectives, over and over again throughout our face-to-face sessions. An individual assignment asks the participants to build a model of a solution from their own vantage point. A "metaphor" activity asks participants to build a model of a solution based on a different system (a living system, for example, or another kind of lens). A "take-away" activity asks participants to build a model of a solution that does not include a component that is normally viewed as essential. They build models from the perspectives of different stakeholders. They build models of solutions in different time frames. They build models of solutions as if they were a competitor or a brand new start-up. Each of these models highlights new aspects of a final, workable solution. Our expertise is in identifying the right perspectives for building models and then sequencing those perspectives to explore new ideas and then converge on an excellent and innovative solution.

The Anatomy of a Model-Building Activity
Our collaborative sessions are a series of these model-building activities. Each activity is made up of several components. The assignment provides the context, process and instructions for the activity. The team defines the individuals working on the model. The template is the form for the team's final output -- a list, a graph, a flowchart, a diagram, etc. We may provide the team with some resources -- tools, information, materials, etc. Finally, the team does its work in some environment. These five elements combine into the experience of the activity, and the activity produces an ouput - some kind of model.

Types of Activities
There are a variety of different types of modeling activities that we can assign to a team. Orientation activities familiarize participants with the context of their work -- the objectives, the market, the landscape, etc. Exploration activities engage participants in learning about new perspectives or new systems. Build activities ask participants to create solutions. Testing activities ask participants to evaluate one or more possible solutions. Incubation activities get participants to think about other things for awhile to allow the problems to simmer. Exchange activities trade a model for some form of value -- a project plan, for example, might be exchanged for resources to fund that project. Again, our expertise is in identifying which types of activities are appropriate for a group and in what sequence.

So if we assume that the core of our face-to-face collaborative design process is "iterative model-building", then how can we create a virtual process to accomplish the same objectives? It may be valuable to learn from other successful processes for distributed, asynchronous change. Appreciative Inquiry is a successful change model that involves mostly one-on-one interviews between people throughout an organization. The process for creating "Implications Wheels" can engage small teams throughout an organization in a one-hour model-building activity that serves as very valuable input into a core team of decision-makers.

Next, I will present a model for a Virtual Collaborative Design Process

The Retiring Baby Boomers

noreply@blogger.com (Langdon Morris) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:00:00 +0000

In most of the developed nations there is a large of number of people in the Baby Boom generation who are getting ready to retire from the workplace. This will have a significant impact on the fiscal health of these countries.

78 million Americans are in the Baby Boom generation, and they have just begun to retire. Spending on retirement and medical benefits for them is about 7% of US economic output today. It will increase to 13% by year 2030.

In the graph above, the bulge in the middle represents the 78 million Baby Boomers, and because there are a lot more of them in the generations that follow, when they retire there will be fewer workers active in the work force to cover the cost of retiree health care and pensions.

Federal Reserve Chairmen Ben Bernanke refers to this as a ‘vicious cycle’ that will result in rising government deficits and interest rates. Since the cost of health care for older persons is often much higher than for other age groups, the financial burden will be significant.

As in Japan, this is potentially a significant source of inter-generational conflict about social priorities and government spending. It will have a large impact on government policy in taxation, health care, immigration , and in all the financial services industries.

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This blog post is number six in a series on key trends for innovators.

The Robot Divide

noreply@blogger.com (Langdon Morris) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:00:00 +0000

When people receive care from robots, what emotions will develop in these relationships? Will people come to love their robots, as they love dogs and cats and horses? Will they love them as people love spouses and children?

David Levy recently published a book entitled "Love + Sex with Robots," in which he predicts that sex and marriage between humans and robots will eventually become common.

So how close will we get to science fiction's depictions? Will Data (from Star Trek) actually exist one day?

Today we talk about the "digital divide," the haves and have-nots when it comes to computers. When will we start talking about the "robot divide"?

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This blog post is number five in a series on key trends for innovators.

Mzinga : Enterprise Social Media & Learning Solutions for Your Business

noreply@blogger.com (dave davison) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:55:00 +0000

Mzinga : Enterprise Social Media & Learning Solutions for Your Business

Washington, DC the rise of network intelligence

noreply@blogger.com (dave davison) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:58:00 +0000

Washington, DC

The Robot Market

noreply@blogger.com (Langdon Morris) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:00:00 +0000

As Japan's population declines, there are fewer and fewer workers available to perform service jobs. One response is emerging from the Japanese technology sector: Robots, to fill the many jobs that be needed in the service sector, particularly caring for the elderly.

This shows how issues in one area affect others. In this context, robots are a technological response to a demographics issue, although there are of course other reasons why robots are being developed.

Taken from the opposite viewpoint, demographics presents a potentially-significant new market opportunity for robot manufacturers.

Toyota, for one, believes that service robots will be one of its most significant core businesses. For example, Japanese researchers are developing a robot that can spoon-feed the elderly, bathe them, help them carry groceries, or carry them over uneven terrain.

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This is blog post number four in a series on key trends for innovators.

Japan's Declining Population

noreply@blogger.com (Langdon Morris) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:00:00 +0000

In 59 countries around the world, the birth rate has slipped below the replacement level, which means that in these countries the population is actually declining.

Japan is perhaps the most extreme example, as shown above. There the birth rate is about 1.3 children per couple, which is far below the level needed to maintain the population. (2.1 is the replacement rate.)

Unless Japan opens its doors to foreign immigrants, which it has historically resisted, then it the population will probably continue to decline, and this is likely to lead to inter-generational conflict as society must choose to allocate resources to various population groups.

An example of inter-generational conflict in the US occurs in local school districts that must raise their own funds through local taxation. In districts where a significant proportion of the population is retired people, funding for schools is often lower because the older people vote against taxes for education. (The children, of course, do not have the right to vote, so they are under-represented.)

In Japan, the declining population also has significant economic impacts elsewhere. For example, as consumer markets shrink, the profits that Japanese companies can earn in their home market declines, forcing them to go overseas.

There are a lot of business questions to ask here, and also sociology questions, such as, Why don't Japanese people have more children?

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This blog post is number three in a series on key trends for innovators.

Tobacco Kills 1 Billion in 21st Century

noreply@blogger.com (Langdon Morris) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:30:00 +0000

The UN's World Health Organization estimates that during the course of the 21st century, tobacco will kill 500 million people who are alive today, and another 500 million yet to be born. It called on all nations to adopt a six-pronged strategy to dissuade people - especially women and young people - from smoking and to help them quit.

Raising taxes to as high as 75% or more of the pack price would be the single most effective strategy, the WHO said. Higher taxes would also provide funds to counter tobacco industry marketing tactics.

But there's a lot of money in it. For example, who sells cigarettes in China? The government does ... So how long will it take for governments to learn that the cost of death, disease, and lost productivity may be greater than the gains from selling little packs of addictive death?

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This blog post is number two in a series on key trends for innovators.

Cell Phones Win

noreply@blogger.com (Langdon Morris) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:00:00 +0000

According to the International Telecommunications Union, the world passed the point some time earlier this year when more than half of the human population are cell phone users, totaling 3.3 billion subscribers worldwide.

About one billion of them live in Brazil, Russia, India, and China. In comparison, only 12% of the population had cell phones in 2000.

Which means that the cell phone has won, and gradually all consumer-oriented commerce will have to adapt to whatever the cell phone can provide in the way of connectivity, information dissemination, customer service, shopping.

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This blog post is number one in a series on key trends for innovators.

Launching an Innovation Trends Database

noreply@blogger.com (Langdon Morris) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:04:00 +0000

For the next few months, this blog will be focusing on key trends that we believe will be particularly influential for the future across a number of important theme areas, including demographics, technology, economics, and society.

Please share your comments with us, and let us know of any trends that you may think are particularly important or interesting.

Urgency or Methodology?

noreply@blogger.com (Langdon Morris) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:00:00 +0000

Suppose you work in an organization where some people feel like change and innovation are mandatory, and you are one of those people, but others lack your sense of urgency. What would you do?

Maybe John Kotter's new book would help you. (It's called "A Sense of Urgency.)

I found it, well, scary, that he describes a general sense of complacency as a common attitude across corporate America, and the book is filled with stories about people and organizations that are clueless when it comes to the need for innovation. Are things really that bad?

Kotter's stories are interesting, and the tactics he describes for dealing with complacency are helpful, but there is an underlying assumption in the book that I found lacking. He presents a series of tactics for dealing with the urgency question without articulating the need to find a better way of working.

In our experience, the existence or non-existence of urgency is a consequence of how people work, how they organize their time, how they think, and how they make decisions.

Hence, the real underlying issue is not (only) how to cultivate a sense of urgency as a matter of leadership, but rather how to structure a way of working such that an appropriate sense of urgency is inherent in how the organization functions on a day-to-day, minute-to-minute basis.

It's a question of methodology.

(To some degree it is also a matter of point of view: Kotter is a professor of leadership, so his book is written from the perspective of that lens; we're into innovation methodology, of which leadership is one critical component, so my comments on the book come from a methodological viewpoint.)

When people work in artificially sterile environments, when they are thoroughly disconnected from the realities of innovation and competition, when they deal almost entirely with abstractions, then it's no wonder they have no sense of urgency. It's like working in a protected bubble.

A design solution is to take away the bubble and create a day-to-day working atmosphere where people see, hear, touch, and smell the real world of the marketplace, and engage with all the many players in the marketplace in such a way that they are attuned to reality.

(Kotter also includes many references to the importance of teams, but again, he doesn't engage with the reader in making the distinctions between effective teams and than time-wasters, and he doesn't discuss the methods that differentiate them. The foundation of success is here, at the nitty-gritty level, and it is again the systematic pursuit of the best methods that makes the difference between success and failure.)

The book is due out September 3.

Buckminster Fuller Called for a Design Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Kaufman) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:21:00 +0000

Over the last 20+ years InnovationLabs has worked with large groups to accelerate and enhance their ability to learn, collaborate, and produce results. This work increases the productivity of the group - often accomplishing weeks, months, or years worth of work in a matter of days.

When we do this work we think of ourselves as designers. We often refer to the process we use with groups as a design process.

Buckminster Fuller realized during the last century that human beings had acquired the necessary knowledge and know-how to raise the standard of living for all the people on the planet. What was simply required, according to Bucky, was a design revolution. He put his mind to thinking about - and re-thinking - many of the things that were common at the time. This short video shows how, in the early 1930's, Bucky re-thought what was then the 'dominant design' for the car. This 'car' (called the dymaxion car) was designed using materials and ideas from what was then a industry - the airline industry. This vehicle could comfortably seat 11 people, turn on a dime, and reach greater speeds then what was currently being made (as evidenced by the speeding ticket shown in the video).

In Bucky's mind the idea of design revolution went beyond everyday products and services. Bucky suggested we needed to apply design thinking to all of humanities challenges.

Another example of his way of thinking can be seen in his re-conceiving the map of the world - called the Dymaxion Map. Bucky realized through this re-conceiving that, until that time, there was no map of the world that displayed the continents in their correct proportions (and no other map clearly showed the earth as 'one island in one ocean').

In our work we apply design thinking to strategy, innovation, and process design - as well as new product and service development. We think this type of thinking can be applied to just about any type of challenge or issue facing organizations in todays environment. Applying design thinking to the work of any type of organization can enhance the capability for innovation to become 'a way of working' that all partake in.

Is it time for a design revolution in your company? If it is, where should you start? That depends, of course - but one place you can start is with the things within your control - within your sphere of influence. Then, as others notice the improvements and innovations you create they can be brought in to collaborate on larger projects and initiatives.

Engaging Gen Xers at Work

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Kaufman) — Sun, 25 May 2008 23:48:00 +0000

In my white paper about the theory of business and getting work done I made a small case for how collaborative co-creation could be very important for a young generation of workers (called millennials) as a way to engage them at a deeper level then traditional work/jobs.

The following article makes a pretty good case for engaging Gen Xers at a deeper level. Collaborative co-creation has the capability to do that. It has the potential to bring out entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, and a strong feeling of ownership - which I believe most workers will want if they don't already.

One of the concepts included in sustainability is the concept of a triple bottom line - economic benefit, ecological benefit, and social benefit. Collaborative co-creation can contribute to all three of these but it can surely make significant contributions to the people side - the social side - of sustainability.

The challenges facing business today are complex and finding ways to engage everyone in an organization in finding sufficient solutions is of primary importance. Collaborative co-creation is a methodology that can engage an entire work force in thriving in 'these interesting times.'

Ten Reasons Gen Xers Are Unhappy at Work
Corporations really need folks in their 30s to early 40s, but there is a tentative relationship at best between that cohort and Corporate America

Theory of Business, Complexity and Getting Work Done

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Kaufman) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 01:04:00 +0000

I've just completed a new white paper about the theory of business, complexity and getting work done. The paper posits that the theory of business in use by anyone involved in business (anyone for that matter) will preclude certain responses to the conditions in the environment and hence will preclude certain ways of organizing to get work done.

Here's a quick summary of the paper:

Everyone is using a theory of business whether they are aware of it or not
The dominant theory of business is no longer suited for the environment we are in - which is characterized by increasing levels of complexity
New ways of working are required to be successful in this complex environment
Changing the theory of business will allow leaders and managers to 'see' new ways of working
Collaborative Co-Creation is a new and viable way of working that is suited for this time
Without changing our theory of business it would be hard for managers and leaders to take advantage of the benefits that an approach like collaborative co-creation can offer

If you are interested in reading the whole story you can download the white paper here.

Monetizing Social Networking

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Kaufman) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:39:00 +0000

This is interesting. A web site called Lemonade.com has created a way for people to make money recommending products. If people use their 'lemonade stand' to click through and actually purchase products the 'owner' of the lemonade stand will theoretically be paid up to 15% of the purchase price.

Lemonade.com has close to 2 million products listed in their 'inventory' that a user can put into their lemonade stand to recommend. There is also a very long list of companies offering discounts that says they are willing to pay for referrals.

I created a lemonade stand to see how it works and populated it with a few products. The company encourages users to embed their lemonade stand into their blog or other social networking web sites. Here's what it looks like embedded in blogger:

Here's another social networking web site that is attempting to monetize social networking by 'paying people' whenever other people look at your stuff and when you refer people to the site. Here's a video about the site.

Information Excess vs. Value Added Aggregation

noreply@blogger.com (Langdon Morris) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 04:47:00 +0000

There's a new web site for business authors called Insightory.com, where you can post your business reports and research work. It's a great resource for professionals and academics who are looking for a larger audience for their work.

I recently posted a few white papers there and within a week or so they've had dozens of views. The most popular document on Insightory right now is a report on private equity by Vijay Singh Pooni; it has had more than 1000 views in about 3 months. For a business or academic author, this could be a great boon; if you're looking for good business writing it could be a big help, too.

Site founder Avneet Jolly tells me that the site launched in November 07, and it's already getting about 15,000 visitors per month, and about 100,000 page views per month. There are about 1000 registered users, but you only have to register if you want to upload a document.

The principle underlying the potential success of Insightory is the value of thoughtful aggregation in the face of massive information excess. Just as a test, I entered "innovation" into Google just now, and it returned 105 million results. So then I tried again with "permanent innovation" and the total came down to a much more manageable 1 million. More manageable, but still way too many.

If it works, the added value of Insightory would be that brings better quality results than web searching. Thus, Jolly notes that only about 50% of the documents that are uploaded to Insightory are actually posted; the rest are filtered out.

There's a lot of potential for social networking and other layers of differentiation to be added to the site; if things go well for Insightory they'll probably be developed in the coming months.

Check it out and please let me know if you find anything useful.

Circuit City Revisited: Worst Practices Don't Work

noreply@blogger.com (Langdon Morris) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:42:00 +0000

Last April I wrote a post to this blog about Circuit City (Permanent Innovation Blog: Worst Practices in Innovation Award Winner!), which laid off 3400 of its higher-paid sales staff (who were earning around $15 per hour) in order to save money by replacing them with people earning around $9 per hour. I figured that they might save around $35 million by doing so, but I predicted that it would backfire.

Well, the results are in. It did backfire.

According to an Associated Press report by Rachel Beck published January 13, 2008, Circuit City stock is now 80% down from last April before they announced the layoff, and calls for the CEO to resign or be fired are increasing. Same-store sales were off 11% during the holiday season, at a time when the consumer electronics market is booming.

The company wasn't doing very well before the layoffs, but they definitely made things worse.

Part of the problem is that Circuit's City's store concept is tired. But a staff of knowledgeable and helpful people could probably overcome that, because so many electronics customers bring repeat business to the places they shop. If customers are leaving Circuit City for their competitors, it can only mean that they're not having the shopping experience that they want, and the role of sales staff in that experience is critical. (By the way, how many ex-Circuit City employees moved over to Best Buy? That would be be really interesting to know!)

Retailing was and remains a human activity. Could Circuit City management really have forgotten that? We'll if they did, they've re-learned it by now. But is it too late?

So what should management do now, now that they have an eroding customer base and a staff of relative novices? For one thing, they need to train their people and nurture a culture of service. This could mean that they should over-staff their stores to insure that even more sales people are there to help customers than the sales level would call for. Of course that would hurt profits in the short term, but it could pay off in the longer term.

The problem is that in a deepening crisis, managements tend to think very short term; you can just imagine the executives pouring over the daily sales reports each morning to see how things are going from day to day, and meanwhile missing the opportunity to redesign the business for long term survival.

Because clearly Best Buy has a better business model for the moment. Can Circuit City recreate itself? Or is it destined for permanent also-ran status?

The bold thinking and innovation needed to reinvent a tired business model is pretty rare; strangely, far more companies actually go out of business because they can't figure out how to reinvent themselves in the face of a competitive crisis. Instead, they keep doing the same thing in a shrinking market until they disappear all together.

This is the likely outcome, you might say, of adopting worst practices ....

innovate or die

noreply@blogger.com (dave davison) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:44:00 +0000

A contest sponsored by google and Specialized(a bike manufacturer) about innovative uses of bicycle power - click below to see a video of the AQUADUC T - the grand prize winner.

And click here to see all of the other contest entries Specialized: Innovate or Die