Developer Howard Harte wants to innovate, and he is using prize money to get a jump on the competition. Harte is offering $1000 to the first person who can build a software-based hack of Google TV that will allow him to install third-party applications onto the device. While it was released only a month ago, Harte already has big ideas for Google TV. By reaching out to the hacker community for support, Harte is ensuring that he is first to market with his software. In class, we discussed how offering prize money can help tech companies generate ideas. In this particular case, the prize competition will also benefit conversion, allowing Hart to develop his concepts into functioning prototypes before Google offers third-party application support. While Harte argues that the incentive he is offering benefits the developer community as a whole, he will no doubt reap the benefits of being a first-mover in the marketplace.
Tag: innovation value chain
Large technology firms are finding business opportunities in organizing and analyzing scientific data in new ways. They are collaborating with external partners to generate ideas for innovative technologies. Microsoft is one company seeing the potential in partnerships with a diverse set of academic and medical institutions. They are bringing together scientific data from a variety of sources and using powerful analysis techniques to seek new breakthroughs. In one project, Microsoft is partnering with UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National laboratory to analyze satellite, geologic, and economic data in order to improve water supply management. In another project, they are looking at individual viral mutations in thousands of subjects to better understand HIV. According to Tony Hey of the Harvard Business Review, collaborations like these may not only not lead to the next scientific revolution, they may prove to be quite profitable for technology firms that are making breakthroughs possible. As covered in our discussion of the Innovation Value Chain, this will only be true if effective mechanisms for conversion and diffusion are in place.
Full article: http://hbr.org/2010/11/the-big-idea-the-next-scientific-revolution/ar/1
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Creating a culture of innovation
Innovation in the “new normal” will be the driver of organic growth. To build a culture that fosters it, an organization must hire for innovation talent, build teams that are diverse in talent, and fit individuals to the right role to drive success.
http://gmj.gallup.com/content/143282/Creating-Culture-Innovation.aspx?utm_source=email&utm_medium=10OCT-B&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=newsletter
What’s creativity and how is it different from innovation? While some believe that innovation can be spawned from mixing the right elements together, the IVC (module1) has taught us that the processes (protocols) of putting pieces together are just as important.
Challenge.gov is an attempt to address the gap in idea generation faced by the federal government. Vivek Kundra’s (our first federal CIO) found success using prizes to recruit citizen programmers in Washington DC. Volunteer programmers would use the city’s data catalog to develop new services (i.e. DC Bikes, Historic tours, stumble home, etc).
The twist on the prize for innovation approach is that the ideas are not developed in-house. Many of the prize projects seem to focus on external development and deployment–not changing internal processes. Innovations take the form of novel use of government data or pilot deployment techniques.
For example, this challenge asks for “the development of web-based tools or applications to integrate cancer-relevant data from one or more of the following data resources with data available through the Community Health Data Initiative”:
http://challenge.gov/HHS/73-enabling-community-use-of-data-for-cancer-prevention-and-control
While this challenge looks to incubate novel classroom approaches:
http://challenge.gov/ED/60-challenge-to-innovate-c2i
Neither of these approaches seem to address the need for internal innovation. I think this approach is fantastic in terms of extending government resources at low costs, but it doesn’t appear to expose internal problems to new ideas.
Joy
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Microsoft Xbox
The article “The Innovation Value Chain” discussed about a safe haven for emerging businesses allowing them to be unfettered by the rest of the organization but enough ties to keep them from complete isolation. When Microsoft ventured into the gaming software industry with the Xbox project, the VPs realized early that “while Microsoft was the right place to get the next Xbox built financially, it was totally wrong for it culturally.” Unhindered by the formulaic approach of the established businesses, the Xbox team was nimble and unconventional. Within 10 years, Microsoft has gone from zero to 30 percent in gaming console market where U.S. retail sales of videogames generated revenues of approximately $20 billion in 2009.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1061497-2,00.html#ixzz0zlLFVMQE
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Nokia – the innovation killer?
I just found out that a web service that I have relied upon to track my travel is on a one way train to nowhere. Dopplr, an elegant alternative to TripIt, was acquired by Nokia for around 20 million USD last September in a deal that I hoped would help extend the service’s functionality. Not happening, according to this article in the Guardian. A statement released by Nokia (after the article, of course) said that the site is now in “maintenance mode” and will not be developed further. The article goes on to list a number of other Nokia acquisitions that have resulted in … nothing. Nothing visible, at least. Several of Dopplr’s founders remain with the company and presumably contribute some value. Still, this story highlights an innovation-related question: generate, convert, and diffuse from within? Or acquire and hope the company’s people and technologies make a long-term contribution to your strategic objectives.
Mark Hurd’s departure from HP caused quite a fervor. After all, what’s juicier than a sex scandal and defecting to the competition? But it gets better: IBM wants to get in on the fun. This isn’t TMZ, but it’s pretty rich nonetheless. From a story published in the Wall Street Journal on September 15, 2010:
In a rare public broadside, IBM Chief Executive Samuel J. Palmisano said he doesn’t worry about companies such as H-P that have slashed their investments in core technologies and need to make expensive acquisitions to keep up. “H-P used to be a very inventive company,” Mr. Palmisano said in an interview at a Wall Street Journal event on Tuesday.
Palmisano went on to suggest that Mark Hurd’s focus on cost-cutting has undercut HP’s ability to innovate. While people at HP might disagree, Palmisano believes there’s a serious kink in HP’s innovation supply chain. On the other hand, Palmisano praised the efforts of Oracle CEO’s Larry Ellison to invest in the development of new technologies.