Web, on-the-go

Innovation is in depression; not the economy.

2012-04-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

Economist vs. Innovator

Peter Ferdinand Drucker’s first book was entitled The End of Economic Man, published in 1939. In this book, Drucker wrote the following paragraph:

“It is what Joseph Schumpeter (1883 – 1950) did when he identified the “innovator” as the social force that turns economies upside down; the innovator does not behave economically, does not try to optimize, is not motivated by economic rationale – he is a social phenomenon. It is what this book tries to do.”

If you watch a football, soccer or basketball game, you will see many different players enter the arena. During the game, some players might try brand new moves, while others might introduce enhancements to the existing strategy. All players take risks. They play hard and try to win every game.

When you watch the game on television, you also may see a few well-dressed people sitting around a table in a comfortable room, making commentaries about the game. You might hear these commentators offer their ideas, such as: “Michael Jordan should have gone a few steps in front and then tried to shoot the ball. That would have been the perfect shot. Had he done that, the Chicago Bulls would have won the game.”

People listening to these sports commentaries may agree with this observation. Listeners might believe a certain commentator to be a genius when it comes to sports strategy, but we don’t for a moment presume that these commentators should leave their comfortable chairs and take Michael Jordan’s place on the team. That would be ridiculous.

We know that the commentators are not the players. Players keep their bodies and minds fit to play the game. Players go to the game with new strategies or enhance existing strategies, every time they enter the field. Players take risks and know the challenges. They don’t succeed all the time, but they still get up and play the next game with a strong determination to win.

Economists are not players. In this analogy, economists are very much like sports commentators. They can only make comments on the players’ performances, and of course they are only able to comment on the past performances of the players. Their present statement is always based on what has already happened. Economists have no idea about present activity and potential future results. Economists always live in the past.

And yet economists are so incredibly influential. Their statements stay in the public mind as powerful indicators of what is actually happening. When economists make a statement such as, “The economy is in recession,” people panic. The stock market plummets. When economists make a statement such as, “The economy is in depression,” people jump out of windows.

Even the most innovative organizations in the world are now making statements like, “We are not immune from the economic depression,” and “We view the situation as dire.” CEOs are making very grim public remarks about the economy.

But the truth is that these economists are much like sports commentators. They are not players in the actual game. Then who are the players who are actually making things happen now?

The players are the innovators. Innovators build the future now. Innovation creates wealth.

The innovator is the social force that turns economies upside down. The innovator does not behave economically, does not try to optimize, and is not motivated by economic rationale. The innovator is a social phenomenon. Only innovation creates wealth, not economists’ assessments such as “recession” and “depression.”

That is what Peter F. Drucker tried to do in his first book. He tried to free society from the clutches of economists and their fearful statements such as “recession” and “depression.” In almost all of his books, talks, and lectures throughout his entire life, Drucker tried to shift the focus away from these scary economic statements, and instead replace them with words such as: “innovation” and “innovative opportunities.”

Even today, our focus remains on the present economic statements being made, which are based on past reports from various sectors of the economy such as housing, jobs and GDP. If we remain stuck in the past, completely occupied with present economic statements, our future will be in recession and in depression.

The truth is that the economy is not in recession. The economy is not in depression. It is innovation that is suffering. Right now, innovation is in recession. Innovation is in depression.

Organizations have ceased all innovation. Organizations have stopped searching for opportunities for innovation. The innovators are holding back. The economists are at the forefront, continuing to scare people with their statements.

We do not need more economists. We do need more innovators. Innovators are the social force that will turn economies around. The intention of this book is to shift our focus from the economists to the innovators and innovation, in particular, in the field of wireless web and mobile Internet.

Innovation Creates Wealth

According to Drucker, innovation is not a technical term belonging strictly to the field of science or technology. Innovation is, rather, an economic and social term, pointing toward a shift in the overall economic or social environment of the day. This shift could include changes in people’s behavior as producers, consumers, students, teachers, etc…

Peter Drucker goes on to explain that rather than creating new knowledge, innovation actually creates new wealth or new potential for action. Innovation could be thought of as the exploitation of new ideas. If this is true, then most innovation will stem from the places that are already rich in manpower, brainpower and money, namely, existing businesses, schools and public service institutions. Drucker believed that innovation was absolutely pivotal if a society hoped to maintain and create high-quality jobs and keep successful businesses afloat. Obviously then, our challenge now is to create a society where innovation comes first, in business enterprises, schools and governments.

As we move into this next era, it is extremely important to remember the importance of innovation. Peter F. Drucker stressed the importance of certain principles of innovation that are of the utmost relevance today:

1. “Purposeful, systematic innovation begins with the observation of the sources of opportunities.”

2. “To be effective, an innovation has to be simple, and it has to be focused.”

3. “Effective innovations start small.”

4. “The innovation aims from the beginning to become the standard setter, to determine the direction of a new technology or a new industry, to create the business that is and remains – ahead of the pack.”

5. “Innovation is work rather than genius. It requires knowledge. It requires ingenuity. And it requires observation and attention.”

Innovative Opportunities

Organizations must execute conscious and purposeful searches for innovative opportunities. This book is meant to be used as a guide for organizations to help them pinpoint some of these opportunities. It includes practical examples that will encourage any organization to identify key opportunities for innovation.

Once an organization has identified an attractive opportunity, then the company will still need to take a leap of faith and imagination in order to arrive at the right response.

First, organizations must know what innovation means. As I mentioned earlier, innovation is not science or technology, but value. Innovation does not take place within an organization, but rather is a change outside the organization. The measure of innovation could very well be the impact of the innovation on the environment. Innovation in a business enterprise must, therefore, always be market-focused.

Bell Labs invented transistor technology. But the scientists there saw innovation from a strictly technological vantage point. They failed to understand the value of their innovation. These scientists told Sony’s Akio Morita, who approached them with a request to use this technology, that the transistor was only good for use in the hearing aid.

Had they asked Sony’s Akio Morita about his plans for the use of the transistor, perhaps Sony might have shared his vision about the mobile radio. Who knows? Maybe Sony and Bell Labs would have come together to manufacture the mobile radio. Had this happened, those scientists at Bell Labs would have earned a great deal of money and wealth off their transistor innovation. But the truth is, the Bell Labs scientists didn’t make the money from their own innovation. Sony did.

This book helps engineers, scientists and technologists pinpoint specific potential technological applications, and at the same time challenge them to actually build these applications. If innovation is successful, it is likely to turn into a major product or process, a major new business, and a major market.

To manage innovation, a manager does not need to be a technologist. Indeed, a first-rate technologist is rarely good at managing innovation. He is so deeply engrossed in his specialty that he rarely sees outside development.

Similarly, the innovative manager need not be an economist. The economist can concern himself with the impact of innovation only after the product has become a massive force.

The innovative manager must be able to anticipate vulnerabilities and opportunities. He or she needs to study innovation and learn its dynamics, its patterns, and its predictability.

The innovative manager converts impractical, half-baked, and wild ideas into concrete, innovative reality. In the innovative organization, top management listens to ideas and takes them seriously.

Top management in the innovative organization knows that new ideas are often impractical. Top management also knows that it takes a great many silly ideas to give birth to a fantastic one. In the early stages, there is no way to differentiate the silly ideas from the ones that will eventually change our lives. Both look equally impossible or equally brilliant.

Top management in the innovative organization should encourage ideas and ask how they can make ideas practical, realistic and effective.

Top management should organize itself so that they can think through even the wildest and apparently silliest idea for something new, so that the feasibility of the idea can be appraised.

Top management in the innovative organization is the major driver for innovation. They can use the ideas in this book to stimulate vision and then work to make these new ideas a prominent concern of the entire organization.

Resistance to change is grounded in ignorance and in fear of the unknown. However, if change is seen as opportunity, then there will be no fear.

One way to organize innovative units within a large business might well be to group them together into one group. This group shall report to one member of top management, who has no other function, but to guide, help, advice, review, and direct the innovating team.

In this wireless web innovation, the group may have software developers, wireless infrastructure professionals, marketing professionals and government liaison people. The team must consist of cross-functional professionals who together can take the wild, silly ideas and come up with a new innovative product or process.

For innovative strategy, the device must be “new and different.” The basis of innovative strategy must include the elimination of the old technology that no longer serves. Innovating organizations should not spend time or resources defending yesterday. Indeed, systematic abandonment of yesterday can free resources, especially the most important resource of all -- capable people, for work on the new technology. Unwillingness to do this could very well be the greatest blockade to innovation in existing large businesses.

Startup organizations do not have this burden. Known is burden. Unknown is opportunity. Startup organizations start their business with total and complete freedom. Freedom from the known is innovation.

The innovative organization resists stagnation rather than change. This book helps the organization to be innovative. This book itself is an innovator. An “innovator” is a social force that turns economies around. The innovator does not behave economically, does not try to optimize, and is not motivated by economic rationale – he is a social phenomenon.

Source: Book. Web On-The-Go. Author: Bala Sankar.

Marathon - Web on-the-go scenario

2010-05-02T12:16:00.000-07:00

New York Marathon picture source.

Carolina Runner picture source

Reviews in Amazon

Web-on-the-go.com

Dead-Tree Edition and Living-Tree Edition

2010-04-26T22:57:00.000-07:00

Dead-Tree Edition.

In Fore Word Reviews,
Elizabeth Allen said:

Finally Web on-the-Go in its dead-tree format as opposed to an eBook blog posts or a Webinar does not take advantage of the technology praised so highly in the book thus undermining the concept of wireless as a progressive panacea. This timely book would thrive better as a message delivered by digital or Web means.

Living-Tree Edition.

Right now available in Amazon Kindle and Apple iPad Kindle edition.

Very soon, it will be available in
Google Living-Tree Edition.

AT&T BURIED

2010-04-26T22:39:00.000-07:00

Once AT&T said, "Our Business is Service." Now, AT&T is buried.

Now, AT&T should say,
"Our Business is Support."

AT&T is no longer a millions of customers based company. AT&T provides infrastructure support to Amazon, Apple, Google, Local City Governments, National Parks and so on. AT&T customers will be all those enterprises and not end-users.

People no longer go to any service providers like AT&T, Sprint, Verizon to buy Kindle or iPad. People visit Amazon and buy their Kindle device. It's Amazon's responsibility to support wireless access for their devices.

Likewise, people visit Apple stores to buy iPad. It's Apple's responsibility to support wireless access for their iPad devices.

The emerging model is similar to the car and road infrastructure. People visit car dealers and buy cars of their choice. They may buy hybrid or electric cars for their daily commute; they may buy minivan for their family ride; they may also buy sports car for their adventures. They may buy cars of their choice without worrying about the road infrastructure. They just pay yearly registration fee and access the city streets, expressway and highways.

So, AT&T is no longer a service provider to the end-users. They provide infrastructure support for the enterprises such as, GM, Ford, Amazon, Apple.

Thus, AT&T is buried, now.

Web On-The-Go: A Preview of the Way of Living in a Wireless Web World

2010-04-21T15:10:00.000-07:00

Web On-The-Go: A Preview of the Way of Living in a Wireless Web World

source: http://www.forewordreviews.com/

With wireless hotspots in cafes and bookstores cell phones that browse the Web and eBooks that download bestsellers with the touch of a button at our disposal we may think that we are living in a wireless world already. In Web on-the-Go though Bala Sankar argues that we could be doing so much more with wireless technology. Extrapolating into the near future based on current inventions and infrastructure Sankar portrays a time in which wireless is fully integrated into everyones lives for the good of all.

A resident of Palo Alto California author Sankar has a background in developing software for the major corporations of Silicon Valley including Google. His book is the result of collaboration among industry experts and a creative team.

Sankar begins Web on-the-Go with an extensive introduction to the philosophical and historical basis of his ideas. He extols the virtue of innovation or visionary creative thinking blaming our current recession on a lack of innovation rather than financial straits. While this point is highly debatable Sankar is on firmer ground when he describes leaps forward in technology propelled by innovators such as da Vinci and Arthur Clarke the conceptualizer of transistor radios.

The bulk of Web on-the-Go details scenarios in which a thoroughly wireless world could be useful. In one chapter a family lost in the wilderness is found with the help of a wireless broadcast of their last known position. In another chapter a business owner tracks containers of goods from China through embedded wireless transmitters that communicate their location. Each example stretches the possibilities of current technology to their plausible limits arguing that improved wireless technology at all levels of society would benefit everyone.

Web on-the-Go is clearly written and its simple style is accessible even to a non-technical audience. Some of the scenarios read like fictional scenes. The engaging presentation of the material may inspire some readers to the type of innovation that Sankar glorifies.

Unfortunately the book tends to defeat itself. Its proposed scenarios are so similar to our current conditions that it is easy to gloss over them or to say So what? The sketchy illustrations add nothing to the book either. Finally Web on-the-Go in its dead-tree format as opposed to an eBook blog posts or a Webinar does not take advantage of the technology praised so highly in the book thus undermining the concept of wireless as a progressive panacea. This timely book would thrive better as a message delivered by digital or Web means.