jueves, 23 de diciembre de 2010

Innovación desde Israel


Aquí la entrada del reportaje original de Knowledge@Wharton

Extracto introductorio:

"Despite -- or possibly because of -- its small size and geopolitical isolation, Israel has developed a global reputation for its cutting-edge high-tech industry. This special report explores the drivers behind Israel's innovative impulse, drawing in part on a recent series of panel discussions sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The report also looks at the partnerships Israeli firms have forged with U.S. companies and the reasons why the Israeli venture capital business is undergoing a painful period of adjustment. An interview with Aaron Wolf, a professor of geography at Oregon State University and a trained mediator, looks at unconventional ways of solving deep-running conflicts, such as disputes over water. Also, an interview with Chaim Katzman, chairman and founder of Gazit Globe, explores the strategy behind one of the world’s top real estate investment multinationals."

miércoles, 22 de diciembre de 2010

Management a la "germany" (¿Innovación y/o tradición?)


Aquí la entrada completa desde The Economist

Extracto introductorio:

"Germany is the world’s largest goods exporter after China despite high labour costs and a strongish euro. It is also stuffed full of durable companies that have survived hyperinflation and two world wars. Faber-Castell, a giant among pencilmakers, boasts that Bismarck was a customer..."

Extracto de cierre:

"Theodore Levitt, one of the doyens of Harvard Business School, once observed that “sustained success is largely a matter of focusing regularly on the right things and making a lot of uncelebrated little improvements every day.” That is a lesson that the Germans learned a long time ago—and that the rest of the rich world should take to heart."


*****

Preguntas que surgen:

1. ¿Cómo es que un territorio, una población, una cultura, etc. llega a ser más competitiva (o más innovadora) que otra?

2. ¿Qué hace que ello ocurra aquí o allá, antes o después?

3. ¿Es "enseñable" todo ello: a otra población, en otro territorio?, ¿y así lo que se logra es cambiar su "cultura"?

jueves, 16 de diciembre de 2010

¿Se le ocurre a usted una marca-producto...?

... más universal... que despierte más la curiosidad... que refleje más un lugar de origen... que se pueda asociar más con la excelencia en la fabricación... que tenga mayor extensión y profundidad de línea... que sea más "clásica"... que todos los hombres a partir de cierta edad (pero sólo durante cierta cantidad de años) quieran tener una :-)

Aquí el sitio del fabricante



miércoles, 15 de diciembre de 2010

¿Tiene futuro un producto que, no obstante la excelencia técnica y artística alcanzada, cada vez se usa menos?

Aquí el sitio web del fabricante

Escribir cartas... Escribir poemas... Firmar cheques... Autografiar... Dedicar libros... Regalar tarjetas de navidad... Subrayar libros... Tomar notas en la conferencia... Apuntar (algo) en "la agenda"... Construir "libros de viaje"... Dibujar...







martes, 14 de diciembre de 2010

¿De cuántas formas se puede lograr-diseñar-presentar un reloj de lujo?


Aquí la página del fabricante

Reformulando la pregunta:

1. ¿Cuántas opciones hay de lograr un "look-and-feel" de extremo lujo?, o,

2. ¿De cuántas formas cabe variar - manteniendo la armonía - los tres o cuatro elementos de realización de un reloj?, o,

3. ¿Qué cabeza de qué diseñador aún no se ha hecho presente como para que quepa esperar nuevos diseños, nuevas armonías, nuevas realizaciones: novedosos "look-and-feel" de extremo lujo?

***

Y además:

¿Quién lo adscribió a la FORMA-BASE-ESENCIAL del círculo; y del segundo "círculo" luego, que lo tornó accesorio de uso en la"muñeca", o sea reloj de pulsera?

viernes, 10 de diciembre de 2010

Google ebookstore


Aquí la página de entrada en la Web

Aquí los comentarios del blog GigaOM

Aquí desde el blog oficial de Google

De la presentación en el blog de Google:

"We designed Google eBooks to be open. Many devices are compatible with Google eBooks—everything from laptops to netbooks to tablets to smartphones to e-readers. With the new Google eBooks Web Reader, you can buy, store and read Google eBooks in the cloud. That means you can access your ebooks like you would messages in Gmail or photos in Picasa—using a free, password-protected Google account with unlimited ebooks storage."


"When Google Books first launched in 2004, we set out to make the information stored in the world’s books accessible and useful online. Since then, we’ve digitized more than 15 million books from more than 35,000 publishers, more than 40 libraries, and more than 100 countries in more than 400 languages. This deep repository of knowledge and culture will continue to be searchable through Google Books search in the research section alongside the ebookstore."

Y el video :-)

jueves, 9 de diciembre de 2010

An innovator: Jason Fried

Lo conocemos hace años. Aquí el sitio Web de su exitosa compañía: 37signals

Su reciente conferencia en TED:


lunes, 6 de diciembre de 2010

An innovator: Julian Assange Part II

Ahora en T.E.D.

Ya lo habíamos traído a cuento aquí en febrero de 2010...

Ahora es famoso :-)



Del perfil en TED:

"Why you should listen to him:
You could say Australian-born Julian Assange has swapped his long-time interest in network security flaws for the far-more-suspect flaws of even bigger targets: governments and corporations. Since his early 20s, he has been using network technology to prod and probe the vulnerable edges of administrative systems, but though he was a computing hobbyist first (in 1991 he was the target of hacking charges after he accessed the computers of an Australian telecom), he's now taken off his "white hat" and launched a career as one of the world's most visible human-rights activists.
He calls himself "editor in chief." He travels the globe as its spokesperson. Yet Assange's part in WikiLeaks is clearly dicier than that: he's become the face of creature that, simply, many powerful organizations would rather see the world rid of. His Wikipedia entry says he is "constantly on the move," and some speculate that his role in publishing decrypted US military video has put him in personal danger. A controversial figure, pundits debate whether his work is reckless and does more harm than good. Amnesty International recognized him with an International Media Award in 2009.

Assange studied physics and mathematics at the University of Melbourne. He wrote Strobe, the first free and open-source port scanner, and contributed to the book Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier.

"WikiLeaks has had more scoops in three years than the Washington Post has had in 30."
Clay Shirky"

viernes, 3 de diciembre de 2010

An innovator (a sort of): Christopher Richards - Part II

Me llamó la atención en extremo la afirmación de Mr. Richards: "I make my living in the real world by ghostwriting business books"

Esto implica:

1. Que hay "autores" de business books que no lo son al 100%

2. Que quizá he leído más de uno de esos libros (y hasta reverenciado a su "autor")

3. Que he quedado sorprendido: de mi ingenuidad e inocencia ante el funcionamiento que ahora se me revela de los negocios, y de los libros de negocios


Aquí nos explica Mr. Richards (seria y lentamente) cómo desempeña él su oficio y los gajes que trae:


"Ghostwriting Definition: A ghostwriter is paid to write books, articles, reports, speeches and other content that is credited to another person.

Will I make money from book sales?
Could your nonfiction book be another best-seller? Possibly, but that’s not the point. Being on the best-seller list is not an expectation of the people I write for. For most people, the value is increased awareness, competitive advantage, and professional stature. A book opens doors to new opportunities. And it is those new opportunities where your book pays for itself— many times over.

What should I look for in a ghostwriter?
Of course, you’ll need a person who can write. Make sure to look for someone who can understand what you want. Ask incisive questions. Listen to the answers. Ghostwriters must have the emotional maturity to put aside their own perspectives when necessary. They must write from your vantage point and for your readership.

Many ghostwriters’ work comes to them by referral. Most will have an agreement not to disclose that they had written or participated in a book. This makes showing samples difficult. However, the ghostwriter should be able to show you a variety of writing styles, and it is this flexibility of style that should give you an idea of ability. Is the writing clear? Is it to the point? Does it inform? Is it even amusing? Does it draw you in? Does it keep your attention? Is it consistent in tone?

How does ghostwriting work?
It can be as simple as you talk while the ghostwriter records your words and shapes them into an integrated narrative.

You may already have made a start on writing and find yourself stuck, or you simply don't have the time to continue. Your book is likely to emerge from a combination of discussions and existing documents.

Because a ghostwriter writes for someone else, the relationship between author and ghostwriter is of tremendous importance. For some clients, it is important for author and ghostwriter to meet face to face. For others, telephone and email work well. However, writing a book can be a significant investment of your time and money.

Make sure the relationship works. Are you, the author, and your ghostwriter on the same page? Initially, I like to set up a phone call with a prospective author to discuss the purpose of the book or article, its readership, and some idea of what the book will contain.

Should I contact several ghostwriters before making a decision?
Yes. Take your time. You will have a relationship with the person you choose for some months to come. When interviewing, allocate enough time to spend at least spend half an hour on the phone with someone you are seriously considering. Your ghostwriter must be a good verbal communicator. A significant part of the job of the ghostwriter is to interview you, and ask you questions that will stimulate your thinking and help you explain what you want to say.

Caution!
A poorly-written book with your name on it can do more damage than having no book at all. Don't cut corners when attempting to find a ghostwriter. Visit ghostwriter websites. Is the writing on that site appealing? Are there grammatical or typographical errors? Is the ghostwriter knowable? Get the feel for who they are.

Don't simply send a list of requirements and expect an estimate. Yes, this means more work on your part, but it will pay off. If price is the only determining factor, then you run the risk of a poor outcome. Choosing to work together is a personal decision.

You will probably be meeting with your ghostwriter on a regular basis by phone, video, or in-person. Most professionals are busy people, particularly those who head organizations. Nevertheless, realistic expectations of time and cost are important. If your book project is to be a success, give it the time it deserves. Working with your ghostwriter should significantly shorten your time-investment, but you will need to stay engaged in the project.

Getting started
Every project must have a beginning. And that beginning can be at a different point along a continuum. At one end, you may have vague ideas, rough notes, or an outline; at the other, a rough draft, or an almost completely revised work. However, all projects start with discussion and/or review of existing material, if any.

If you and I were to decide to work together, after an initial discussion, I would draft a letter of intent which spells out my understanding of what you want, suggesting next steps in your project.

Working together
Maybe you're not ready to commit to an entire project—yet. You can still do some initial work on your project.

I charge a prepaid hourly fee for a minimum of ten hours for new clients. This way, for a small commitment, we can take time to work together in determining the readership, the content, and scope of the project. After ten hours of consultation and/or writing, we should be in a better position create an effective working relationship and estimate the entire project.

Please contact me for fees, details, and availability.

What if you are not available?
Ghostwriters can only take on so many projects at a time. Some of us will only work on one book at a time in order to do the job right. Depending on your need, I would be happy to refer a colleague, or suggest some things you can do now to prepare for a later scheduled start date. While planning your book several months in advance in not always possible, if you can, it will give you the choice of working with an in-demand ghostwriter.

What sort of books do you write?
I specialize in nonfiction books and biography. I have written for clients in business consulting, management, psychology, organizational development, education, and non-profit organizations.

Do you ghostwrite shorter works?
Yes. At the time of writing, I've just finished an eighty-page educational guide. I also rewrite or edit shorter works.

Do you ghostwrite fiction?
No. I do not offer this service and I cannot refer you at this time.

How long will it take?
Writing your book takes time and effort. How long it will take to ghostwrite your book depends upon conceptual complexity, participant availability (that's you), timing, and my professional commitments. You should expect a turnaround time of at least several months for anything approaching book length. While each project is different, it's not unusual to spend between 400 and 700 hours to ghostwrite a 50,000-word (200 page) book.

A solid outline of your entire book will get you to your destination faster. A rough guide to allocating time is 40 percent creating the outline, 20 percent writing the first draft, and 40 percent rewriting.

The new now
With the advent of digital publishing, new structures of books are emerging for devices such as Kindle and Nook. Books are getting shorter, but this does not necessarily mean that they take less effort to write well. Writers understand that any work starts out horrible and becomes refined through revision. However, those that don't write only see finished works and are often unaware of how many revisions it took to polish a piece of writing. In other words, no first draft is publishable. Clarity matters. A writer's joke goes like this: This piece of writing is long because I didn't have time to write it shorter.

Please contact me here to set up a time to talk about your project."

jueves, 2 de diciembre de 2010

An innovator (a sort of): Christopher Richards - Part I

Aquí su sitio web: Slowdown

De la introducción a si mismo:

"I make my living in the real world by ghostwriting business books.

I grew up in a sleepy village outside of Oxford in England. I went to art school in Winchester where I studied fine art and philosophy. Later I moved to New York. Today, I live in the San Francisco Bay Area with my wife Lynnette.

My interest in slow started while still an art student. It was my first visit to America and I'd come for a month-long stay in the winter of 1976. I arrived in California after a long flight from London. The fare was cheap. The aircraft was old. They say you get what you pay for. The galley door fell off and the oxygen masks popped out of the ceiling when the plane bounced down in Canada for refueling.

California was immediately captivating: stunning vistas, palm trees, sunshine. What struck me was the emptiness of the landscape. There only seemed to be Europeans visiting the national parks. Where were the Americans?

I had no idea Americans worked such long hours. Wasn’t California supposed to be laid back? It’s a common mistake to think that other cultures are like your own. Only after working in the corporate world and running a company did I understand what Josef Pieper referred to as The Total World of Work in his book, Leisure: The Basis of Culture.

It was this book that was my impulse (if impulse is not too strong a word) for writing about slow. I found the book quite by chance in a bookstore on College Avenue in Oakland. Pieper’s point is that one can become so immersed in work that nothing else matters. Total work destroys culture. Total work saps our energy. There is no time for interiority.



Leisure is a form of that stillness that is necessary preparation for accepting reality; only the person who is still can hear, and whoever is not still, cannot hear.
Pieper, Josef. Leisure, the Basis of Culture. South Bend, Indiana: Translation, St. Augustine’s Press, 1998. p 31.


This led me to investigate the subject. I started to write about work-life balance, but at first found my tone to be preachy. There’s a big difference between knowing what to do, and actually doing it. Slowdownnow.org became a place to find my voice as a humorist.

Slow is a serious subject, even if its treatment isn’t. Humor opens us to being receptive. Not everything can be treated with humor. However play and humor are the elements of creativity. The world is in constant flux. Change is rapid. We don’t know what will happen next. We need to challenge our assumptions. We need wisdom to cope with change, and wisdom doesn't happen overnight.

Educational guru, Sir Ken Robinson, says, creativity is as important to us in this century as literacy was in the past. It’s a survival skill. Whether designing a life to include a personal world outside of the demands of commerce, or thinking through problems in new ways, creativity needs to emerge from a place of gestation, rest, flexibility, and balance.

I am currently writing a third children's book. My Children's book website for ages 5-9 is here."

***

Yo diría que este modo de vivir propuesto por Mr. Richards logra que lo tomemos en serio sin tener que ser serio a la manera usual, a saber, trabajando hasta, literalmente,

m o r i r
d e l,
y
e n
e l,
c a n s a n c i o

:-) :-) :-) (I like it)

miércoles, 1 de diciembre de 2010

Inno-soñando: el "smartphone" que quiero

1. Estoy "jarto" de tener que escucharle las conversaciones a todo el mundo
2. Estoy "mamado" de tener que andar cambiando de timbre normal a silencio (y vuelva otra vez) cada vez que entro y salgo de los lugares en los que no quiero molestar a otros

En resumidas cuentas: el teléfono celular es muy pero muy conveniente para uno, pero al tiempo muy pero muy inconveniente para los otros que están alrededor de uno

El "smartphone" que quiero:

1. Que solo yo lo oiga cuando timbre
2. Que solo al otro lado me escuchen (y nadie alrededor) cuando hablo por él
3. Que yo sepa - antes de intentar la llamada - que al otro lado están dispuestos a contestarla (y viceversa)

¿Cierto que se va demorar unos añitos en estar listo? :-()

lunes, 29 de noviembre de 2010

The innovation came from (the author say): "liquid networks"

Aquí la entrada que comenta el libro: Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation

Extracto del comentario de Krisztina “Z” Holly:

"To put the social aspect of innovation in context, let’s rewind a few millennia. According to Steven Johnson, the author of Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, sometime between 10,000 bc and 5000 bc, humankind hit a watershed moment: People began inventing in earnest. Before that, they built on one another’s ideas so slowly that it took 30,000 years to advance from mining to metallurgy. But then a big shift happened. They cast aside their hunter-gatherer ways and settled in cities, and shortly thereafter, a giant explosion of innovation occurred. The alphabet, currency, measuring sticks, aqueducts, cement, writing, bread, and wheels — these are just a handful of the vast number of world-changing inventions that our forebears developed during this period.

Something happened when humans put down roots, Johnson argues. Ideas started bouncing between individuals, growing and improving, in a web of connections he calls liquid networks. Unlike a gas, in which molecules rarely bump into one another, or a solid, in which molecules do not move from place to place, a liquid represents a free-flowing, high-contact medium. Cities provided such an environment for human thought; ideas collided within them, people learned faster, and ideas spread more widely."

jueves, 25 de noviembre de 2010

An innovator: IdeaPaint - John Goscha, Morgen Newman and Jeff Avallon

¡Genial! :-) :-) :-)

Aquí su sitio Web

"The family needs a better place to gather than in front of the TV. IdeaPaint can turn virtually anything you can paint into a high-performance dry-erase surface, giving your family a place to interact, communicate and fully explore your creativity. No matter where you use it, it can keep your family connected. Who knows, it may even help end the battle over the remote control."




"When you’re confined to the space of a typical whiteboard, your ideas are destined to be small. IdeaPaint turns virtually anything you can paint into a high-performance dry-erase surface, giving you the space you need to collaborate, interact and fully explore your creativity. No matter where you use it, big ideas follow."


miércoles, 24 de noviembre de 2010

Prosaica innovación: la "afeitada perfecta" (que sin embargo ya era "perfecta" cuando yo era chico :-)

Aquí detalles desde el sitio Web del fabricante



***

Sólo USD 251 con 50/100 en amazon.com :-)

martes, 23 de noviembre de 2010

Betting in gaming innovation: apostando sobre cada jugada, no sólo sobre el marcador final


El artículo es de Wired: Wall Street Firm Uses Algorithms to Make Sports Betting Like Stock Trading

Extracto clave 1:

"This style of on-the-fly wagering while the game unfolds, known as in-running, didn’t exist in Vegas casinos when Cantor Gaming arrived. Other big casinos in town give sports gamblers a narrow range of betting opportunities and a limited amount of time in which to bet. That appalls Lee Amaitis, formerly co-CEO of Cantor offshoot BGC Partners and now president and CEO of Cantor Gaming. “When Wall Street first opens, everybody starts trading; in this town, when a game gets going, everybody stops betting,” he says. “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard. The game is the market. Why not let people bet the market?”"

Extracto clave 2:

"Casino executives neglect sports books because taking bets on athletic events seems like a risky proposition. They like guests to play craps, slots, and baccarat, games in which a favorable outcome for the house is all but guaranteed. From the point of view of casino owners, the result of a sporting event is incredibly uncertain, and they have no control over it. Experienced sports bettors, known as smart-money gamblers, can win far more steadily than someone playing roulette or pai gow poker. And a major upset can require a huge payout. For all these reasons, many casinos have decided that it’s best to minimize their risks by posting odds that stay in line with those of the other casinos in town, keeping betting limits low, and discouraging wagers by expert gamblers. “The other bookmakers in this town are afraid to take bets, and they hate us,” Amaitis says. “For me, not taking smart-money bets is like Cantor Fitzgerald not selling stock to Goldman Sachs. We do trades all day with Goldman, Deutsche, Citibank. You think those guys are stupid?”

Amaitis’ scrappiness and his willingness to use technology to open untapped markets fit right in with the ethos of Cantor Fitzgerald. It is, after all, the firm that in 1999 became the first to do fully electronic US bond market trades with customers. The swagger even survived September 11, 2001, when its New York headquarters on floors 101 through 105 of One World Trade Center was destroyed. More than two-thirds of its New York staff perished, and the company’s primary data center was decimated. But a skeleton crew of Cantor staffers was able to get back online and resume trading just 48 hours after the attack. Cantor pledged 25 percent of its profits over the next five years to the families of its 658 employees killed on 9/11. It gave the grieving families a total of $180 million, thanks in part to yet more lucrative technological advances like being the first firm to offer wireless trading on BlackBerries.

Cantor’s latest innovation is the Midas algorithm, which is constantly being refined and fed reams of new statistical data. Even with Midas, however, sporting events are too volatile for Cantor to always end up on the right side of all the wagers it takes. But that’s OK: The point isn’t to nail the outcome of every contest; that’s a sucker’s game. There’s only one sure thing in sports gambling: the standard commission, known as the vigorish, that casinos charge when they take bets. When your wins are effectively balancing out your losses, the vigorish starts to add up. In this light, Cantor’s business model begins to look more like E-Trade than a conventional sports book. “The gaming business is nothing but a transaction business where you buy and sell sports instead of making a trade on the stock exchange,” Amaitis says. “It’s all about commission; and the more volume you do, the less risk you take.”

By 2012, Amaitis predicts, his company’s revenue will be $20 million. Cantor will make that money by taking far more bets than are made at present, enough that the vigorish will dwarf the income other casinos now make with their smaller (and safer) sports books. “My competitors want to hold 6 percent on a couple million dollars,” he says. “I’m looking to hold 2 percent on a couple billion dollars. Which would you rather have?”

Vegas has never seen this level of technological firepower, but Amaitis insists that it’s just the beginning. He likens the Midas program’s abilities to Wall Street’s first foray into computerization nearly 40 years ago, before people realized how the increased speed of trading opened up many exciting—or frightening, depending on your point of view—new investment opportunities. This year, Cantor was accepting bets on the outcome of NFL games months before the season started. But Amaitis wishes he could take more granular bets before kickoff. After all, more opportunities to bet means more commissions for Cantor. He dreams of being able to offer programmed sports betting that will allow gamblers to put in bid orders, just as you would with an electronic stock purchase. Before the game begins, you’ll be able to set your account so that a bet will automatically be placed if, for example, a team is ever a six-point underdog. You’d also be able to set it up to place a bet on the other side, say, if that number drops from six to four. Once your bids are in, you won’t even have to watch the game. “I am salivating for that,” Amaitis says."

lunes, 22 de noviembre de 2010

Brasil innovation: retos, logros e imposible

La columna es de The Economist

Logro:

"STAND on the observation deck in Embraer’s final-assembly hangar in São José dos Campos and you can see the case for globalisation laid out below you. Five freshly finished aircraft bear the insignia of airlines from across the world. Brazilian technicians wear T-shirts emblazoned with the word “lean” to emphasise their commitment to the principles of Japanese manufacturing. A supervisor boasts about the company’s ranking in an American guide to best places to work."

"Optimists have more than just Embraer on their side. Natura Cosméticos is emerging as a cosmetics giant by dint of clever marketing and borrowing from others. Everything about the company, from its use of recyclable materials in its packaging to its use of ordinary women rather than supermodels in its advertisements, is designed to emphasise the twin themes of naturalness and sustainability. Natura is also a master of what might be dubbed “lean innovation”. About 40% of its revenues come from products introduced in the past two years. But the company has only about 150 research and development staff compared with L’Oréal’s 2,800. Its trick is to form partnerships with foreign universities and to scour the world for products that it can license."

Reto:

"But throw in the word “innovation” and businessmen become more philosophical. Brazil spends a paltry 1.1% of its GDP on research and development compared with 1.4% in China and 3.4% in Japan. Last year Brazil fell 18 places in Insead’s annual innovation index, from 50th to 68th. Worse still, its ratio of basic-product to manufactured-product exports was the highest since 1978. These figures confront Brazilians with a troubling question. Can their country become an innovator in its own right, or is its recent growth little more than a by-product of China’s appetite for commodities?"

Imposible:

"Yet Brazil suffers from two huge blocks to growth: red tape and gaping inequality. For all its recent commitment to liberalisation the Brazilian government is still a rule-spewing, incumbent-protecting monster. Brazil comes 152nd in the World Bank’s “Doing Business” rankings for the ease of paying taxes (it took the Bank’s hypothetical medium-sized company 2,600 hours a year to comply with the tax code) and 128th on the ease of starting a business. Mexico is business-friendly by comparison."

***

El Estado, lo mismo en Brasil que en USA o en Mozambique, es sinónimo de contra-innovación, es decir, un Estado hace todo lo que le cabe hacer para que el espíritu innovador salga huyendo allende fronteras. Si USA ha sido la nación más innovadora de todas las épocas durante los últimos 100 años lo ha sido a pesar del Estado, nunca gracias al Estado (claro, si acordamos que las armas y todo el resto de la gigantesca y aterradora parafernalia militar no son propiamente innovación, sino retardación: nos mantienen en lo mismo que venimos desde hace 25 siglos cuando Platón, siguiendo a los espartanos, propuso su "república de guardianes")

jueves, 18 de noviembre de 2010

Innovación propuesta en educación (enseñanza de las matemáticas)

La fuente es TED. El conferencista:

"Conrad Wolfram is the strategic director of Wolfram Research, where his job, in a nutshell, is understanding and finding new uses for the Mathematica technology. Wolfram is especially passionate about finding uses for Mathematica outside of pure computation, using it as a development platform for products that help communicate big ideas. The Demonstrations tool, for instance, makes a compelling case for never writing out another equation -- instead displaying data in interactive, graphical form.
Wolfram's work points up the changing nature of math in the past 30 years, as we've moved from adding machines to calculators to sophisticated math software, allowing us to achieve ever more complex computational feats. But, Wolfram says, many schools are still focused on hand-calculating; using automation, such as a piece of software, to do math is sometimes seen as cheating. This keeps schools from spending the time they need on the new tools of science and mathematics. As they gain significance for everyday living, he suggests, we need to learn to take advantage of these tools and learn to use them young.

"What he's saying is that enough time is wasted in math classes on JUST calculation, that often the underlying concept is lost anyway."
TremorX, YouTube"

miércoles, 17 de noviembre de 2010

Las 4 emociones básicas y la innovación



Hay Jobs-To-Be-Done funcionales, emocionales y sociales. Estos dos últimos (lo bien o mal resueltos que estén) tienen todo que ver con el estado de las relaciones consigo mismo y con los demás

Ejemplos:

1. Una MARCA que al usar los productos que cobija te hace sentir "parte del grupo" (antes estabas "fuera del grupo") (de MIEDO a CONTENTO)

2. Un elemento de diseño o confort en el artículo comprado que te hace exclamar "¡guau!" (de TRISTE a CONTENTO)

3. Un plan prefecto (hallarlo al fin) para salir a almorzar fuera el domingo... con el que todos en casa están de acuerdo y satisfechos (de IRA a CONTENTO - ¡y eventualmente todos!)

***

Los ejemplos en contrario abundan (de CONTENTO a TRISTE, o a IRANCUNDO, o a ASUSTADO), precisamente cuando la innovación está aún pendiente (el producto/servicio se encuentra resuelto - en correspondencia con los Jobs-To-Be-Done a resolver prometidos - solo a medias :-)

viernes, 12 de noviembre de 2010

Más innovación prosaica (que en todo caso agradeceremos): OLED technology


Aquí el sitio Web de la compañía:

"From stunning lighting innovations to huge video displays, the promise of advanced OLED technology is limited only by the imagination of product designers—and some tough manufacturing challenges.

At Kateeva, we’re working on inventive hardware, process and materials solutions to streamline production of OLEDs. Bright ideas take shape faster, at dramatically lower costs and with critical scalability."

Su fundador: Conor Madigan

"Conor Madigan, Ph.D, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

Conor co-founded Kateeva in 2008.

Before Kateeva he was a post-doctoral research scientist at MIT and has worked on organic electronic device technology for more than a decade. He is the author of numerous publications on the topic and holds patents in fields spanning physics, chemistry, electrical engineering, materials science, and software engineering.

In 2010, he was honored as one of the TR35, the list of top young innovators in technology named annually by Technology Review magazine.

Conor earned a Bachelor’s degree from Princeton and a Ph.D. from MIT. Both degrees are in electrical engineering."


La MISIÓN:

"At Kateeva, we’re all about transforming the economics of manufacturing advanced flat panel display products like OLEDs. Today, the cost of producing this vastly superior display technology is prohibitive. Kateeva aims to change the equation.

From our headquarters in Silicon Valley, we’re pioneering a new class of dry, non-contact printing technology that promises to overcome the chief OLED manufacturing barrier: patterned OLED layer deposition over a large area at a low cost.

With core technology licensed from MIT and a world-class team of display and semiconductor equipment technology experts, Kateeva’s production solution offers a faster and infinitely more affordable route to market for manufacturers of new-generation OLED displays."

jueves, 11 de noviembre de 2010

Prosaica innovación :-) "The all-new Cadillac CTS-V COUPE"







Aquí un review from The NYT (sept. 2010): Cadillac Meets Corvette, and Everyone Falls in Love

Aquí un review from WSJ (agosto 2010): Cadillac’s CTS-V Coupe Makes German Rivals Look Like Taxis.

Lo siguiente de un anuncio publicitario reciente:

THERE IS THE CURVE AND THEN THERE'S AHEAD OF THE CURVE

The Nürburgring in germany has 154 of the most demanding turns in the world. And each of them inspired one of the world's fastest-reacting suspension systems. We call it magnetic ride control. Through innovative magneto-rheological fluid technology it reads and adjust to the changing road conditions up to 1000 times a second. Blending car and road into one fluid motion. Curve after curve after curve.


***

Será "prosaica" pero quiero uno así :-/

miércoles, 10 de noviembre de 2010

An innovator: Christopher "moot" Poole

Aquí su sitio en la Web: 4chan

The case for anonymity online

¡Fascinante!
¡Alucinante!
(puedo apostar que este muchacho seguirá dando de qué hablar :-)


viernes, 5 de noviembre de 2010

Invención, innovación y genio

¿Quién tuvo el genio para llegar a concebir el "jugo"?



¿Quién se inventó esta tablita "mágica"?



¿Cómo es que tanto y tanto se ha logrado innovar, que el "jugo" está ahora disponible desde tantos y tantos campos del planeta, hasta tantos hogares (a precios tan cómodos, y también en "versiones" a precios para los más exigentes paladares)?

jueves, 4 de noviembre de 2010

¿Qué significado en común (si alguno) tendrían todas estas MARCAS?





1. Que sólo "viven" en Internet
2. Que hace menos de 20 años no existían y hoy son mundialmente valiosas
3. Que los servicios que respaldan son gratis y los usamos casi a diario (casi todos nosotros, muchos de sus servicios)
4. Que todas son "made in USA"
5. Que todas fueron fundadas por "chinos" de menos de 25 años
6. Que sin ellas Internet "no sería ni el 10%" de lo que es
7. Que son los cuatro lados de la base de la pirámide de la virtualidad desde la cual se alza un universo de bits que no tenemos ni idea todavía qué es

***

R/ Todas las anteriores

miércoles, 3 de noviembre de 2010

Jobs-To-Be-Done de un curso de idiomas



Enseñanza-aprendizaje de idiomas: uno de los productos más valiosos del mundo; uno de los con más diversas realizaciones, pero uno de los más mal estructurados en cuanto a "pricing"

¿Para que aprender otro idioma, diferente de aquél que se aprendió naturalmente a medida que se crecía junto a padres y amigos?

Algunos Jobs-To-Be-Done:

1. Avanzar en la profesión, en la carrera que se está haciendo en una organización
2. Entender el mundo, otros mundos en este mismo mundo, desde nuevas palabras y sonidos
3. En potencia, poder expresar las "gracias" o decir "te amo" por ejemplo, a millones más de coetáneos
4. Hacer turismo y disfrutarlo más...
5. ...O tener que emigrar pero no tener que sufrirlo tanto
6. Poder hacer traducciones (por placer o por negocio)
7. Jactarse (o insultar) sin poder ser atrapado in fraganti
8. Hacerse el sordo, al tiempo que se mejora en extremo "hacerse el bobo"
9. Comprobar que a fin de cuentas lo humano (en lo estúpido y en lo sublime) nace y crece igual en polonés que en turco, en español que en griego, en inglés de Maine que (en inglés) de Melbourne...
10....Entender (quizá) por fin, que donde nos sentimos habitando más a gusto es - en cualquier lugar - dónde suenen las cosas en la lengua entrañable que se las oímos por primera vez a nuestros padres :-)

***

¿Cuánto vale entonces (o sea cuánto está uno dispuesto a pagar por) aprender otro idioma? R/ Todo o nada, depende de que Jobs-To-Be-Done nos acosen (o nos seduzcan) :-)

martes, 2 de noviembre de 2010

Innovation on strategy

Aquí el doc original desde HBS Work

jueves, 28 de octubre de 2010

An innovator: libertarianismo, Facebook y la película que nos relata el exitoso emprendimiento de Mark Zuckerberg


Aquí la entrada completa desde el blog del Ludwig von Mises Institute escrita por Jeffrey A. Tucker: laudatoria :-)

Aquí la biografía de Mark Zuckerberg desde la Wikipedia

Extracto de apertura:

"Who are the capitalist folk heroes of our time? The Social Network is a film that celebrates one of the greats, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. It might seem at first like an impossibly boring story that resists movie making: how Facebook came to be founded and grew, meeting trials along the way and becoming the giant that it is today.

In fact, it is not only a super exciting and wonderful movie on its own terms; it is probably the finest movie about free enterprise made in our times. It gets entrepreneurship in the real world exactly right. It deals brilliantly with all the important issues from the motivational drive behind web startups (it is not necessarily money) and the impossibility of slicing and dicing ideas into ownership units."

Extracto de "hacer emprendimiento" y "tener ideas":

"An essential part of entrepreneurship is choosing which idea, among the millions that hit a person from every direction every day, one is going to use to influence a business venture. At one point in the film, a student comes up to Zuckerberg and asks him whether he knows if some particular girl has a boyfriend and, if so, how serious they are. This gives Mark the idea of permitting users of Facebook to announce their relationship status on their individual pages. The addition of that one feature convinced him that it was time to go live. The new website was launched soon after. By the standards of IP, the fellow student who asked him this question has some stake in the profits of Facebook, because that exchange gave rise to a crucial feature of the website. For that matter, every single user of Facebook has a stake."

Extracto de "hacer emprendimiento", "tener ideas" y "propiedad intelectual":

"By carefully presenting many of the outside influences on Zuckerberg, in a series of brilliant scenes that hit a huge variety of sectors and opinions, the film presents the reality of how ideas come to be, and shows how IP litigation has become a path for losers, a racketeering legal route for the resentful to loot the successful. After all, had Facebook not taken off and been a success, the Winklevoss twins would have never imagined themselves to have been victimized at all. That fact alone shows that there is no real theft involved here.

If someone steals your car, you are a victim whether the robber abandons the car or uses it to win a NASCAR race. IP only ends up being an issue when the defendant makes a go of it. Once any idea becomes a success, you can count on hordes of people to line up and claim that they had it first. Sure enough, the twins use the law to extort millions; and who is right and who is wrong — essential matters of justice — don't even figure into the decision to settle. Yet again: this is all too realistic.

Especially telling is how the twins imagine how they will destroy Facebook out of resentment for Zuckerberg's success. They make no bones about it: they want to wreck it. Here we see how IP ends up creating a moral hazard for the envious to set up barriers to social and economic progress.

I have no idea about the real-life details of the case, but it is possible that the film underplays the extent to which Zuckerberg actually did gain valuable influence from the competitive effort to create the Harvard Connection. And yet, as the film also shows, this is how great ideas come about. No great idea in this world is created out of nothing — contrary to the myth. Great ideas result from the interplay of a huge range of influences in all directions. The winner is the one who makes the commercial reality happen. Until then, it is all talk."

Extracto de cierre:

"Zuckerberg ended one world and began a new and better one for many millions of people. The Social Network shows how the commercial marketplace gave a code geek a chance to do that and how he did it. It is a film that celebrates the good guys, ridicules the bad guys, shows the reality of what any successful person will face, makes the legal system look like the pathetic enemy of enterprise that it truly is, and provides a tribute to entrepreneurship that is long overdue.

This film is a glorious success — which means of course that it is under attack: A Washington Post reviewer thinks that it doesn't show how private innovation is really just luck of the draw, and it fails to highlight the wonderful essentials of public infrastructure as provided by government.

Yeah, sure, and this reviewer might back a similar movie called The Government Network, starring bureaucrats and their defenders at the Post, and see how it does at the box office."

***

¡Quiero ver la película ya! :-) :-) :-)

miércoles, 27 de octubre de 2010

Lo que ES un producto (el transporte aéreo de pasajeros)

La entrada de pasajeros a la "línea de producción"



La entrada de la carga de los pasajeros a la "línea de producción"



El "corazón del producto", el que hace el trabajo



El "alma del producto", o sea el que mueve al que hace el trabajo (en últimas, el origen del movimiento de la aeronave, de los pasajeros y su carga)



Los "supervisores", que si llegan a descuidarse tornan la línea de producción en llamas y cenizas



***

Y por supuesto el PILOTO y su equipo; sin quienes el "producto" sería solo una quimera;
con quienes cruzamos,
i n t i m a m e n t e,
nuestros destinos cada vez que nos subimos a un avión :-)

lunes, 25 de octubre de 2010

El origen de la fuerza innovadora que sostiene el mundo de hoy (y abre el del mañana)

Aquí el artículo-columna desde The Economist

¡Atención!:

"Anti-corporate activists sometimes claim that big companies are mightier than governments. This is absurd. Governments can pass laws, raise taxes and declare war. Companies have virtually no powers of coercion. If people do not voluntarily buy their products, they go bankrupt."

Repitámoslo (no sobra :-):

"Anti-corporate activists sometimes claim that big companies are mightier than governments. This is absurd. Governments can pass laws, raise taxes and declare war. Companies have virtually no powers of coercion. If people do not voluntarily buy their products, they go bankrupt."

***

Desde África, una voz (Ann Bernstein) con la cual nos identificamos plenamente:

"Ann Bernstein, the head of a South African think-tank called the Centre for Development and Enterprise, thinks that advocates of corporate social responsibility (CSR) tend to miss this point. In her new book, “The Case for Business in Developing Economies”, she stresses the ways companies benefit society simply by going about their normal business. In a free and competitive market, firms profit by selling goods or services to willing customers. To stay in business, they must offer lower prices or higher quality than their competitors. Those that fail disappear. Those that succeed spread prosperity."

PS: La esperanza está en el sur del planeta, en un sur del planeta no "desarrollado", sino desarrollador, tras haber cumplido con su aprendizaje "adolescente" :-) :-) :-)

jueves, 14 de octubre de 2010

Google TV update

Aquí nuestra entrada anterior sobre el mismo tema

Aquí la entrada con las novedades desde el blog oficial de Google

Y este el video que resume:



La promesa:

martes, 12 de octubre de 2010

Innovación: La velocidad a la que, en estos tiempos, corre el tiempo

"A teenager ask (con toda la seriedad del caso): what’s a CD?" :-/

***

Peor aun: ¿cómo le explicamos sin que parezca ridículo, y no sólo un arcaismo, la descripción del objeto en cuestión (¡al traer el "LP" a colación!)?
:-) :-) :-)


lunes, 11 de octubre de 2010

An innovator: Globant (from Argentina)


Aquí su página web

La visión y la promesa:

"When everything happens on the web, when image and reputation are forged through social networks, when you need technology to reach new customers, software development faces new challenges. The best engineering is no longer enough: At Globant we have a holistic view of software development. In it, the best engineers team up with our art design studios and innovation labs to deliver a superb user experience through innovation, usability, scalability and availability."

(from Argentina, para el mundo)

"Why Latin America?

Latin America has become an ideal location for the outsourcing development market. Unlike other traditional regions of the outsourcing business, Latin America is located in a similar time zone and shares a western culture with the EU and US. This results in different benefits:

Real-time communication.

Geographical proximity: This makes travel easier and requires less time away from office.

Integrated teams: The cultural alignment enables to build close teams, which results in faster delivery and a better bonding.

Low risk of miscommunications: The linguistic benefits mitigate any communication issues that may come up from day-to-day relationships."

jueves, 7 de octubre de 2010

The High-Intensity Entrepreneur (un artículo de HBR septiembre 2010)

Aquí los primeros párrafos del documento

1. La innovación de la mano del joven (o joven adulto) que se decidió a iniciar por propia mano su proyecto creador

2. La innovación de la mano del joven (o joven adulto) que se decidió a hallar respuestas y soluciones a lo que a su alrededor urgía por atención y cuidado

3. La innovación de la mano del joven (o joven adulto) que se decidió a no emigrar de su tierra para hacer de su tierra una tierra de la que nadie más en adelante quisiera emigrar

***

As usual: siempre hay más de un modo de alcanzar lo que en principio nos parece inalcanzable; los modos se hacen visibles si lo inalcanzable se vuelve propósito (por tanto ya innecesario el adjetivo de alcanzable :-)

miércoles, 6 de octubre de 2010

Las exclusividades de la FIFA en el pasado mundial Sudáfrica 2010: ¿para qué?

La FIFA y la decisión de otorgar exclusividad en la transmisión en vivo de 24 partidos de SudÁfrica 2010

21 partidos de la primera fase (que tiene 48), 2 de la fase octavos de final (que tiene 8) y 1 de la fase cuartos de final (que tiene 4) sólo pudieron ser vistos en vivo (en todo el mundo) por aquellos que contrataron el servicio de TV con DirectTV. La FIFA decidió esta vez vender en exclusividad los derechos de la transmisión televisiva en vivo de dichos encuentros del mundial. En el mismo hecho de que se haya limitado la decisión a 24 de los 64 encuentros y sobre todo, que hayan quedado por fuera de esta decisión la final, el encuentro por el tercero-cuarto lugar, las semifinales, tres de los cuatro partidos de la fase cuartos y seis de los ocho partidos de la fase octavos, indica ya, que no fue una decisión fácil, que sobre ella habían dudas (en relación a su impacto y cómo reaccionaría el público que sigue el mundial), en fin, que tal vez se estaba experimentando para decidir cómo seguir procediendo en los próximos mundiales…

La opinión del suscrito es que no es buena idea otorgar por parte de un productor (en este caso la FIFA) la exclusividad en la distribución de un producto valioso (en este caso de hecho único, el mundial de fútbol) a un tercero (cualquier tercero, en este caso DirectTV) cuando a dicho tercero (cualquier tercero) en su función de CANAL (de canal de distribución) no le caben muchas opciones de AGREGAR VALOR al producto.

Lo contrario también es cierto: que la exclusividad es imperativa, cuando al tercero en su función de CANAL DEBE AGREGAR mucho VALOR y de múltiples maneras al producto, para que el consumidor final resulte satisfecho plenamente; el ejemplo típico es el del concesionario automotor

En la transmisión de un encuentro deportivo en vivo por TV, si acaso la narración (cuando no entorpece la experiencia del hincha), sería uno de esos eventuales valores agregados, aportados por el CANAL, que el televidente apreciaría; uno por cierto que todo tercero responsable procurará (sin mucha dificultad que se le oponga) realizar adecuadamente; pero ¿en qué otros valores agregados, cabe imaginarnos, podría haber estado pensando la FIFA en este caso, que justifiquen su decisión (además parcial en sus alcances como ya hemos anotado) de otorgar exclusividad?

Ciertamente no se vé en este caso ningún otro gran valor agregado, como si se ven por ejemplo (múltiples y críticos) en lo que realiza un concesionario automotor, a saber: 1) costosa exhibición e inventario de producto, 2) garantías al funcionamiento del vehículo, 3) provisión de mano de obra experta e inventario de repuestos en reparaciones, 4) trámite de matrícula y seguros, 5) consecución de terceros para y/o financiación directa, 6) atención por parte de vendedores expertos y provisión de pistas para el test drive, 7) ¡hasta recepción de vehículos usados en parte de pago!

Y digo que no es buena idea por la sencilla razón de que otorgar una exclusividad al CANAL sin que se requiera de éste en contraprestación un nivel de agregación de valor como el explicado, deriva de inmediato en un odioso estado de explotación rentista: “estimado cliente, como yo soy el único que te puedo vender este valioso (de hecho único en su especie) producto, no tienes opciones si lo quieres disfrutar, solo te cabe abstenerte si no estás dispuesto a aceptar mis condiciones”. La reacción que se origina de parte de cualquier cliente en cualquier mercado ante algo como lo anterior es a veces de ira, otras de rencor, en este caso tanto contra la FIFA como contra el tercero, cualquier tercero, que haya obtenido de ésta la exclusividad. Supongo que ni la FIFA ni el tercero involucrado deseaban algo así, sin embargo eso es lo que de hecho podrían obtener (es lo mismo que ocurriría si una aerolínea decidiera vender sus tiquetes por intermedio de una única agencia de viajes, o un estudio de Holywood exhibir sus películas en las salas de cine de una única empresa). La cosa es más grave incluso en este caso, puesto que el tercero de hecho no vende únicamente el mundial sino que éste contenido viene a ser no más un pedazo del servicio de suscripción a la gran cantidad de contenidos que vende, de manera que si me decido a comprar el ya de por si rentista acceso a los 24 partidos de marras debo en realidad comprar mucho más que éstos (NOTA: DirectTV está ofreciendo en Colombia el servicio en prepago por periodos desde un mes, de manera que un comprador tal vez podría adquirir sólo “el mes del mundial”, lo cual amortiguaría entonces, al menos en parte, este efecto negativo).

Ahora examinemos si los propósitos de la FIFA y el tercero que consigue la exclusividad se alcanzarían. La FIFA, suponemos, se ha propuesto conseguir un mayor ingreso por el pago de esos derechos en exclusividad (si hay dos interesados, y cada uno paga $100 por los derechos no exclusivos, la FIFA obtiene $200; para que desde el punto de vista de ingresos otorgar la exclusividad tenga sentido la FIFA debe obtener del único autorizado más de $200), mayores ingresos que le permitirán desarrollar con mayor amplitud sus loables objetivos como organización mundial promotora del fútbol, ¿si no fue más dinero, qué otra razón justifica la decisión?

El CANAL favorecido deberá recuperar esta mayor cantidad de dinero pagada al productor, la FIFA, y para hacerlo (por ejemplo sin incrementar las tarifas), tiene como opciones:

1) Satisfacer más a sus actuales clientes-audiencia del mundial y
2) Motivar a nuevos clientes a suscribirse (no suscriptores hoy de ningún servicio de TV paga y/o suscriptores de la competencia)

Sin duda, satisface más a sus clientes actuales, lo cual eventualmente se traduce en una mejor tasa de retención de cara a la siguiente decisión de renovación de la suscripción. Y dependiendo del precio de la oferta, lograría también nuevos suscriptores que hoy no están afiliados a su servicio de TV; cuántos sean éstos nuevos suscriptores dependerá de cuántos hogares (y negocios también, como hoteles o restaurantes) no tengan hoy suscripción (en América Latina, en ciertas ciudades, pueden ser bastantes). Presumiblemente, con el grupo de clientes actuales de "TV paga" de otras marcas es dónde tendría menor éxito...

***

Codas

PS1 Imagínese lo que ocurrirá si el tercero con la exclusividad tiene una falla técnica en su red de distribución durante la transmisión

PS2 Me estoy imaginando que la exclusividad fue buscada por quienes la concertaron en últimas y no el resultado de una escasez de interesados en adquirir los derechos de transmisión del mundial; es decir, que fue la FIFA quien tomó la iniciativa, y consiguió quien le acolitara, de negociar para un único autorizado

martes, 5 de octubre de 2010

Innovating Business Strategy (do it the right way)

Knowledge@Wharton entrevista a George Day, uno de los autores del libro, recientemente publicado: Strategy from the Outside In: Profiting from Customer Value



Extracto de apertura:

"Toyota and Dell both did it for a while but then stopped. American Express, Cisco, GE, Tesco, Trader Joe's and Godrej, among others, all kept at it, and have continued to reap the benefits. "It" refers to the adoption of an "outside in" strategy that calls on companies to start with their market when they design their strategy, rather than limit themselves by asking what they can do with existing resources. According to Wharton marketing professor George Day, firms that adopt an "inside-out" approach are handicapped in keeping up with their customers and ahead of their competitors. Day and Christine Moorman from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University describe their approach in a new book called Strategy from the Outside In: Profiting from Customer Value."

jueves, 30 de septiembre de 2010

$10 million for Project 10^100 winners

Aqui la entrada desde el blog oficial de Google

Extracto de apertura:

"Two years ago today, we began Project 10^100 by asking you to share your ideas for changing the world by helping as many people as possible. Your spirit and participation surpassed even our most optimistic expectations. People from more than 170 countries submitted more than 150,000 ideas. We selected 16 big ideas and asked the public to vote for their favorites. The five ideas that received the most votes are the winners of Project 10^100. Over the past 12 months, we’ve reviewed concrete proposals to tackle these ideas, and today we’re pleased to give a total of $10 million to five inspiring organizations working on solutions to each of these global challenges:..."

miércoles, 29 de septiembre de 2010

Esto no lo innovemos: es maravilloso tal como está :-)





Se acercan los "play-offs" y la serie mundial en USA, el "clásico de octubre". El baseball, el segundo deporte más lindo del mundo :-)

Aquí el sitio oficial de la MLB y el calendario de la postemporada