Category Archives: Innovation

Innovation Example

Posted on June 27, 2006 by John Hunter

Farecast is a cool internet application, and one that might actual save you money to buy, say a digital camera. Farecast provides data and analysis to those looking to purchase airplane tickets. The graph above shows ticket prices for tickets between Boston and Washington DC over the last 60 days. I have thought for quite some time I need better data to make the best purchase decisions. Farecast seems like a great fit.

Posted in Fun, Innovation, IT, Systems thinking | 3 Comments

Universal Health Care in San Francisco

Posted on June 25, 2006 by John Hunter

San Francisco’s Latest Innovation: Universal Health Care by Laura Locke: Starting in early 2007, every uninsured San Franciscan can seek comprehensive primary care at the city’s public and private clinics and hospitals, including top research facilities like the University of California at San Francisco. Coverage includes lab work, prescriptions, X rays, hospitalization and surgery. Annual funding for the $203 million program will come from re-routed city funds (including $104 million that now goes toward uninsured care via emergency rooms and … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Innovation, Management

Better and Different

Posted on May 24, 2006 by John Hunter

Reaction to Toyota: Better or Different? and Seth Godin’s post. The answer, as I see it, is to be better and different (when necessary). In Seth’s post he talks about challenging people to find not just better solutions but different solutions. That is fine, as long as people don’t lose focus on being better. Neither one alone is adequate (at least not always). To achieve great success you must be both better and different. That is what Toyota does. Frankly, … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Innovation, Management, quote | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Lean Construction

Posted on May 17, 2006 by John Hunter

Lean Manufacturing in the Construction Industry [the broken link was removed] by Eric Sander: In a radical departure from construction on site, Bensonwood Homes of Walpole, New Hampshire, has begun assembling major wall and floor components of their custom homes in their shop. These sections are delivered and assembled on site to reduce the construction time and improve quality. This approach is common in Japan. Toyota Homes and Misawa Home prefabricate custom homes in their factory for onsite assembly. Tedd … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Management Articles, Manufacturing | Tagged

The Customer Knows Best?

Posted on May 16, 2006 by John Hunter

The Customer Knows Best? Better Think Again by Anthony W. Ulwick It’s important to listen to customers – but not follow their words without skepticism. Ask them to design your next product and you’re likely to miss the mark, suggests this Harvard Business Review excerpt. Excellent point. Some management ideas are pretty easy and straight forward. But many management practices require knowledge and judgment to apply them successfully. Easy solutions may be desired, but, often you must choose between easy … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Innovation, Management, Management Articles | Tagged , , , , ,

Management: Geeks and Deming

Posted on May 11, 2006 by John Hunter

Why Business Needs More Geeks [the broken link was removed] by Robert May: then along came Wall Street. Obsessed with quarterly profit increases and seeing them as disconnected from value creation, Wall Street encouraged businesses to think short-term. The things that led to value creation – things like innovation, continued learning, employee development, long-term focus – were replaced by pump-and-dump management styles. There is a great deal of similarity between this article and Deming’s ideas. Several of Deming’s 14 obligation … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Innovation, Management, Management Articles | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Innovation at Google

Posted on May 7, 2006 by John Hunter

Turning Limitations into Innovation [the broken link was removed] by Marissa Ann Mayer: people working on it have spent so much time and are so personally invested that it’s too painful to walk away. They often know the project is misguided, yet they see the effort through to the painful, unsuccessful end. That’s why it’s important to discover failure fast and abandon it quickly. A limited investment makes it easier to walk away and move on to something else that … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Innovation, Management Articles, Psychology | Tagged | 2 Comments

The World’s Most Innovative Companies

Posted on April 14, 2006 by John Hunter

The World’s Most Innovative Companies [the broken link was removed] : Today, innovation is about much more than new products. It is about reinventing business processes and building entirely new markets that meet untapped customer needs. Most important, as the Internet and globalization widen the pool of new ideas, it’s about selecting and executing the right ideas and bringing them to market in record time. … Consumers increasingly are doing the innovation themselves. Consider Google Inc. (GOOG), our No. 2 … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Management Articles | Tagged

How Whirlpool Defines Innovation

Posted on April 7, 2006 by John Hunter

How Whirlpool Defines Innovation [the broken link was removed] now we say if we’re going to put any money in an innovation project, it has to sit on a migration path, it has to be something that the customer really wants, and it’s got to return an above-average profit. I’m not sure I really agree with this description. However, perhaps within Whirlpool this is a helpful definition, as George Box says: “all models are wrong, some are useful.” Perhaps viewing … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation | Tagged

Consumer Idealized Design

Posted on March 8, 2006 by John Hunter

Consumer Idealized Design: Involving Consumers in The Product Development Process Interactive Design vs. Reactive “Focus” A consumer design session is characterized by at least three features which distinguish it from a focus group. (1) It requires innovation and interaction from participants. (2) It is task-oriented, competitive and consensus-generating. (3) It requires the articulation and design of the group’s notion of the ideal in a designated product or service category. This concept is based on the idea of Russell Ackoff – … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Innovation, Management, Quality tools, Systems thinking | Tagged , ,

Innovation at Toyota

Posted on February 24, 2006 by John Hunter

The Birth of the Prius by Alex Taylor III: By the end of 1993 the development team had determined that higher oil prices and a growing middle class around the world would require the new car to be both roomy and fuel-efficient. Other than that, they were given no guidance. “I was trying to come up with the future direction of the company,” says Watanabe, who headed corporate planning at the time. “I didn’t have a very specific idea about … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Management, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Funding Invention Vs. Managing Innovation

Posted on February 19, 2006 by John Hunter

Funding Invention Vs. Managing Innovation [the broken link was removed] by John Hagel and John Seely Brown But if we shift our attention from invention to innovation, we begin to see a much broader horizon. Innovation — the ability to create and capture economic value from invention — is what really drives both the economic prosperity of nations and the shareholder value of corporations. Innovation isn’t just confined to commercialization of new products. It can also build upon creative new … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Management Articles | Tagged

Agility vs. Six Sigma

Posted on January 8, 2006 by John Hunter

My response to the agilemanagement list: I agree with David Anderson [the broken link was removed], in this thread [this broken link was also removed], as well as pretty much everything else actually. If I understand his writing correctly I am probably a bit more critical of how Six Sigma is actual practiced, but that is fairly minor difference of opinion. I have posted a couple item on managing innovation You manage processes, such as thinking up a new way … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Management, Process improvement, Six sigma | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Management Lessons from Terry Ryan

Posted on January 4, 2006 by John Hunter

Management Lessons from Terry Ryan: Humility, Stability & Personality from Management by Baseball: competitors in any endeavor figure anything easy must not be a very important differentiator (bass-ackwards of course, but the erroneous mental algebra is that if it was important and easy both, everyone could/would do it and since they’re not doing it and it’s easy it, therefore, must not be important. Goofy but widespread thinking. As long as Ryan and his team make this seem like luck or … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Innovation, Management, Psychology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Inside Google

Posted on December 26, 2005 by John Hunter

A View Into Google’s Inner Workings [the broken link was removed] by Dan Farber: Merrill listed the following attributes of Google’s development culture: Hire smart people who are nice to work with Flat management structure No silos, open communications Ideas mailing list 20 percent (time spent on personal projects) Small projects Iterative design, constant improvement Server-based deployment (AJAX) Test, don’t guess “Innovation doesn’t happen ‘on the way by,’ it must be design into everything we do,”

Posted in Google, Innovation, Management | Tagged ,

The 70 Percent Solution

Posted on December 10, 2005 by John Hunter

The 70 Percent Solution [the broken link was removed] by John Battelle, an interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt: We spend 70 percent of our time on core search and ads. We spend 20 percent on adjacent businesses, ones related to the core businesses in some interesting way. Examples of that would be Google News, Google Earth, and Google Local. And then 10 percent of our time should be on things that are truly new. An example there would be … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Innovation, Management, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments