Enriching the Ecosystem
Enriching the Ecosystem
by Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Idea in Brief
The foundational institutions that support innovation and U.S. success in world markets have historically tended to operate in silos, looking inward to maximize their own performance.
However, when business, academic, and policy leaders collaborate to bridge the gaps, they create a fertile environment for job growth and more-inclusive prosperity. Creating and maintaining links among these institutions requires a commitment to:
Invest in the foundational institutions that are sources of enduring strength, including centers of knowledge creation, incubators, innovation zones, apprenticeships, and high-quality education linked to changing job skills.
Seek integrated, collaborative solutions that direct resources to regional coalitions and public-private partnerships with coherent strategies, such as small-company mentoring or collaboration between business and community colleges.
Identify and reward excellence, invest in the best ideas, and spread institutional innovations.
Photograph: J.R. Eyerman/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images: Hollywood and Harbor freeways near Pasadena, CA, 1953
Listen to an interview with Rosabeth Moss Kanter.
Innovation, which has long been the key to U.S. success in world markets, rests on foundational institutions that provide fertile soil in which to seed, grow, and renew enterprises. But these institutions—such as universities, venture creators, supply chains, labor markets, and job-training programs—are less effective as economic agents when they operate in isolation. They’re more likely to contribute to shared prosperity when they’re networked—with smooth pathways that allow intellectual, financial, and human capital to flow to enterprises at every phase of development.
Enhancing the links and collaboration among these institutions can enrich the business ecosystem and help more ideas blossom, more job-creating start-ups launch, more companies find skilled labor and innovations, and more enterprises grow and compete in global markets. And related investments in human capital can spread prosperity more widely and reverse the decline in social mobility in America.
Links in four areas are essential:
- generating ideas and deploying them in market-ready enterprises;
- connecting small and new enterprises to large companies;
- aligning education with industry needs; and
- uniting leaders across sectors to develop ecosystem strategies.
Promising new models in each domain point to an agenda for leaders.
Goal 1Link knowledge creation and venture creation to speed the conversion of ideas into market-ready enterprises.
Turning raw ideas into viable ventures takes more than R&D spending, especially when other countries are building their innovation strengths. Germany, for instance, is investing 20 times more in industrially relevant R&D than the United States is. New ideas and technologies must be linked to enterprises that deploy them. But small and midsize enterprises (SMEs)—especially start-ups, which have historically created a disproportionate share of new jobs—have lagged behind larger companies as job creators in recent years, and survival rates for new ventures at the critical five-year mark have been declining. Strengthening the ideas-to-market chain will maximize successful outcomes. There are several crucial links:
Knowledge-creation centers. R&D increasingly depends on collaboration between companies and universities, but the interests of the parties are not always well aligned. Too often, academic research doesn’t produce useful innovation: Only $2.3 billion in licensing revenue was generated by the $53.5 billion in sponsored research funding to 181 universities and hospital research labs identified in a 2009 survey by the Association of University Technology Managers. (Most of that funding came from federal grants.) MIT and Stanford were the notable exceptions. While maintaining basic research excellence, both spun out dozens of new companies a year. The key to their success was strong industry ties and networks connecting faculty, entrepreneurs, and funders.
Instead of languishing in the ivory tower, research should be treated as a public asset. The New Mexico Computing Applications Center, located at the Intel Energy Research Center, recently expanded public use of its supercomputers from eight to 20 remote teleconferencing facilities at state universities and community colleges. The new Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, in Holyoke—a collaboration between the state, five private and public universities, and EMC and Cisco—takes a similar approach. Located in a former factory, it provides researchers access to state-of-the-art computational infrastructure and anchors an innovation district that will attract other businesses. Just $25 million of its $168 million in costs was underwritten by the state.
Mental health and self-improvement services are increasingly accessible via mobile apps. The newest crop of these apps increasingly integrates Artificial Intelligence capabilities similar to Apple's virtual assistant Siri. These intelligent systems will make our devices come to life, taking on new functions as our personal virtual 'psychotherapist' or life coach.
Media Contacts
Rose Levy, 646 660 8641, rose@goldinsolutions.com, Goldin Solutions
Barbara Pruitt, 816-932-1288, bpruitt@kauffman.org, Kauffman Foundation
Steve Norton, 202-626-5758, snorton@itif.orgCanada and Singapore rank highest across seven policy indicators; the United States excels in all categories except high-skill immigration
WASHINGTON (March 8, 2012) – In the midst of intense global competition for innovation supremacy among countries, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation released today one of the most comprehensive assessments ever undertaken of countries' innovation policies. The Global Innovation Policy Index benchmarks the effectiveness of the innovation policies of 55 countries – including virtually all EU, OECD, APEC and BRIC economies – and provides a framework for making effective policies.
The Policy Index assesses the countries against 84 indicators grouped across seven core innovation policy areas: 1) trade and foreign direct investment; 2) science and R&D; 3) domestic market competition; 4) intellectual property rights ; 5) information technology; 6) government procurement; and 7) high-skill immigration.
The Index ranks countries as either upper tier, upper-mid tier, lower-mid tier or lower tier on each of the seven policy areas and overall, and highlights best practices in policy development among these countries that other nations can learn from. Only Canada and Singapore placed in the upper tier on all seven innovation policy indicators, while the United States placed in the top tier in every category except openness to high-skill immigration. The report ranks 18 countries as upper tier, 15 as upper-mid tier, 13 as lower-mid tier, and nine as lower tier in innovation policy.
"Countries are engaged in a fierce race for global innovation advantage," ITIF President Robert Atkinson said, "but they can compete in ways that either maximize their innovation capacity while producing positive spillovers for the world, such as by investing in research or education, or compete by less effective policies that often distort global markets through 'innovation mercantilism.' The Policy Index highlights countries' 'good' innovation policies and provides a scorecard of how effectively leading countries are adopting them."
The report says that countries will not be able to achieve sustainably high rates of innovation if their governments have not implemented a broad range of innovation-enabling policies that create the conditions in which organizations throughout their economies can successfully innovate.
"We hope the Innovation Policy Index helps countries better understand the strengths and weaknesses of their national innovation ecosystem compared with their global peers, while highlighting scores of best practices in innovation policy through which countries can learn from one another," said Robert Litan, vice president of research and policy, Kauffman Foundation. "The report clearly shows how openness to domestic market competition is a critical element of fostering an entrepreneurship-friendly environment in countries around the world.
About the ITIF
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank at the cutting edge of designing innovation strategies and technology policies to create economic opportunities and improve quality of life in the United States and around the world. Founded in 2006, ITIF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, non-partisan organization that documents the beneficial role technology plays in our lives and provides fact-based analysis and pragmatic ideas for improving technology-driven productivity, boosting competitiveness, and meeting today's global challenges through innovation.
video by MIT-Portugal IEI
Mediaomics the Life Sciences finalist pitching during the ceremony.
video by MIT-Portugal IEI
Carlos Rosário & Jaime Sotto-Mayor picthing for the Sustainable Energy & Transportation Systems track.
Inovação: As 5 gigantes dos EUA em inovação
A revista Fast Company escolheu as empresas que provocaram autênticas revoluções nas nossas vidas, exactamente o que se pretende de uma startup. Saiba porque se manterão no topo.
1º APPLE – Por dar sempre que falar
Numa corrida entre as cinco empresas que dominam o mundo tecnológico, não há dúvida que a liderança pertence à Apple – qualquer passo que dê, todos vão atrás, e é sempre a primeira a arriscar uma nova direcção. O Siri pode não ter sido a melhor criação de Steve Jobs, mas desde que o assistente pessoal do iPhone 4S foi apresentado ao mundo, que domina as conversas e também a curiosidade da Amazon e da Google para desenvolverem uma tecnologia rival. O poder da Apple parece intocável. A câmara do iPhone 4S é tão avançada que há alguns anos teria custado, sozinha, uns 500 dólares. Os iPads dominam claramente o mercado dos tablets. A empresa está a crescer estrondosamente na China – 400% entre 2010 e 2011. E como se não bastasse, o novo CEO, Tim Cook, está a imprimir um estilo de liderança mais humano. Por este andar, ainda vão demorar muitos anos até que alguém consiga derrubar a Apple.
2º FACEBOOK – Por 800 milhões de razões
Os fanáticos da tecnologia falam na “Lei de Zuckerberg”, que diz que a cada ano duplica a quantidade de informação que as pessoas partilham. É raro atribuir a uma só pessoa – sobretudo quando tem apenas 27 anos – uma verdade absoluta e fundamental da nossa era. Mas esta lei não é apenas fruto da vontade humana, mas a resposta às novas potencialidades do Facebook. No ano passado permitiu aos utilizadores mais partilha de música e de notícias e introduziu a célebre timeline, que conquistou imediatamente milhões de fãs. Mais importante é o resultado prático de todas estas novidades: o Facebook pode tornar-se mais rentável que a Amazon, com lucros de quase mil milhões de dólares para total de receitas de 3 mil milhões, e o seu sucesso em angariar publicidade irá intensificar a rivalidade com a Google. Um dos pontos a melhorar é, porém, o cuidado com a privacidade dos utilizadores, que ainda desperta muitas dúvidas. Mas Mark Zucherberg sabe que por enquanto vamos aceitando os seus pedidos de desculpa.
3º GOOGLE – Por expandir a sua rede de produtos
Desde que Larry Page voltou à Google como CEO, na primavera passada, que está a tentar transformar a empresa com um só produto numa diversificada força na web. Acaba de ser reconhecido como o executivo mais poderoso dos Estados Unidos, o que prova o seu bom desempenho à frente da empresa que ajudou a fundar há 13 anos e que tem hoje uma capitalização bolsista de quase 200 mil milhões de dólares. O regresso de Page foi encarado como uma resposta ao Facebook, já que as redes sociais são um terreno que a Google nunca conseguiu explorar verdadeiramente. Uma das primeiras tarefas foi descontinuar alguns projectos para libertar os engenheiros para o desenvolvimento do Google +. Apesar de chegar atrasado, Page quer criar uma gigantesca rede social. Para rentabilizar a compra do Youtube, feita em 2006, a empresa lançou quase 100 canais, com programação original, para os quais conta com Madonna e Jay-Z, entre outras celebridades. O objectivo é fazer do Youtube a maior rede de televisão do mundo, para ir buscar o investimento publicitário. Mas nem tudo são intenções e já há resultados à vista: o Chrome ultrapassou finalmente o Firefox e é já o segundo browser mais usado pelos internautas. Com 200 milhões de utilizadores, o objectivo é agora destronar o Internet Explorer. Entretanto, a empresa sabe que está na mira das autoridades norte-americanas devido a acusações – já reconhecidas pela Google – de favorecer os seus produtos nos resultados de busca. A questão que fica no ar: pode a Google parar de tentar tornar-se a Microsoft?
4º AMAZON – Por nunca se acomodar
A falta de cabelo de Jeff Bazos, o físico franzino e as raras aparições públicas ajudam a construir uma certa mística à volta do fundador e CEO da Amazon. Os seus últimos lançamentos também deram uma ajuda. Em Dezembro último, o Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Touch 3D e Kindle Fire, juntos, alcançaram a média de 1 milhão de dispositivos vendidos semanalmente, colocando-a na 2ª posição do ranking dos tablets, entre a líder Apple e o 3º lugar da Samsung, apesar de constar que a empresa perde cerca de 15 dólares por cada aparelho. A rápida expansão da Quidsi, que saltou das fraldas para a comida para animais e brinquedos, e do serviço de streaming-video, que inclui programação dos canais CBS e Fox, mostram que a empresa de comércio electrónicos, que cresceu pelo menos duas vezes mais rápidos que o seu sector, continua a investir. Contudo, Bazos sofreu alguns percalços: o Kindle Fire chegou ao mercado com problemas que desapontaram muitos consumidores, a promoção para a sua aplicação também não foi bem recebido e os lucros da empresa não foram os esperados. Ao contrário da Apple, a Amazon ainda tem de provar que pode dar cartas no hardware e no ecommerce.
5º SQUARE – Por transformar os pagamentos em magia
Depois de escutar o desabafo de um amigo que perdera um cliente por não aceitar cartões de crédito, Jack Dorsey, um dos fundadores do Twitter, criou um aplicativo, que se liga a iPhones, iPads e qualquer dispositivo com sistema Android, e que é capaz de ler cartões de crédito em qualquer lado. Estava criada uma ferramenta revolucionária, que agrada a todos. Os comerciantes ganham ainda a possibilidade de ficar com o histórico das compras dos clientes, de poder enviar faturas via sms e publicidade à medida. Mas recentemente, Dorsey foi mais longe e o seu Card Case já dispensa até o uso do cartão de crédito. Agora, o cliente só tem de dizer o seu nome ao empregado da loja para que este situe os seus dados e a transferência entre a conta do cliente e do comerciante se faça automaticamente, com o simples aval de uma assinatura no ecrã do dispositivo móvel. Isto significa que já não é preciso nem dinheiro, nem cartões de crédito para tomar um simples café ou pagar uma viagem de táxi. Por enquanto, o dispositivo apenas funciona nos Estados Unidos, mas já tem mais de um milhão de aderentes. Jack Dorsey, que já viu esta sua segunda empresa avaliada em mil milhões de dólares, prepara agora a expansão da aplicação para a Europa e Ásia. Nem o facto de cobrar uma taxa de 2,75% por transacção – superior às praticadas pelas redes de cartões – tem impedido o negócio de crescer a uma velocidade superior à conseguida pelo sistema PayPal na mesma fase de desenvolvimento. A solução é tão prática e oferece tantas outras potencialidades que os comerciantes nem reclamam.
Fonte: Expresso
InnovMark: "Transformamos a sua Visão em Inovação"
Speculating about emerging technologies from 2012 onwards
A study of Bell Labs offers a number of lessons about how our country’s technology companies — and our country’s longstanding innovative edge — actually came about.
How’s your small business leadership? Quality leadership is even more important during tough times. Here are some considerations for improving the leadership qualities you bring to your small business venture.
Tips & Trends
12 leadership tips you should know. Here are some suggestions that will transform your leadership style and have you performing more effectively in good times and in bad. These are tips every entrepreneur should internalize. Have you got some suggestions to answer? Entrepreneur
What if you’re not leadership material? One of the hardest decisions for an entrepreneur to make is to leave the leadership of their company to somebody else. It’s important to be realistic about your strengths and abilities even if it means you’re not the one to lead. Inc.com
Team Building Basics
An infographic for the dependable workforce. An important part of a leader’s role can be assembling the proper workforce. Here are some tips to consider for your small business workforce in an incredible infographic that helps you think of building an effective team in a whole new way. Get Busy Media
What’s the essence of leadership? The most important characteristic of leadership may be a lot simpler than you think. Read this post and see if you agree. Is there another characteristic you would list as the essence of leadership? Dr. Shannon Reece
Lessons & Legacy
Leadership means inspiring trust. In tough times the trust you inspire from your people becomes even more critical. Will your people follow you? Will they do what you ask them to do? Ability Success Growth
Leadership for meetings with employees. Communicating with your employees is an important part of leadership. Take these tips from the U.S. military about how to deal one on one with the people on your team. Sword and the Script
More Advice
Dumb leadership mistakes everyone should avoid. As important as it might be to make the right decisions in small business leadership, it’s also important to avoid making the wrong ones. Here are some definite missteps you should work to avoid. Startup Professionals Musings
More important tips on leadership. Here’s some simple advice for small business leadership. “Say what you’re going to do and then do what you say.” To learn more about what this means in the leadership of your company, read this important post and learn more. Jennifer Warawa
Management & Branding
Getting more effective training. There are a long list of tips you can learn from the best business managers. Put these to work in your small business or entrepreneurial venture. Becoming skilled at managing your company can be one of the most important roles you can take on or delegate. Corporate Coach Group
Can leadership in your field also be your brand? You bet it can! Here are some ideas on how to build your expertise, develop a brand around it, and then avoid spreading yourself too thin. It’s critical that you protect your leading position in your niche market. Michael Hartzel
O livro de William Gibson “Virtual Light”, publicado em 1993, e o filme “Eles Vivem” (John Carpenter, 1988) mostram-nos como a nossa visão do mundo pode ser alterada por um par de óculos. Chegados a 2012, tudo aponta para que a ficção se torne mais uma vez realidade, desta feita cortesia da Google.
A notícia foi avançada em Dezembro pelo 9to5google.com, um site dedicado a todas as novidades da Google, como o próprio nome indica, mas chegou esta semana às páginas do The New York Times com mais pormenores.
Ainda que sejam citados os “funcionários da Google familiarizados com o projecto que pediram para não ser identificados” do costume, as informações são suficientemente detalhadas para merecerem alguma credibilidade.
Em primeiro lugar, as duas informações mais importantes: o jornal norte-americano escreve que os revolucionários óculos da Google vão ser postos à venda ainda este ano e vão custar “mais ou menos o mesmo do que os actuais smartphones". Traduzindo: vamos ter óculos com realidade aumentada em 2012, mas tanto podem custar 100 euros como mais de 1000 euros, se tivermos como referência máxima o iPhone 4S de 64GB livre de operador.
Agora, o que realmente interessa a quem não vai conseguir resistir à novidade: os óculos vão ser controlados através do sistema operativo Android e terão um pequeno ecrã, colocado a poucos milímetros dos olhos do utilizador, ligações à Web 3G e 4G, vários sensores, detectores de movimento e GPS.
Já este mês, o site 9to5google.com avançou mais informações sobre o projecto da Google, como a sua possível aparência e a inclusão de uma câmara de filmar e de fotografar, para poder fazer uso da realidade aumentada, presente actualmente em várias aplicações para telemóveis com sistemas operativos como o iOS da Apple, o Android da Google ou os OS6 e OS7 dos Blackberry.
As notícias que têm sido avançadas sobre este projecto, que está a ser desenvolvido no laboratório secreto da empresa, conhecido como Google X, fazem também referência a alegadas preocupações dos seus responsáveis com questões de segurança e privacidade – por um lado, por causa da utilização de uma câmara de filmar e de fotografar, que pode captar imagens sem que as pessoas se apercebam; por outro lado, por causa das tecnologias de localização, essenciais para que os óculos reconheçam os locais e as actividades nas proximidades do utilizador. Neste último ponto, no entanto, as preocupações dos utilizadores não serão muito diferentes das que já têm quando permitem que os seus telemóveis identifiquem a sua localização geográfica quando partilham uma fotografia com os seus amigos no Facebook ou com os seus seguidores no Twitter, por exemplo.
A juntar a estas informações, na semana passada o jornal The San Jose Mercury News noticiou que a Google está a desenvolver "projectos secretos" que envolvem “tecnologia de precisão óptica”.
Getting people to your Web site is one thing. Getting them to do something while they’re there is another. And then, of course, getting them to do what you want them to do is another beast entirely. But, as a marketer, that’s your job; to get someone to your Web site in order to take a desired action. So is there any way to increase your chances at a conversion?
Absolutely.
If you’re finding that customers are landing on your site but are either leaving prematurely or are leaving without doing what you’d hoped they do, below are four conversion optimization tips to stop that from happening.
1. Promote Benefits, Not Features
Your Web site doesn’t sell a product or a service; it sells a customer benefit.
It doesn’t matter if your business is set up to sell life insurance or overpriced toasters, realize that it’s not the item itself that your customer is paying for. No one is interested in the features of that new toaster. What they are interested in is the benefit it will have on their life.
The benefit may be a lazy Sunday morning breakfast at the table with their family or that they save 15 minutes every morning because that toaster cooks frozen waffles faster. It’s not the features themselves they care about – it’s the benefit to their lives and the story behind it.
And that’s what you have to promote. By promoting the benefits to your customers you show them what’s at stake and give them a story they can’t pass up. Promote that, not your four heating options.
2. Remove Distractions
You know what path you want someone to take when they land on your product pages. You want them to add the item to their shopping cart and either continue shopping or check out. That’s it. Two things. So why are you giving them 10 different options and directing them to a sea of non-buying distractions? When it comes to design, less is more. People can’t handle having more than a few choices. If you show me you have 500 different pairs of sneakers on your Web site and you try to show me ALL of them, as well as all your other apparel, I’m going to run away screaming. I can’t process that many choices. And (unfortunately for you) your customers aren’t much different from me.
Take a look at your Web site, especially pages designed to convert, and get rid of anything that does not serve the intended purpose for that page. I shouldn’t be able to get from your shopping cart to your home page in one click. All I should be able to do is finish my checkout. Give me something to distract from a purchase and I’m going to pick that every time. Don’t give me something and I’ll have nothing else to do but enter my credit card information.
3. Create a Clear Call to Action
You may know what you want customers to do on your Web site, but do they? If they don’t it’s because you’re not creating clear (or compelling) enough calls to action to make them move. Encourage forward movement by using color, visual cues, and site hierarchy to lead people toward a particular action. Don’t be afraid to tell someone what it is you want them to do – buy, click, read, subscribe, follow, friend, etc. Your customers don’t know what they’re supposed to do until you tell them with a call to action that grabs their attention and keeps them on course. Craft CTAs around these site goals.
4. Be Smart About Placement
Placement matters. In the olden days when people got their information from newspapers (I know, we’re going way back), journalists were careful to make sure the most important information was above the fold because that was their best chance of their audience seeing it. On the Web, we have our own above the fold. It’s everything a user can see before they have to scroll down the page. But we also know there are other hot spots that a user’s eye is drawn to — like the golden triangle. When you’re working up your calls to action, make sure you’re placing them directly in a user’s line of sight. Study how people navigate your Web site and place these conversion-heavy items where their eyes are going to be.
If you’re noticing that people are landing on your site but not converting, it could be that you’re going after the wrong traffic. Or, it could be that you’re simply not doing a very good job moving the traffic you have. The four tips above can help increase the number of conversions happening your Web site by keeping customers on task and removing any unnecessary distractions.
About the Author
Lisa Barone is a noted writer, content marketer and social strategist. She has been a trusted voice in the search world since 2006 and is most known for her brutally honest search observations. She has been featured on sites like The New York Times, Inc. Magazine, PBS, Duct Tape Marketing, Copyblogger and many others. Lisa blogs irregularly at VoiceInterrupted.
video by European Network of Living Labs
The European Network of Living Labs organized together with the project APOLLON and IBBT, a workshop dedicated to issues of IPR for Living Labs on January 27th. ENoLL had the pleasure of welcoming two IPR experts to start of the day: Ms. Catarina D'Araujo, who has extensive experience in IP in the framework of EU funded projects (e.g. FP7 and CIP) from the IPR Helpdesk. See the slides: http://www.slideshare.net/openlivinglabs/intellectual-property-in-eu-funded-research-projects Mr. Hans Bracquené, with extensive knowledge on the negotiation and drafting of R&D agreements, license agreements, creation of spin-offs, with a special emphasis on the rules applicable to international and national government funding of innovation (EU Framework Program, ESA, Eureka). See the slides here: http://www.slideshare.net/openlivinglabs/seminar-living-labs-23-01-2012
video by European Network of Living Labs
Closing Plenary October 24th, 2011 Poznan, Poland Alvaro Oliveira
video by European Network of Living Labs
The European Network of Living Labs organized together with the project APOLLON and IBBT, a workshop dedicated to issues of IPR for Living Labs on January 27th. ENoLL had the pleasure of welcoming two IPR experts to start of the day: Ms. Catarina D'Araujo, who has extensive experience in IP in the framework of EU funded projects (e.g. FP7 and CIP) from the IPR Helpdesk. See the slides: slideshare.net/openlivinglabs/intellectual-property-in-eu-funded-research-projects Mr. Hans Bracquené, with extensive knowledge on the negotiation and drafting of R&D agreements, license agreements, creation of spin-offs, with a special emphasis on the rules applicable to international and national government funding of innovation (EU Framework Program, ESA, Eureka). See the slides here: slideshare.net/openlivinglabs/seminar-living-labs-23-01-2012
video by European Network of Living Labs
The European Network of Living Labs organized together with the project APOLLON and IBBT, a workshop dedicated to issues of IPR for Living Labs on January 27th. ENoLL had the pleasure of welcoming two IPR experts to start of the day: Ms. Catarina D'Araujo, who has extensive experience in IP in the framework of EU funded projects (e.g. FP7 and CIP) from the IPR Helpdesk. See the slides: slideshare.net/openlivinglabs/intellectual-property-in-eu-funded-research-projects Mr. Hans Bracquené, with extensive knowledge on the negotiation and drafting of R&D agreements, license agreements, creation of spin-offs, with a special emphasis on the rules applicable to international and national government funding of innovation (EU Framework Program, ESA, Eureka). See the slides here: slideshare.net/openlivinglabs/seminar-living-labs-23-01-2012
video by European Network of Living Labs
The European Network of Living Labs organized together with the project APOLLON and IBBT, a workshop dedicated to issues of IPR for Living Labs on January 27th. ENoLL had the pleasure of welcoming two IPR experts to start of the day: Ms. Catarina D'Araujo, who has extensive experience in IP in the framework of EU funded projects (e.g. FP7 and CIP) from the IPR Helpdesk. See the slides: slideshare.net/openlivinglabs/intellectual-property-in-eu-funded-research-projects Mr. Hans Bracquené, with extensive knowledge on the negotiation and drafting of R&D agreements, license agreements, creation of spin-offs, with a special emphasis on the rules applicable to international and national government funding of innovation (EU Framework Program, ESA, Eureka). See the slides here: slideshare.net/openlivinglabs/seminar-living-labs-23-01-2012
Os investidores procuram boas ideias de equipas sérias, rigorosas e que cumpram aquilo que se propõem fazer. Se reunir estes requisitos é quase certo que não terá dificuldade em encontrar quem esteja disposto a investir na sua empresa. Mas mais do que dinheiro, uma capital de risco ou um business angel traz conhecimento para as startups. "Conseguimos não apenas financiamento para alavancar o projecto, mas também conhecimentos complementares à equipa fundadora e networking", diz Helena Vieira, CEO da Bioalvo, empresa de biotecnologia que conta com o apoio da Gesventure.
Os especialistas são unânimes em defender que nenhuma startup deve aceitar um investidor pensando apenas no dinheiro que ele vai trazer. A sua reputação e a rede de contactos da capital de risco ou do business angel são fundamentais, até porque acabam por dar credibilidade à startup. Para Ricardo Sécio, CEO da BestTables - plataforma que faz a gestão de reservas nos restaurantes e que espera contar com parcerias com 400 restaurantes no seu primeiro ano de actividade -, a entrada da InovCapital na empresa mostrou ao mercado que se trata de um projecto que passou com distinção, numa selecção feita entre tantos outros, e isso é um sinal de que reúne condições para o sucesso.
Seleccionar o parceiro
Mas há que ter alguma cautela e saber seleccionar os potenciais investidores. "O empreendedor tem de ter a noção que os investidores poderão exagerar a sua capacidade de capitalizar o negócio usando os seus conhecimentos e que a sua experiência poderá não ser assim tão determinante no negócio", alerta Pedro Bizarro, da Feedzai, empresa tecnológica que tem como investidores a Espírito Santo Ventures, a NovaBase Capital e a EDP Ventures.
E como nos relacionamentos, esta relação vai ter, necessariamente, altos e baixos. Um coisa é estar sozinho ou com os sócios que estiveram consigo desde o primeiro momento, outra é ter um investidor que quer acompanhar o negócio no dia-a-dia. Por isso é tão importante que haja um bom entendimento desde o início. "Mais importante do que estar de acordo com os números, é que haja sintonia quanto à génese, ao espírito do projecto, e que todos partilhem da mesma visão estratégica e de crescimento", diz Ricardo Sécio.
Por isso, a primeira grande mudança que a chegada de um investidor provoca é a alteração na rotina. "Há que estar preparado para negociar algumas decisões importantes, como a contratação de pessoas-chave para lugares de topo, investimentos estratégicos e entrada de novos accionistas", acrescenta Helena Vieira, da Bioalvo.
Mais profissionalização
Muitas das exigências que os investidores costumam fazer, contribuem para que a startup ganha uma estrutura mais sólida. Podem exigir desde uma análise cuidada à saúde financeira do negócio, até alterações à estrutura social da empresa (que se transforme em sociedade anónima, por exemplo). "No caso da Feedzai existem muitas reuniões regulares de administração, onde se descreve o progresso do produto, projectos e vendas, e onde se discutem contratações, estratégia, linhas de negócio ou internacionalização", refere Pedro Bizarro. Contudo, o CSO da empresa tecnológica reconhece que a preparação que essas reuniões exigem são muito benéficas.
Apesar de manterem a liberdade, os empreendedores passam a ter que submeter muitas decisões à aprovação dos investidores. A sua posição accionista, geralmente reflectida na colocação de um vogal no conselho de administração, dá-lhes algum poder de veto em matérias significativas, "como a entrada de novos accionistas ou aquisição de outras sociedades", adianta Helena Vieira.
Menos autoridade
Atenção à ideia romântica do investidor como parceiro e amigo. Lembre-se que ele é um sócio e vai querer rentabilizar o dinheiro que investiu na sua startup. Daí este controle apertado sobre as contas da empresa e as suas decisões estratégicas. "Mas é importante reconhecer que o accionista financeiro suporta grande parte dos custos e como tal tem de ter um papel preponderante na gestão diária da empresa", destaca Helena Vieira.
Nesta altura da vida você já aprendeu que não há almoços grátis. Por isso, Ricardo Sécio não estranha que, em troca da "credibilidade e do acesso a uma rede de contactos de variadíssimos sectores, alguns dos quais se traduziram em parcerias concretas e vantajosas, tenha de manter reuniões regulares e contactos informais com o investidor".
Estar pronto para aceitar uma perda de autoridade e controle sobre o negócio faz parte do jogo. Como se costuma dizer, o capital de risco é o dinheiro mais caro que existe, por isso deve salvaguardar a sua posição desde o início desta parceria. Contrate o melhor grupo de advogados que conseguir para discutir o contrato de investimento e as suas condições. "Por muito caro que possa parecer o custo dos advogados, compensa", diz Pedro Bizarro, "sem advogados a rever essa documentação (num processo que pode durar meses), a negociação ficará muito inclinada para o lado dos investidores".
O ponto fundamental na relação com investidores de capital de risco é o estabelecimento de uma relação de confiança e credibilidade. "Se tal acontecer a intervenção dos investidores será muito mais numa base de supervisão e muito menos numa base de controlo permanente", adianta Nuno Sebastião, CEO da Feedzai. É importante que os novos empreendedores consigam perceber isto.
video by dthenewb
Nos tempos de hoje, design e negócios não podem mais ser pensadas como actividades distintas com objectivos individuais. Design the New Business é um filme dedicado a investigar a forma como designers e empresários estão a trabalhar em conjunto em novas formas de resolver os problemas complexos que o mundo empresarial de hoje está a enfrentar. O curto documentário examina como estes estão a juntar forças, reunindo uma colecção de prestadores de serviços em design, profissionais do mundo académico e empresas que incorporam o design como essência da sua abordagem. Design the New Business apresenta casos de estudo e discussões inspiradoras, ajudando a ilustrar o estado desde relacionamento e como precisa de evoluir continuamente para responder aos desafios do amanhã. Este filme é uma iniciativa da Zilver Innovation, e foi criado por 6 estudantes do Mestrado de Strategic Product Design na TU Delft situada na Holanda. Agora a Zilver Innovation está a oferecer workshops que visam explorar esta relação em mais profundidade e as implicações que tem para profissionais de design. Para mais informação, visite o nosso website: www.designthenewbusiness.com Agradecimento especial a Laert Yamazaki do www.uxbookclubssa.com.br pelas legendas. Com (em ordem alfabética): Alexander Osterwalder (Co-Author of Business Model Generation) Aldo de Jong (Co-Founder at ClaroPartners) Amanda O’Donnell ( Head of Customer Experience at Virgin Mobile Australia) Arne van Oosterom (Director & Founder at DesignThinkers) Arno Wolterman (Managing Partner & Design Director at In10) Benjamin Schulz (Service Innovation at Volkswagen) Damien Kernahan (Founding Partner at ProtoPartners) Deniz Arik (Associate at ClaroPartners) Erik Roscam Abbing (Director & Founder at Zilver Innovation) Frido Smulders (Coordinator of MSc Strategic Product Design,TU Delft) Guido Stompff (Senior Product Designer at Canon-Océ Technologies) Jacco Ouwerkerk (Creative at In10) Jan Buijs (Professor at TU Delft) Joe Heapy (Co-Founder & Co-Director at Engine) Lukas Golyszny (Service Innovation at Volkswagen) Maria Bezaitis (Director of Intel's People and Practices Research Group) Megan Ellis (Associate at ClaroPartners) Oliver King (Co-Founder & Co-Director at Engine) Ralf Beuker (Dean at Munster Design School) Rich Radka (Co-Founder at ClaroPartners) Ton Borsboom (Senior Director for new Business at Philips Design) Willem Boijens (Head of R&D at Canon-Océ Technologies)
video by dthenewb
“Rethink the World” is a series of short videos that point out in a simple way highly complex problems in our society. Their goal is to show areas of opportunity for creative and designerly approaches to act. They are teasers of a broader project called “Design the New Business” a short documentary about how design is changing the way we do and see business. The documentary is in the making… Meanwhile you can see our inspiration and our progress at designthenewbusiness.com
video by dthenewb
We believe design is the new way of doing business, and we set out to find keys to success through the making of a documentary. The documentary is in the making… Meanwhile you can see our inspiration and our progress at designthenewbusiness.com
As we all begin to look forward to the interactive section of South By South West in March, PSFK has identified five key trends that readers should be monitoring during the festival. One of these trends, we have coined ‘Gaming-For-Good.’
Fueled by the ability to connect and gather players from across the world and motivate them to participate by injecting competitive aspects and rewards into structured play, games are growing up and being seen as agents of change. The ability to scale enables these platforms to prompt positive action and overcome challenges on both an individual and societal level with implications for a growing number of areas from science and medicine to education and the environment. Whether improving health, fundraising for charity or solving previously unsolvable problems, games are encouraging personal and social good.
One pertinent example of this trend that continues to come up in our research is ‘Using Gaming To Leverage Collective Manpower.’
Gamers Assist In Cracking The Aids Puzzle
Fold.it is a web-based platform for collaborating on scientific research that allows gamers to compete against one another to design new proteins which could be used to help prevent or treat diseases like HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s and Cancer. Developed by researchers at the US based University Of Washington, the platform asks online players to build 3D models of protein molecules online to earn points and status based off their problem solving abilities. Researchers recently took advantage of the platform by inviting gamers to compete in configuring the structure of a retrovirus enzyme related to HIV/AIDS. The resulting breakthrough in configuring the 3D structure of the protein in question took players just weeks though the puzzle had stumped scientists for years.
Other Manifestations:
1. Players Achieve Game Milestones In Overcoming Health Related Challenges
2. Motivating Everyday Green Behavior With Real Rewards
3. Game Penalizes Exercisers For Failing To Get To The Gym
4. Prep School Students Compete In Real-Life Game For Totaling Zero Emissions
5. Could Games Be The New Antidepressants?
6. Educational Game Leverages Kinect To Make Learning Fun
7. Game Teaches Youths To Be Entrepreneurs
8. Gamified Interactive Theatre Brings Botany To Life
9. Virtual Cubes Link To Create Educational Game
10. Run-Your-Own Sweatshop Game Exposes Harsh Thinking
People to follow around this trend:
Jane McGonigal: Jane is the New York Times bestselling author of Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. @avantgame
Aaron Dignan: Aaron is author of the book Game Frame about the interplay between games and motivations in everyday life. @aarondignan
Gabe Zichermann: Gabe is the chair of the Gamification Summit NYC where industry leaders gather to share knowledge and insight. @gzicherm
Click here to check out PSFK’s guide for SXSWi, to help you to continue following the Gaming For Good Trend.
Historically, Europe has been viewed as the quieter sibling in the international family of entrepreneurship. Commentators have pointed to a higher degree of risk aversion, the difficulties of raising finance, and even differences between European education systems and the education systems in the US and Asia as reasons for this reticence. These differences have been eroding, however, and the European entrepreneurial boom is underway.
Conditions and decisions
A survey by Eurobarometer, carried out in 2002, found that EU citizens were more risk-averse than American citizens and that they were much less likely to want to start their own business. The survey also showed that EU-based startups grew at slower rates than those based in the US. To address these problems, the EU commission adopted a green paper on Entrepreneurship in Europe in January 2003 in order to determine how to support European talent. A decade on, the measures adopted are starting to bear fruit.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) survey of barriers to entrepreneurship carried out in 2009 showed that many countries in Europe have lower barriers to entry than the United States now.
Another challenge historically faced by European entrepreneurs has been the difficulty of encouraging people to relocate. Relocations within the US are common and, as a result, startups tend to become concentrated in specialist hubs: Silicon Valley being the most obvious example. Linguistic and cultural barriers still hold some Europeans back, when it comes to relocating, although traditional European risk aversion may also have a role to play. “It sometimes is a challenge to get people to move [the 240km] from Cambridge to Bristol,” Stan Boland, head of chip manufacturer Icera, told the Economist recently.
Change in European climate
But that culture is changing too. A concerted effort by European education institutions is putting entrepreneurship at the heart of education. Alain Fayolle of the EM Lyon Business School and the OECD Local Economic and Employment Development Programme says that entrepreneurship education is now being offered at all levels, from bachelor’s degrees through to PhD programmes. It’s not yet as effective as it could be, however. He stresses that entrepreneurship is usually elective rather than compulsory and has a tendency to be taught in lectures, rather than in a more effective participatory setting. These cultural changes are still meeting resistance from some entrenched ideas, however. “Why educate young people to become entrepreneurs if the system sends them the message that the ultimate goal is to work for the state and that job security is what the majority of young people, and particularly graduates in, say, France aspire to?” he says.
Yet inspiration towards entrepreneurship may be coming from an unlikely quarter: the current atmosphere of economic uncertainty. As jobs in the corporate sector are lost many people are returning to study. The number of MBA applicants was is up 10% in 2010 in most European business schools. When asked why they wanted to undertake an MBA, 30% of attendees of the 2010 QS World MBA Tour said that they wanted to become an entrepreneur, up from 25% the previous year, according to Business Week. Counter-intuitively, the downturn may be driving the growth in startups as this last cultural barrier to entrepreneurship is eroded.
Micro-multinationals are key
The influential Lisbon Council think tank published a brief in October last year which highlighted the impact of the new-found entrepreneurial spirit on Europe’s economic recovery. It says that “micro-multinationals” – startups that are global in reach – are the key to European prosperity. “Large companies are under pressure to deliver more with less – a fact which may well account for the jobless economic recovery we have seen in 2010 and 2011,” said the brief, stressing that large companies are probably incapable of delivering the jobs that politicians hope for. By contrast, hopes for recovery rest with SMEs which can harness the internet and other new platforms to enter the global markets with a minimum of bureaucracy and overheads. Anthony Williams, senior fellow of the Lisbon Council said that technological advances mean that SMEs can now access a thriving secondary market for global business services, including cloud computing, online sales and advertising platforms, and a growing army of freelance workers. Around 15% of all workers in Europe (around 32 million people) are classified as self-employed and this represents an unprecedented pool of talent that can be deployed by these new micro-multinationals.
Yet the European landscape for starting up is very uneven. Just comparing the indicators on how long it takes to start a business and how many steps there are in the procedures of incorporation, we see a fragmented picture. If Europe-wide initiatives are to work, the overhead has to be evened down and reduced both at the same time.
The erosion of long term job security, the focus on entrepreneurial skills in education, and the lowering of barriers to entry are all part of the recipe for greater entrepreneurship in Europe. Framework programmes such as Horizon 2020, The EU Framework for Research and Innovation with an €80 billion budget from 2014 to 2020, are aiming to drive the advancement of the whole economic union. Don Tapscott, chairman of the New Paradigm think tank and a professor of management at the University of Toronto, says that Europe is, quite rightly, shunning the path of complete laissez-faire that has been pursued in the US. He told Euractiv.com in December of last year: “We need to learn that there is a role for government. This is a serious discussion in the US at the moment [where senior Republican figures] want as little government as possible. What these people are missing is the kind of strategic oversight that the EU is deploying with Horizon 2020, which is a positive kind of thing and an antidote to the anti-government point of view… What is required for an innovation economy is a vibrant, open, competitive, but also fully transparent society, in which core IT is a basic right of people to use.” The hope for Europe’s economic future is in the hands of the entrepreneurs.
TED Talks Can government be run like the Internet, permissionless and open? Coder and activist Jennifer Pahlka believes it can -- and that apps, built quickly and cheaply, are a powerful new way to connect citizens to their governments -- and their neighbors.
TED Talks At 18, Natalie Warne's work with the Invisible Children movement made her a hero for young activists. At TEDxTeen she uses her inspiring story to remind us that no one is too young to change the world.
Nem só de acertos é feita a trajetória de empreendedores de sucesso. Às vezes, saber extrair aprendizados de pequenos e, principalmente, de grandes erros ajuda a pensar em alternativas diferentes e mais adequadas para o negócio.O empresário que transforma suas falhas em laboratório para seguir adiante amadurece profissionalmente. Para colher exemplos de que isso é possível, o Terra ouviu 10 empreendedores que deram a volta por cima depois de cometer bobagens que, para muitos, poderiam significar o fim do negócio.
Eles contaram, sem rodeios, qual foi o pior negócio que já fizeram e o que isso trouxe de positivo para a empresa que lideram.
Confira o que eles contam:
Alexandre Borin, fundador da Prestus, empresas de consultores e assistentes pessoais 24 horas
"Definir, com o cliente, o escopo de um projeto é uma das lições mais importantes para prestador de serviços. Já houve um caso em que, na fase de ativação, o cliente começou a 'se lembrar' de uma série questões. A complexidade se tornou tão grande que o projeto ficou impraticável. Lição: não suponha que o cliente terá a 'casa em ordem' quando definir o que está ou não incluído no projeto."Daniel Bernard, fundador da consultoria Netplan, especializada franquias
"Entrei de 'gaiato' numa sociedade, sem conhecer bem o negócio e os sócios. Diante da pressão, assinei dois documentos: um, de compromisso de compra e venda, e outro de alteração contratual. De repente, me vi sócio de pessoas que não conhecia, em um negócio que havia avaliado na condição de consultor e não de possível sócio. Não deu certo. Com isso, aprendi muito sobre direito cível, comercial e trabalhista."Edson Caldeira, sócio-proprietário e diretor financeiro da BgmRotec, que desenvolve softwares
"Comprei uma plataforma de desenvolvimento reconhecida como uma das melhores do mundo. O resultado final foi ruim. Principalmente por causa da escassez de mão de obra qualificada, desperdicei três anos treinando os profissionais e deixei de crescer pelo menos 30%. O ser humano é mais valioso. Não adianta investir em tecnologia, hardware e software, pois esse conjunto de ferramentas não trabalha sozinho."Fernando Massi, sócio-fundador da rede de franquias especializadas em clínicas odontológicas Ortodontic Center
"No início do investimento, achei que daria conta de todos os setores da empresa sozinho. Descobri, na prática, que todos têm limites e que é preciso contar com pessoas competentes na equipe para comandar setores vitais. Para o crescimento mais sólido, precisamos de um time especializado e satisfeito com o trabalho que executa. Delegar funções é fundamental."Jorge Nahas, fundador do site O Melhor da Vida, que vende experiências
"Meu equívoco foi permitir que apenas um funcionário detivesse um conhecimento importante da empresa. Antes, quando o colaborador saía da companhia, ninguém sabia executar o trabalho dele e perdíamos tempo treinando outro profissional. Hoje, temos o conceito de UTI: quatro pessoas foram treinadas para atender a todas as áreas da empresa. Dessa forma prevenimos a queda de resultados se alguém vai embora."Luiz Carrano, sócio-fundador da rede de franquias ortodônticas Gou Clínicas
"É um erro investir em projetos que não tenham sido testados. Já investi em diversos ramos e, em todas as ocasiões, precisei de muito tempo para aprender como funcionava. Isso me desconcentrava e me atrapalhava. Ao longo do tempo, adquiri experiência. Há 12 anos sou executivo do ramo de franquias e invisto em marcas já reconhecidas pelo mercado."Luiz Flores, proprietário do restaurante Wakai Sushi
"Entrei em uma sociedade com cinco profissionais do ramo da gastronomia para abrir um restaurante. O empreendimento não deu certo porque nenhum de nós tinha experiência. Não havíamos estudado o ponto comercial, por exemplo. Comecei do zero o meu restaurante após aprender a seguinte lição: para investir em um negócio, além do amor pela profissão é necessário ter experiência e pleno domínio sobre as funções administrativas e financeiras."Natan David, diretor comercial e fundador da consultoria Leader Leads
"Já deparei com situações em que os números divulgados pela empresa diziam uma coisa, mas a realidade era outra. Erramos por não prestarmos atenção ao segmento específico do cliente e ao valor do seu tíquete médio. No final da contas, o custo para executar o projeto foi maior do que imaginamos e tivemos prejuízo. Como lição, aprendemos que é primordial, ao fechar um contrato, pesquisar o histórico da empresa solicitante."Rodrigo Nascimento, proprietário da Editora Interciência, especializada em livros técnicos e científicos
"Chegou a nós um original sobre Oceanografia. Li a obra e achei interessante, mesmo sendo leigo no assunto. Um profissional qualificado considerou o livro bom, mas desaconselhou à publicação. Acatei a opinião do avaliador. Um ano depois, o livro foi publicado por outra editora e foi sucesso de mercado. Lição: o editor, sempre que acreditar num original, deve publicá-lo e assumir o risco."Leonardo Paixão, fundador da rede de franquias de cursos de idiomas inFlux English School
"Decidimos investir na mudança de bandeira de uma escola de idiomas para que ela se tornasse inFlux. Antes mesmo de assinar o contrato, reformamos a unidade. Depois de tudo pronto, o dono da escola decidiu permanecer com a bandeira antiga. Aprendemos a ter mais cautela nos negócios, sempre com assinaturas de circular de oferta, pré-contrato e contrato antes de iniciar qualquer outra ação."Cross Content
Especial para o Terra
Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, post links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.
At work in the IDEO Toy Lab.
Imagine for a second if you could somehow wrap up the creative chaos of a kindergartner's life and apply it at work. You'd go on field trips, make stuff, hatch crazy ideas, and be awed by the world on a daily basis. Sound ridiculous? At the renowned international design consultancy IDEO, it's how work gets done every day.Psychologists tell us that as we age, we become self-conscious in classroom and other public settings, and quietly begin to suppress our playful tendencies for fear of being childish or breaking with social norms. Creativity requires that we fight against this trajectory.At IDEO, being playful is almost an obsession. The company believes that great, innovative work cannot happen without trial-and-error, experimentation, and maybe even a little tomfoolery. Few know this better than Brendan Boyle and Joe Wilcox of IDEO's Toy Lab.
Boyle, who teaches a course at Stanford's d.school called "From Play to Innovation," is a partner at IDEO and heads up the Toy Lab in addition to promoting entrepreneurial thinking throughout its locations worldwide.
Wilcox, a toy inventor at IDEO, is a former circus performer and kinetic sculptor turned industrial designer and founder of Sway Motorsports, an electric tilting trike project based in Palo Alto, California.
I spoke with Boyle and Wilcox by phone about how they integrate play into their work lives, and culture – and how you can, too.
First off, when I say the word "play" what does it mean to you?
Brendan Boyle: This is a quote from Stewart Brown, who is founder of the National Institute for Play, "Most people think that the opposite of play is work (especially in the corporate world) but the opposite is boredom or even depression." To me, play is what you're passionate about doing. You want to do it because it's enjoyable and you want to keep doing it because it brings you joy. But play is a ton of effort.
Joe Wilcox: Play is a state of mind. I've heard it described as a visceral form of learning. It really doesn't matter what the activity is, it's the way you approach the activity that makes it play.What common disconnects do organizations have around play?
Brendan: People tend to think a couple things. That work is work and play is frivolous and it's only for kids. Or when they do try and incorporate it, they treat it separate from the work and schedule it in almost like it was recess. The core difference we're trying to incorporate at IDEO is that play is part of the innovation process not just something you do when you roll out the ping pong tables at a specific time.
"From Ridiculous to Brilliant: Why We Play At Work," a talk from Brendan Boyle
What mindset should a creative have when approaching play?
Joe: Try to encourage open-ended behavior. It's not about goals, it's about pushing the boundaries and discovering something.We model behaviors, experiment, and arrive at limitations and possibilities through direct contact with the world. At IDEO, we're often trying to design around a narrative -- it's less about the object and more about the experience, the story of that object -- so we're looking for social and environmental cues as to what that experience is or could be. Through playing with different scenarios, through prototyping different possibilities, we get to that narrative.
Most people think that the opposite of play is work (especially in the corporate world) but the opposite is boredom or even depression.
For those that work with digital tools, how do you replicate playing and prototyping?
Brendan: We were recently working on an iPhone app for Sesame Street and were trying to think of how Elmo should dance. So, we cut out a giant iPhone from foam core and filmed different people dancing inside the window. It was a very playful way to prototype and, more importantly, we learned quickly which dance moves wouldn't work. Our goal with prototyping is to build something quickly and learn and then make it better on the next round.What are your daily schedules like?
Brendan: With email now it's this kind of constant drip of interruption and trying to keep up. I'm trying to block late afternoon for brainstorming and prototyping. Our culture tries to account for this as well with building some flexibility for employees. We tried a no email rule from 10am-12pm and I think everyone was pretty good at it except me.Joe: Sometimes I'll come in late at night and work stuff out or swing by on the weekends, to just noodle around. I'm definitely most likely to be inspired in late afternoon -- but it's hard for me to have a set moment where it's like, "Okay, now I'm going to do play and creative things." Fortunately, this is an environment where I can kinda flow through my day and if the mood strikes I can capitalize on it. It's hard to be creative 9 to 5 so it's nice when a workplace has some flexibility.
Brendan Boyle and Joe Wilcox.
How has IDEO built that type of hands-off culture of play?
Joe: Our culture is really one of being comfortable thinking on your feet and not worrying too much about failing in front of others. That's important. The only place you'll see any rules at IDEO is in a brainstorming session, and they're rules like "Defer Judgment" and "Go For Quantity". It's about making a space that's safe for taking risks. We try to encourage flexing your creative muscles and interacting, rather than being the smartest designer in the room.
Brendan: We also look to hire what we call T-shaped people, in that they have a depth in some area but the T across means they're excited about learning across all disciplines of design thinking. Put simply, can you play with others?We try and avoid the I-shaped people. Those are what we call gurus and they're generally cranky and don't get along well in teams.
I also think the IDEO culture goes all the way back to the founder David Kelley and his philosophy that he wanted to start a company with friends. To me, that is a culture of play -- hanging out with your buddies.
Try to encourage open-ended behavior. It's not about goals, it's about pushing the boundaries and discovering something.
Any advice for small companies or start-ups looking to adopt this?
Brendan: Start-ups are like running a gauntlet. The advice I say is to step back and think a little about the culture at the outset because it's at the beginning that it gets formed. Plan for success but also plan for what the culture can be as well. If play is important to you, and I hope it is if you're planning on being an innovative company, it will start with the founders. You can look at Google certainly as an example.Joe: I guess I'd say, don't hold on to any one idea too tightly. Be ready to adapt. When we design a product for the first time, we don't know how people will really use it, and I think the same can be said of businesses.
Also, I think space is one of the fundamental tools that can encourage and sustain a playful and collaborative culture.
So you think the physical space plays a strong role in a culture?
Joe: Absolutely! We have a very collaborative space on purpose by having a small personal space and lots of shared space. Big tables in the room encourage people to stand around and co-create.
We also have a mini-shop off to the side so we can build stuff right as we're talking about it. So, this circuit from ideas to objects, this feedback loop is a really tight loop.
Brendan: You really want to create an environment that allows for innovation. Big innovation is right on the edge of ridiculous ideas. You need an environment that isn't quite so judgmental about a ridiculous idea. Sometimes those are the ones that are so close to being the brilliant ones. If a space that allows for play can help encourage those types of ideas than you'll come up with some possibly ridiculous but potentially groundbreaking ideas.How do you handle skeptics of play?
Brendan: I think you're always going to get skeptics. Sometimes they're just too much so the best thing is to avoid them or fire them.In Tom Kelley's book The 10 Faces of Innovation, he talks about the one guy in the meeting that anoints himself the role of playing devil's advocate in a meeting. For some reason, he then gets to shoot-down everyone's ideas. Tom makes a great point around, "What if this person had to play a different role? What if they had to play the ‘experimenter' role?"
Joe: Those skeptics are in every walk of life. You can certainly combat it with the experimenter role. Show people it's possible, don't just tell them. It's always been the seemingly improbable, boundary-pushing ideas that have created this world around us and none of that would have been possible if they'd listened to all the people who said it never would have worked. We'd still be living in caves if we relied on the skeptics.
--
Jake Cook teaches at Montana State University and is a co-founder at Digital Wax Works, a digital marketing shop in Bozeman, Montana. Follow him at @jacobmcook.
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