Trickle-Up Innovation

Trickle-Up Innovation is a topic you will hear more and more about.

Innovations currently tend to be commercialized in the developed countries and then distributed in the developing world. Trickle-Up Innovation turns that model on its head by commercializing products or services in developing countries and then adapting them for the developed world.



Trickle-Up Innovation does not displace the traditional dissemination patern, but instead provides another option for innovators to consider when looking at commercializing their ideas.

One reason that Trickle-Up Innovation will find increasing adoption is the fact that innovative products and services tend to initially be adopted by those with the greatest pain.

Another reason that companies will expand their innovation strategies to include Trickle-Up Innovation is the fact that often the breakthroughs that drive innovation come from working with extreme users.

Extreme users and those with the greatest need for an innovation are equally likely to be found in the developing world as in the developed world - opening the door for Trickle-Up Innovation.

Where will you find innovation?

@innovate

For more information, see Fast Company's article on Trickle-Up Innovation.

Effective Conversational Marketing

Business Strategy Innovation just published a white paper to its web site on
"Effective Conversational Marketing."

Here is an excerpt:

"Introduction

What is conversational marketing?

Conversational marketing is relationship marketing for the social media age. Thinking about your marketing efforts in terms of a conversation changes the approach and better integrates social media. Relationships are something that are formed, but conversations are ongoing and evolving and require both sides to participate.


How Social Media Fits In

It seems like I can't get through a day right now without hearing somebody in the media or on the street talking about social media. I think it is great that social media has captured people's attention, but will having more communication channels improve conversational marketing?

Only if properly integrated into the conversations between consumers and companies.

To do this, social media must be established both as part of your on-going conversational marketing programs (on-boarding, loyalty, retention, etc.) and also integrated into your ad hoc or seasonal marketing campaigns."


Download the complete "Effective Conversational Marketing" white paper in PDF form.

What do you think?

@innovate



Image Credit - NoLifeBeforeCoffee

Sixth Sense

You may have seen a video I posted about a wearable computer designed by some MIT students.

I just came across a TED talk from Pattie Maes that explains the details of the innovation you saw in that video, while also showcasing more of what the technology is capable of and what the device costs to build with off the shelf parts. It's definitely worth a look:



Do you think people will want to wear something like this around?
(post a comment)

@innovate

Twitter Search to Challenge Kumo and Google?

I came across an article on TechCrunch that got me thinking. I have been writing for a while now that the main functionality of Twitter, really is just a product feature that can and is being copied Facebook, Plaxo, Windows Live, and probably everyone else out there.

For Twitter to survive they have to find a way to turn it into a platform. Finding a way to create value-added search is probably their best bet.

After all, what is the number one thing that people share, other than what they are having for breakfast?

Links...

Links tweeted by Twitter users are more valuable because they (for the most part) have been added to the search database by people who found their content to have value.

One of the biggest challenges that traditional search engines like Kumo and Google have is that they have to warehouse everything, and most of the Internet is full of garbage that is of no use to people.

For Twitter to maintain any value in search over and above Kumo and Google, they will have to constantly be looking for creative ways to block robots from posting 140chars automatically stuffed with links and keywords.

Without naming names, I have the feeling that one of the people I am following has found a way to automatically post tweets. This means that spammers can and will start attacking Twitter with automated tweets for their viagra and weight loss treatments for all kinds of keywords - reducing the value of Twitter search.

Are Twitter engineers up to the job?

@innovate

Charlie Rose Interviews Evan Williams of Twitter

Charlie Rose interviews Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter about the service and its effect on Internet usage, and the future of the company.

The most interesting point he makes is about how strong the developer community is, with at least 2,000 applications and growing, and how they plan to develop the service from a usefulness perspective.



Will Twitter survive as an independent company?

What do you think?

@innovate

Charlie Rose Interviews Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn

Charlie Rose interviews Reid Hoffman, CEO of LinkedIn about the future of technology and social networking, and discusses with him the differences between LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace.

The most interesting point he makes is that while tolerance for risk and the ability to manage it are key skills for entrepreneurs, we are all entrepreneurs now. By that he means that each of us is now responsible for managing our careers and keeping an eye towards finding that next job opportunity to further develop our career.



What do you think?

@innovate

Institutions versus Collaboration - Value of Loose Networks

Back in 2005 Clay Shirky spoke at Ted about how closed groups and companies will give way to looser networks where small contributions can deliver big value and fluid cooperation replaces rigid oversight. Even though it was delivered four years ago, the video is still worth the time:



What do you think?

@innovate

Microsoft's Vision for 2019

I found this video showing how Microsoft imagines we might interact with technology in the world in 2019, and I can't say that I agree with what they find to be compelling real world uses for future technology.

As I watched the video, I saw lots of things that were visually interesting but very little that would deliver increased productivity or true value in terms of time or money savings.



Most of what they are imagining I find to be visual noise, that would actually decrease productivity and overload the brain.

The most compelling thing I saw was the digital white board that they quickly skipped over.

Second most compelling was the plant identification by video input example. If you expand that to showing the computer just about anything and receiving back information about what you are seeing, it could be a very valuable educational tool.

What do you see in this video that is compelling?

@innovate

Is Crowdsourcing a Fad or a Foundational Element?

Much has been written about 'crowdsourcing' and the 'wisdom of the crowd' over the past couple of years, including "Crowdsourcing" by Jeff Howe - a contributing editor at Wired magazine, and "Wisdom of the Crowd" by James Surowiecki - a staff writer at The New Yorker.

Crowdsourcing - "The act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call." - Jeff Howe

'Wisdom of the Crowd' - "Refers to the process of taking into account the collective opinion of a group of individuals rather than a single expert to answer a question." - Wikipedia

For those of you not familiar with crowdsourcing, here is a good video from Jeff Howe:



So, what will happen to 'crowdsourcing' and 'wisdom of the crowd' as more and more companies start to employ these techniques.

Will the crowd remain wise or lose its predictive powers?

One thing is certain. Organizations will continue to use 'crowdsourcing' and 'wisdom of the crowd' together to help them find ideas that will resonate with their targets.

Organizations will, however, have to work harder to market their initiatives as the competition increases for people's time, if they are to maximize the value they accrue from the effort.

What do you think?

@innovate

Creative Cultures - Making Innovation Work

I found an interesting video of Professor Paddy Miller talking IESE's program Creative Cultures: Making Innovation Work. The video talks about the importance of innovation in our current global economy and the challenges in making innovation permeate the organization.



"Much of the innovation industry talks recycled platitudes: the real secret is that innovation is more about business culture than it is about brainstorming ideas. A culture of innovation is driven by the individual. It's instilled in an organization by small teams working together day to day."

- Paddy Miller, IESE Professor


What do you think?

@innovate

Twitter and Social Media in Plain English

I thought I would share a couple of plain english videos from Common Craft on Social Media and Twitter for those who are new to these two phenomenons.

Twitter in Plain English

Social Media in Plain English

These are really high level overviews. The Twitter explanation unfortunately leaves out the fact that many people in the Twitter community (including me) use Twitter to share insights and useful links.

What do you think?

@innovate