Process Excellence is Hard Work

Good overview article, identifying the key reason that Process Improvement initiatives fail most times in most companies: they require a lot of work and internalization. The out-of-box process improvement kits and consulting engagements very often miss this point.

You can't 'make' anyone do anything. You can only persuade them of an action's importance. The extent to which they are persuaded is the extent to which they will pursue the action.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/03/avoid_the_improvement_hype_cyc_1.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness+%28HBR.org%29

50 Billion connected devices--economics not quite there yet.

Although the general trend seems to support the conclusions of the author in the linked article below: marketing will drive the integration of connected devices/sensors, the economics are just not there yet. That is, in developed economies that doesn't appear to be sufficient inefficiency in current consumer flow to justify a new, autonomous feedback loop with suppliers. That is, the cost of multiple sensors per person or personnel transaction would not be offset under any existing, linear calculation for push or pull value from a consumer perspective. Further, there are no counter-intuitive leveraged benefits to be realized at this point--unfortunately, those tend to lag substantially from initial adoption. The market will eventually get there, but not any time soon and probably not along the marketing path.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_50_billion_connected_devices_could_transform_brand_marketing_everyday_life.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29

Board focus on innovation--New evaluation toolkit required

Excellent article on how traditional project evaluative approaches are mis-applied to innovative projects. Author does good job on starting conversation around retooling innovation project evaluations. Agree with him that strategic and operational investment aspects should be considered:

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/03/three_questions_that_will_kill.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness+%28HBR.org%29

Congestion Charging

Given the lack of stricter controls on vehicle lifecycle in the US, license-plate cameras are the likely way forward for widespread infrastructure changes that will allow for greater congestion charging revenues.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/02/we-know-where-youve-been-privacy-congestion-tracking-and-the-future.ars/2

Design with Science Basis

This appears to be a rich field for learning and even greater intelligence applied to the way we live. Although it appears that much design is trending toward scientific underpinnings, it could move much faster. The work Apple is doing (thus, IDEO's link) is obviously moving this way--leveraging the intrinsic efficiency of scientific models. Moving toward counter-intuitive design is only possible through scientific rigor and applied theory--how else to know it's counter-intuitive. This deconstruction of existing design dogma and dissemination of applied science to design thinking will be very interesting to watch, once it catches on. The article below provides good insights.

http://designthinking.ideo.com/?p=528&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+DesignThinking+(Design+Thinking)