Polymaths and Innovation

Eric Schmidt (Google) recently criticised the UK education system for creating an unnecessary divide between the arts and sciences that was potentially hindering the imaginative breakthrough innovation in the UK. He went as far at to suggest that it would be worth taking inspiration from history where the mixing of arts, science and engineering was commonplace. "Lewis Carroll didn't just write one of the classic tales of all time. He was also a mathematics tutor at Oxford. James Clerk Maxwell was described by Einstein as among the best physicists since Newton – but was also a published poet."

We may not all be polymaths to that degree, but we certainly recognise that success often springs from the rich mixing of disciplines, whether in one person or in a team. So creativity isn't just something that some people do - it's something that can come from throughout the organisation and from any function.

The economics of clean clothes

Innovation is so much more than invention – but invention is a damn good place to start.

Let’s take self-cleaning clothes as an example. Apparently the nano technology is already available that would allow the manufacture of clothes that don’t get dirty. In fact, that technology has been around for a very long time but it has never been commercialised.

Why not?

As things stand, companies, consumers and governments all have too much to lose. The economics of washing clothes is understood from the banks of the Ganges to the boardroom of Unilever and the technologists at Miele.  In short – nobody wants change because the economics work for too well for existing stakeholders.

Until – that is – things get disrupted. What will disrupt the market and create a need for self-cleaning clothes? Eventually the environmental pressure will be too strong –water will become too valuable and the burden on the environment of detergents and old washing machines will tip the balance.

Self-cleaning clothes will come – and the business that can harness the technology will be bigger than Apple.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/20306

Toxic Mix

The current vogue of mixing business with art and science probably has some way to go even now. But already the combination of the three disciplines is creating a hideous mix of pseudoscience, blather and nonsense that looks for all the world like a breakthrough.

It may very well be that vitamins, supplements and a healthy diet do each of us some good. We probably know that asbestos, smoking and too much alcohol do us harm by an order of magnitude more. So why, other than for profit, do we get  this kind of nonsense about cancer-fighting foods:

The best way to defeat cancer is by eating healthy and adding a few anti-angiogenic foods to your meals daily. According to Dr. Li, there are 7 things everyone should consider implementing in making choices of foods that can lower your chances of having a disease.

Be picky - Make choices based on the quality of foods rather than the fact that it tastes good. For example why not purchase a Red Delicious apple that has twice as many cancer fighters as a Golden Delicious apple. Or buy San Marzano tomatoes because they have the most cancer fighting ingredients than any others. By having the knowledge that wine grapes grown in cooler climates have the most cancer fighters then you can make wine selections that will provide an added boost to your health lifestyle.
Chew Greens -Then cancer-fighting molecules are found within the leaves of greens; one must chew the leafy greens to help release enzymes to activate these molecules. Juicing the Bok Choy as I have done in the past may be somewhat beneficial, however chewing is so much better.
Choose a cancer-fighting food
for each meal. If an individual has 3 meals a day will add up to be over a thousand cancer-fighting choices each year. Just think how much better this should make you feel.
Cook Vegetables
–Cooking tomatoes in olive oil is better for you than having raw tomatoes.
"Do" Soy
-Fermented soy (used in miso soup) contains four times more cancer fighters than regular soybeans.
Dunk Teabags
- In order to get the cancer-fighting molecules to start working within the green tea, it is important to dunk the tea bag up and down within the cup rather than just letting it sit in the cup, like I’m guilty of doing.
Eat Sprouts
–Broccoli sprouts have more cancer-fighting properties than regular broccoli.
Dr Li is credited with  re-conceptualizing global disease fighting. Well exactly!

Why great service is more like the Apple store than a Starwood hotel...

So traditionally great customer service is delivered by businesses that really understand how people interact with their business ie they know the customer journey. All too frequently this is done by analysts who pore through data in minute detail before unveiling in a miracle moment a range of specific new positionings, a range of “desired” experiences and the functional roadmap to deliver those experiences (via the myriad of touchpoints including web, loyalty programs and the service experience in all its detail)

What’s so sad is that these analysts have never really experienced at close proximity real people interacting with real service and being inspired by insights to creatively develop a better, more fitting service experience.

Great service isn’t designed by analysts – if it were then the Apple shop would greet different guests with subtly different iphones and ipads! But they don’t.

7 principles for successful brand engagement

• Never underestimate the importance of top team engagement and buy-in
• Agree the ‘why bother’ (and make it relevant for all internal audiences
• Agree the balance between control and empowerment that fits the organisation
• Enthuse the organisation about the opportunities and the benefits of  brand excellence
• Use best of class ideas from other categories to help inspire fresh thinking
• Think through implications of brand in as many situiations as possible; determine the desired people behaviours and activities that fit with the brand
• Hardwire as much as you possibly can into the business, into contracts and metrics
• Establish feedback measures, create a learning culture and empower on-going change

New research techniques for innovation

The latest advances in neuro-research are having a huge impact on marketing communication. Understanding and measuring, second by second, how communication is working in the subconscious brain is a powerful measure of effectiveness. It enables precision-guided improvement and the ability to predict the commercial impact of changing many of the variables that affect brand performance.

 

So much for neuro-research and marketing communication. What about the world of innovation and development? A team at New Solutions believes it can harness many of the same capabilities, as they address broader strategic innovation and brand development opportunities. The objective is to collaborate with consultancy Neuro-Insight to develop this in practice, with a particular focus on the following three areas in particular:

• Making use of subconscious predictive markers of future preference
• Building a more powerful brand experience across the breadth of a brand’s ‘touchpoints’…and understanding what makes the real difference
• Enabling better diagnostics of prototype concepts

 

Dictatorship of the instant - or not?

So even email has apparently had its day as volumes of legitimate email (and spam) are falling fast in the face of social networking and instant messaging. Over the last two years, the number of emails handled by company executives each day has fallen by a third!
Are we all being duped into faster and less considered communication where speed is a substitute for truth, rigour and logic? Clearly Arsene Wenger, admittedly in a different context, has little time for knee jerk reactions (his so-called 'dictatorship of the instant')
Or is instant far nearer to real communication - more similar to the way that we actually speak to one another without the artificial strictures of title, greeting and sign-off.
Certainly spammers and teenagers seem to relish the new world of social networks - so for those whose job it is to communicate, it's a trend not to be overlooked as McKinsey have noted in their recent survey:

"The McKinsey worldwide survey of 3,249 executives across a range of regions, industries and functional areas found that two-thirds of respondents use Web 2.0 technologies in their organizations and the results are paying off.
More than two-thirds (69%) reported that their companies have gained measurable business benefits, including more innovative products and services, more effective marketing, better access to knowledge, lower cost of doing business, and higher revenues.

This is great news for businesses and their shareholders as well as the economy as a whole. The widespread use of Twitter and Facebook is beginning to look like more than a passing fad, but as a valid way to leverage business opportunities. Blogging can now be used to reach customers more directly and establish stronger relationships."

So now we can Twitter and blog in the knowledge that it really is good for business.