More on Total Recall Technologies

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I’ve been getting a lot of interested reactions from the World Economic Forum / Harvard Business Review “Ideaslab” session I did at Davos.  You can find the YouTube version here and it is also published on my Harvard On-line blog.  If anyone is interested in the slides, please let me know and I will email them to you.  The format was one that the WEF people are experimenting this year, called Pecha Kucha.  It’s actually great - 15 slides, 20 seconds each, and the slides are not your usual “death by powerpoint” but instead represent pictures and images that reinforce the point of the presentation.  I found it really refreshing.  To learn more about Pecha Kucha, you’ll find a fascinating overview from Daniel Pink at this link.

But I’m digressing.

Those interested in the Ideaslab talk might also be interested in some predictions about the technologies’ trajectory from my esteemed colleague and Microsoft Executive, Gurdeep Singh Pall.  He’s taken the bold and courageous step of actually making some predictions, which you will find here, at the nojitter blog.

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Session at Davos:  Growth Through Innovation

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This had to be one of the more fun sessions I attended at Davos, on a topic near and dear to my heart.  Here’s the WEF summary:

Growth through Innovation

The financial crisis will be sure to squeeze R&D spending, but many participants were optimistic that companies will find ways to innovate despite the downturn - or perhaps even because of it, since the tougher business environment will push companies to boost efficiency.

Think about ways to innovate in leadership, processes, even customer markets. Innovation is about far more than products. One Chinese firm managed to boost sales of its washing machines in rural areas by marketing them as potato-washing contraptions.

Build an innovative team based on time-tested principles. One study of research papers published since the 1950s found that the work with the highest impact is done by teams, and that the most successful teams include a mix of people from different institutions, have a combination of experienced hands and newcomers, and the experienced members have not worked together before.

Set up a system that allows staff to submit innovative ideas, and recognize them. Or allow them to remain anonymous if they so prefer.

Create a rewards system. One company came up with a system of knowledge currency units in which workers win points for coming up with a new idea, then accrue more points as the idea gets referenced within the company and used by other colleagues. The points are convertible to cash.

Establish a contest to reward the employee who generates the best way to save money or eliminate unnecessary processes.

Find a meaningful goal to motivate employees. A participant said he was surprised to discover that one of his employees was less concerned with the greater profits that would result from innovation than with the notion that he could help improve agricultural prosperity for farmers.

Set high targets for efficiency improvements. Don’t bother asking staff to cut costs only 10%. “Say you want 50% and you’ll get 65%,” said a participant.

Rather than focusing only on grand innovations, think about how to make improvements at the bottom of the pyramid, what one participant called “shop floor ideas”. Process innovations may be especially useful during times of slowing growth since they often provide a fast return and help cut costs.

Realize that other companies may be more willing to collaborate with your organization amid the economic downturn. “Partnerships between large enterprises and SMEs might be a good source for innovation” one participant pointed out.

Consider macro-level ways to shift from being a consumer of innovations to helping create them. That may involve teaming up with other companies in your field or in other sectors. For example, Nike set up a green exchange that lets consumer companies swap ideas about how to reduce waste.

Keep in mind that innovations can come from customers. One t-shirt company lets web users post t-shirt designs and then vote on them. The shirts with the most votes go into production.

Be aware that, the more innovative an idea is, the more resources must be invested in organizational change to make it succeed. Sell an innovation by telling a concrete, meaningful story about it. “Knowledge sharing systems have to be about storytelling” said a participant.
                                                                               


Session Contributors
Discussion Leaders GOPALAKRISHNAN Kris Chief Executive Officer Infosys Technologies Ltd. India
Discussion Leaders HAWKINS William A. Chairman and Chief Exe… Medtronic Inc. USA
Discussion Leaders IBARRA Herminia The Cora Chaired Profe… INSEAD USA
Discussion Leaders KUROKAWA Kiyoshi Science Adviser to the…  Japan
Discussion Leaders LARRAIN BASCUNAN Felipe Professor of Economics Catholic University of Chile Chile
Discussion Leaders LIU JIREN Chairman and Chief Exe… Neusoft Corporation People’s Republic of China
Discussion Leaders MAHINDRA Anand G. Vice-Chairman and Mana… Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd India
Discussion Leaders SHAH Rajiv J. Director, Agricultural… Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation USA
Facilitated by BROWN Tim President, Chief Execu… IDEO Inc. United Kingdom

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Snippet from Davos - Cool ideas from older industries

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I’m sitting in a panel entitled “Cool ideas from older industries”.  Among the participants is Brad Anderson, the CEO of Best Buy.

Great phrase:  The huge disadvantage established organization have is habits.  Many organizations choose their habits vs. choosing survival. 

I thought that was an insightful observation. 

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Green:  Nice while it lasted?

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Only the blink of an eye ago, it seems, you couldn’t open a paper or read a magazine without someone talking about how ‘green’ their businesses were and how environmentalism has become a top-line concern.  With the economy in crisis, one thing we can predict is that green concerns are going to have to fight a lot harder to stay on top of the agenda.  In fact, I was recently involved in planning session for a major corporate event in which the event organizers, who had planned a session on “Green Business”, were told in no uncertain terms that the session was now irrelevant and should be yanked from the agenda. 

It will be interesting indeed to see which organizations stick to their green commitments as economic conditions continue to dominate the headlines. 

What can we predict?  Firstly, that a lot of smaller companies that went into business with a ‘green’ proposal are going to find things very tough, particularly if they are counting on a premium price for greener products.  They will be hit not only by the economic troubles of their evironments but by a radical shift in people’s priorities:  green may be nice, but if the choice is a green widget or a gallon of gas, it may not be affordable.  Secondly, we’ll see companies continue with programs that are green but that genuinely save money or time; while those that are more expensive or inconvenient are likely to be phased out (quietly of course).  Finally, we may see the beginning of an era in which items that are both not green and expensive or optional take a beating (bottled water, anyone?).

Your predictions?

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More examples of the benefits of early warnings and leading indicators

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As I often say in class, information that we use to make decisions falls into three categories:

1)  Lagging indicators:  Often highly accurate and precise, but give us data only about the past;
2)  Current indicators:  Tell us where we are at the moment - for example, what inventory turns are right now;
3)  Leading indicators:  Give us information (albeit subjective information) about where we might be headed.  Leading indicators belong in every company’s strategic toolkit, but all too often they are completely overlooked. 

A really good recent example of a company that effectively acted on leading indicators was noted in the Wall Street Journal of January 14, 2008.  The Journal mentions how YRC Worldwide, a global transportation company, noted that the size of shipments it was handling for customers was declining as was the size of those shipments.  Anticipating a major retail slowdown, which would have harmed their business, the executive team laid off staff, took about 12% of its vehicles out of commission and otherwise prepared for a much slower season than normal. 

In my experience, such bold action is often not taken in time.  Why?  Companies don’t get the data for starters.  Or they get it and don’t know what to do with it.  Or even worse, they get it, know what to do with it, but don’t believe it (sub-prime, anyone?).  Or worst of all is to avoid taking action in the futile hope that all will recover on its own. 

So, questions to ponder:  Are you getting enough data on leading indicators to inform your decision making?  And if you get it, are you regularly spending time to make sense of it? 

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