Pay Attention When Sony and Japan Embrace Open Innovation

by Stefan Lindegaard

The "not invented here" culture is a problem at Sony. James Surowiecki addressed this in a 2005 article in which he stated that the Betamax video tape recorder failed in part because the company refused to cooperate with other companies.

Sony was also late in making flat-screen TVs and DVD recorders, because its engineers believed that, even though customers loved these devices, the available technologies were not up to Sony's standards.

And Sony's digital music players didn't play MP3s, which is a big reason that the iPod became the Walkman's true successor. Again and again, Sony's desire to control everything kept it from controlling anything according to Surowiecki.

Over the years, Sony CEO Howard Stringer has been working hard to crack this staunch "not invented here" culture. As the company bets big on a 3-D revival, it seems as if they starting to get it.

In a Wall Street Journal article, Stringer says that getting to market quickly takes priority over making everything in house. This led to Sony reaching a licensing deal with an outside supplier for an essential component of 3-D televisions. Things are definitely changing at Sony.

Things are also changing for Daiichi Sankyo, one of Japan's largest pharmaceutical groups. In a Financial Times interview, CEO Takashi Shoda talks about how a growing influence of western practices and the broader need for greater openness in order to innovate impacts his company.

"The era of trying to do everything in-house is gone," he says. "Innovation means open innovation: partnership, networking, relationship with academics. There used to be an NIH - not invented here - syndrome. If a drug project did not begin in-house, we were not interested. That is changing now. Management is constantly encouraging outsiders," Shoda says.

What is the message here? The future of innovation is open and global. Companies need to get this or they will lose out. And when even very tradition-driven, Japanese companies get it, everyone needs to pay attention.

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Stefan Lindegaard is a speaker, network facilitator and strategic advisor who focus on the topics of open innovation, intrapreneurship and how to identify and develop the people who drive innovation.

70 Years of ATM Innovation

Still Struggling To Make Them Scam Proof

by Idris Mootee

It is all about the human factors.

I find that people are over-concerned with online security every time there is a piece of news about identity theft on TV. It is really not that bad and we need to accept the fact that it will not go away. Whatever security mechanism being put can fix one hole but usually create another hole. Let me take the example of the ATM, it is a very mature technology (probably about 30 years). Not many people know the first mechanical cash dispenser was developed and built by Luther George Simjian and installed in 1939 in New York City by the City Bank of New York, but removed after 6 months due to the lack of customer acceptance. No customer wanted to get money from a machine. It was a failed innovation.

I remember the one ATM card (Standard Chartered Bank) I used. Every time I used it the machine will eat the card and mail it back to me. I'm not sure what security design reason caused the behavior. So I can only use it once until they send it back in two days. It is designed to prevent fraud.

30 years later, there are still many ATM scams. Japan is still trying to figure out a way to stamp out ATM frauds. Chiba Bank has installed phone signal jammers at four unnamed ATMs at bank branches in the Tokyo region, I am not sure what exactly the criminals were able to convince people to do via mobile. I think there is too many cases criminals instruct victims to withdraw cash from the ATM through the cell phone. The often target the elderly, often telephoned by perpetrators claiming to be relatives and in need of some emergency funds. A new innovation is Aichi Bank is now ATMs will now no longer allow consumers to complete the transaction until they hang up. So you cannot be talking to your friends while getting your money.

How does it work? A metallic film around the ATM will block access if it detects mobile phone waves. Essentially ATMs will become out of range for mobiles. Not only might this prevent the criminals from relating their information, it also helps to provide a break for the consumer to think carefully about the transaction.

While others are jamming cell phones, BT Broadband is converting 2,500 ATM machines to serve as free Wi-Fi hotspots. And for some places like Tibet, people are blessed (literally) with money with their ATM withdrawals. A relatively new addition to Lhasa's old city urban infrastructure an ATM machine - including the red pasted duilian - effectively blessing every transaction that passes through this machine. It is a way to making money clean (legally). Here's another real customer unmet need.

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Idris Mootee is the CEO of idea couture, a strategic innovation and experience design firm. He is the author of four books, tens of published articles, and a frequent speaker at business conferences and executive retreats.

A Running and Jumping Robot

by Braden Kelley

I don't do a lot of technology features, but when I saw this video I just had to share it because the movement capabilities of this small humanoid robot from Japan are pretty amazing. It's called ROPID the walking, running, and jumping robot.

Check out the video:

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Braden Kelley is the editor of Blogging Innovation and founder of Business Strategy Innovation, a consultancy focusing on innovation and marketing strategy. Braden is also @innovate on Twitter.

Future Is Not More Gadgets

by Idris Mootee

Future gadgets will do things such as enhanced cognitive assistance and collaborative filtering. And that gadget is probably your phone.


Japan is always the best place for new inspirations. My rental phone also acts as a translator and all I need is to point the built-in camera to any Japanese characters. It exchanges personal information that works like business cards. It also reads 3D barcode and gets me all the information that I need as long as they provide them. It is so popular here, from real estate agents to consumer package goods - even the Louis Vuitton store has them for their special collections. But what works here usually won't work elsewhere and vice versa in most cases. But one universal truth holds for the Japanese market as well as Europe or North Americas, people are simply not buying new gadgets, but actually trying to do things with them or getting jobs done. As technology advances as if there are no limits of they can do, there are tremendous gap exist between the potential of these gadgets (whether they are converging into cell phones of diverging into separate devices) versus the limited ways we use them today. We have yet to see how these gadgets will change the way we live, work and socialize.


Marketers are jumping into the bandwagon. MasterCard just launched their first corporate iPhone app. Using the theme of its well-known "Priceless" campaign Priceless Picks pairs GPS and 3D maps to show you local deals, dining, and other points of interest in your immediate vicinity. It allows you to soar around the map in quasi-street view or bird's-eye view, identifying locations as the color-coordinated bubble pops up. Red for dining, blue for shopping, orange for "Priceless" items, and so on. It is supposed to point you to interesting sources for wine sampling via vending machine or a local jazz club, etc. It is a cool app.


Best Buy understands the power of gadgets beyond gadgets. Shari Ballard EVP/Retail channel believes individual gadgets don't mean as much as marketers think they do. Instead, "we see tremendous opportunity around how those devices work with each other, and with content people already own," says Ballard, "People are trying to do things with their technology products, not just acquire them." Best Buy is looking at many ways it can bring those connections to the center of the store, in formats that are easy for consumers to see and touch. "There is major work to do in helping customers see what today is mostly invisible. Now, we describe these products with a lot of hand motions and 'imagine this.' We need a physical way for people to interact with invisible solutions."


The question is how we untangle the future of consumer (and social) technologies to uncover unarticulated, unmet or yet-to-exist customer needs? And in the process of untangling the future we will become more tangled up with more technologies driving new behavior that we cannot even imagine? What are the next practices to imagine these new behaviors? And how do we know if some of these behaviors will be ending up mainstream?



The future is not more gadgets, but more integrated and modular designs. We will see a wide variety of innovative tools and apps that will emerge to help us leverage the information glut to our benefit. These new devices, systems, and services will enable us to alleviate the symptoms of cognitive overload and compensate errors and weaknesses in everyday life human decision-making. Much like a pilot relies more and more on computers to fly planes, technologies will allow us all to become smarter.



They will come in all forms and functions including enhanced cognitive assistance and collaborative filtering, surface-based three dimensional data visualization and display, reputation-based recommendation systems, personal productivity improvement software, affordable context-aware devices, social software tools, and systems that leverage social intelligence.

This is a future that is happening fast. It is not something that will only happen in Japan, but around the world. Tens of billions of economic value will be created, are you in for it?

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Idris Mootee is the CEO of idea couture, a strategic innovation and experience design firm. He is the author of four books, tens of published articles, and a frequent speaker at business conferences and executive retreats.