dechezette

13 July 09

Computer Sciences on Innovation

This Business Week podcast has an great interview with Lemuel Lasher, Chief Innovation Officer at Computer Sciences Corporation. Admittedly, enterprise software innovation isn’t the sexiest topic, but Lasher presents one of the crisper points of view that I’ve heard in a while. I was also impressed at how articulate he was while getting grilled by the interviewer.

Not surprisingly CSC has an incredibly measured and analytical philosophy on innovation. They’ve created an innovation taxonomy that outlines innovations types (process innovation, product innovation) and amplitudes (disruptive innovation, incremental innovation). Their focus is on adjacent and incremental innovation — efforts that have immediate and short-term value to their customers. As a services company they believe that this brings them, their customers and their shareholders a greater rate of return.

Lasher believes that disruptive innovations, ones that are more breakthrough and create new markets, are more the domain of product innovation.

In these tough economic times, Lasher doesn’t believe that R&D cutbacks equal innovation output. He believes that things like a company’s culture, operations, tools and incentives play more a role in innovation that traditional R&D. Kind of makes sense.

What are the biggest mistakes that he sees companies making in regards to innovation?

A lot of companies view innovation as the objective rather than the means. They focus on an innovation agenda rather than the needs and objectives of the business.

A research report is referenced in the interview on CSC’s long-term view of disruptive innovations, which I haven’t read, that seems incredibly underwhelming. But the rest of the interview is definitely worth a listen.

Does all this talk of enterprise innovation have you just hungry for more? You can find a bunch of CSC videos of Lasher on YouTube.

Eclectic Method Picks Up Where EBN Left Off

In the early 90’s a buddy of mine brought home a stack of obscure video tapes from the local rental shop. Among those was a video from the “band” Emergency Broadcast Network. Their songs consisted of music tracks layered with video scratching. It was the first music I ever heard that wasn’t complete without the video.  Harrison Ford screaming “get down” in their track “Get Down” is forever seared into my brain.

When I first heard Eclectic Method a few weeks ago, I couldn’t help thinking of EBN. Turns out one of the old members is part of this act.

With the proliferation of video, and the methods for creating and editing audio visuals continually getting cheaper, this is an approach to authoring music that I’m sure will continue to grow.

EBN was definitely before their time. Glad to see this technique gaining ground.

06 July 09

It Might Get Loud

Back in my previous life I was an axeman. I won’t get into it just now why I put down my axe, but I’m happy to say that recently I’ve picked it back up. For a time, I quite seriously pursued music as a career.

In my early days of being in a band, guitar virtuosos reigned. At the time it was all about the flare — the faster and flashier the guitar solos, the better. It was hard not to get caught up in it all. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t really good at it. I lacked the chops.

Rather than let that get me down, I intuitively worked within my limitations. This led to hours and hours of experimentation with tone and effects. These limitation pushed me to create a unique and signature sound, and ultimately find my voice.

So it’s no surprise that the documentary It Might Get Loud has me pretty darn excited. White Stripes guitarist Jack White pushes The Edge and Jimmy Page to reveal the secrets behind some of the classic sounds they’ve managed to birth out of their gear.

While Jimmy Page ranks up there as one of the original virtuosos, The Edge certainly doesn’t. He’s consistently downplayed his chops in interviews. I would say that he was the guitarist that I most related to back in my day.

For me, those days were my earliest lessons of transforming limitations into innovations. The results were encouraging and indelible.
Adrian Belew was another one of my guitar effect heroes. Check out some of the bizarre tones he creates with King Crimson.

04 June 09

Great Ideas Come From Great Insights

I have to be honest, I’ve never looked at Coors marketing as innovative. But after watching this video I found myself impressed with their philosophy and standards around creating great ideas.

Patrick Edson, MillerCoors VP of Marketing Innovation, talks about how the these great ideas come from the 20% of insights that few have. The insights that are about understanding beyond the obvious and about what’s not being said by your customers.

Good stuff.

27 May 09

Design Agency Continuum Tells Us How They Find the Right Idea

What is Design Strategy? Why are ideas more important than insights?

Design and innovation consultants Continuum have put together this entertaining and informative 11 minute video to give you a look into their process and philosophy.

The real challenge lay less in the technical problem but often…in trying to solve the human problem. It’s about understanding their needs and their aspirations and meeting them in some way. So, we are serving them. But sometimes their needs are to be surprised and delighted, and they can’t tell us how to surprise and delight them. That has to come from us, as creative people in our profession.

via Core77