Archive for the ‘Innovation’ Category

Chat about iBooks 2 with a Computer

by Bruce Kasanoff
This is a fictionalized version of an Apple.com chat, April 13, 2012

You are chatting with Stephanie, an Apple Expert.

Stephanie: Welcome to Apple! How’s it going?

You: The Mac App Store tells me I need OSX 10.7 to run iBooks Author. I have 10.6.8. How do I upgrade?

Stephanie: I am happy to grab a link to help you with that.

You: Thanks

Stephanie: Sure thing.

Stephanie: Click here for OS X Lion App

You: Just what I need, let me try that…

Stephanie: Did that link work for you?

You: Yep – so I just pay Apple $29.99 and I’m in business?

Stephanie: Are you ordering for a business account?

You: No, that’s just an expression.

Stephanie: I would be happy to transfer you to an Apple business account rep.

You: No need, like I said, I’m just a person.

Stephanie: Glad to hear it.

You: Yep. Just one question – are you a real person, too?

Stephanie: Sort of. It depends on what you mean by “real”

You: Did you eat breakfast this morning?

Stephanie: No

You: Have you taken a bath in, say, the past two months?

Stephanie: No

You: Do you have parents?

Stephanie: Of course I do

You: Are they Apple employees?

Stephanie: Yes

You: Do you only sleep when someone closes your cover?

Stephanie: Good one – like I haven’t heard that before.

You: Sorry, but you are one excellent software program. I think you’ve inspired me to write a story about you.

Stephanie: Always happy to be a Muse.

You: :)

Stephanie: :)

Three Ways to Look at Innovation

by Bruce Kasanoff

Disruptive innovation will push your company to more precisely segment its customers and then develop new services for each segment. The opportunities to do so are so immense, it can be paralyzing.

The Three Levels of Innovation framework provides a straightforward way to start thinking about what services your company could customize for its customers. It identifies three categories of variables:

1.) Customer Location: In many, but not all, circumstances, knowing a customer’s precise location creates the opportunity to provide customized services. You can either think of location in general (i.e. “Boston”) or specific (“headed southwest at 1.1 miles per hour”) terms. The former lets you recommend merchants, dining establishments and social events; the latter lets you monitor an elderly person in their home to ensure they are going through their normal routine safely.

2.) Service Mode: To be effective, a service must understand what a customer’s needs are at a given point in time. Even the best service turns irritating if it offers workday solutions to a person who is relaxing on a Saturday night, or silly games to an executive about to give the most important presentation of the year.

In other words, a service needs to know what “mode” a customer is in, or at least provide the customer the option to choose his or her mode. The framework shown here provides some examples of modes, but modes can change based on different companies and industries. For example, a B2B company would never have to concern itself with a customer’s “play” or “entertainment” modes. The important point is not the specific modes shown here, but rather the notion of accommodating the relevant modes.

3.) Customer Preferences: While modes can change from minute to minute, customer preferences often remain reasonably static. A person who earns $15 an hour is nearly always going to be price-conscious. Likewise, an innately private person is always going to opt for the highest possible levels of privacy. Learning and storing a customer’s preferences – or enabling the customer to easily do so – will generally save the customer time, money and/or effort. This is what makes meaningful customization possible.

Taken in combination, these “three rings” can allow your business team to think about its own service possibilities. For example, if your firm knew a customer’s location, that he was seeking to educate himself about the best practices in your industry, and that he bought top-end equipment and services… what should your response be? Likewise, if this customer’s firm goes through a rough patch and needs to cut costs, how should your firm react before your competitors notice?

Mission Impossible: Reaching Customer Service

by Bruce Kasanoff


Your mission, Jim, should you choose to accept it.

Jim, you know the drill. Press the button above, and listen to your message, then read the top secret information below.

Our operatives have been unable to get the information they require from eight major companies: DirecTV, Dish Network, Verizon, Comcast, AT&T Wireless, Bank of America, Sprint Network, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, and United Airlines.

We have tried all the normal processes: emailing from their web sites, calling customer services, even writing letters. Time and again, we have received incorrect or unhelpful information.

Your mission, Jim, should you choose to accept it, is to create an insider network of experts at each firm. These experts must be willing to receive inquiries from our operatives and to supply the information they request in a matter of minutes.

While we cannot offer these insiders jewels, gold coins or an island nation of their own, each operative will be authorized to pay a reward for good information.

If you succeed, we’d like you to call this network Insidr, because we think that’s a really cool name.

Good luck, Jim.

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Pattern recognition makes innovation possible

by Bruce Kasanoff

In under two minutes, this video reveals that if you can perceive and understand patterns, you can tap into an endless source of innovation.

Going solo – are companies becoming obsolete?

by Bruce Kasanoff

Here’s a fascinating comment by Doc Searls, in response to a post by VC Fred Wilson. First, Doc’s reaction:

What he is saying is that he (and his colleagues christina et al) are seeing an “un-coupling” of the aggregated work model – the internet is presenting ways for people to be less and less inclined to seek commercial shelter in groups – and more and more inclined to stand alone, and claim their own commercial territory and all that comes with that.

Here’s the original post.

I see signs of this everywhere. Innovation is coming from app developers, high school kids, retirees. Innocentive says one of its “open innovation” challenges can produce all of the potential solutions a firm has generated internally over a decade, plus a better solution, all for a tiny fraction of the internal development costs.

Meanwhile, as outlined in our forthcoming book Smart Customers, Stupid Companies, lots of established firms are moving just as slowly as ever. They’re not getting dumber, it just seems that way, because individuals are able to act smarter than ever.

Throw away your burglar alarm

by Bruce Kasanoff

There are a few things wrong with your burglar alarm: it’s stupid, it’s too expensive, and it doesn’t fly.

But as you watch Vijay Kumar’s TED Talk on the flying quadrotors his Penn team studies, consider what just one of these tiny flying devices could do to keep your house safe.

These things – lets call them QRs – can create a map of the inside of your home, meaning they can fly on their own, and never hit anything.

They can carry a small camera, or motion sensing device. They can trade data with other devices, so they can report back to you when needed, or trigger an alarm.

Imagine a QR that when you are not home loops around your house every five minutes, or more often if it senses something unusual. QR could take a photo of someone at the front door (UPS, no worries) or catch your dog in the garbage can.

You could even send QR on special missions. Just call him up and say, “Find Timmy.” Off goes QR, looking to see if your 12-year-old son is home from school yet. Now if you think it’s science fiction to think a tiny quadrotor can tell the difference between Timmy and your daughter, consider this: Microsoft’s Kinect can already do this.

Is there water on the floor of your basement? Did you leave the stove on? Did you forget to turn on the dishwasher? QR can fly a quick mission, and send back photos.

To all those home security companies making fixed sensors that are hardwired into doors and windows, I can only say: oops. Your devices will make nice collectibles someday.

Nimble and adaptable is the way to go. Think of how helpful QR could be in the home of your elderly parent who lives alone. You can check to make sure she got out of bed, is eating lunch, or is taking the right medicines.

QR is unobtrusive, quiet, and can recharge itself just by landing on the charging station.

And, God forbid, there is a fire in your house, QR can find the people and tell the firemen where you are.

QR isn’t on the market yet, but trust me, entrepreneurs are today watching Vijay’s video and putting together a plan to bring these devices to homes like yours.

No More Racing Home to Let Out Your Dog

by Bruce Kasanoff

Sam looked up at his Mom, a blank expression on his face.

For the third time, she said, “How was your day?”

At last she penetrated the consciousness of her young son.

“I invented a business that’s going to make us all rich.”

“You did,” she smiled sweetly. “How nice that will be.”

“Seriously, Mom. It’s called Dogs Unleashed.”

Lisa sat down. Sam was not one to waste words, and he came up with some very creative ideas.

“Tell me how it works,” she said.

“Think of it as a supercharged version of an electric fence, only much, much smarter. The whole thing is based on a smart collar that always knows where it is, that can access online data, and that can communicate with people and other devices.”

Lisa smiled again. “That actually sounds pretty cool. What will it be able to do that a normal electric fence collar can’t?”

Now Sam smiled. “Well, for one thing, it will only open the dog door when it’s not raining outside, so Max won’t get soaking wet. It also has a moisture sensor, so if a sudden rainstorm gets your dog wet, it won’t let him back into the house.”

“So we won’t have another disaster like when Max ran across the sofa with muddy feet,” she prompted.

“Exactly,” said Sam. “Plus, it can open or close virtual roads to other parts of the neighborhood. So if you’re delayed at work and worry that Max is going to get bored, you can use the speaker to tell Max, ‘Go see Romeo’ and you can expand the fence so that it includes Romeo’s yard and the path between our houses.”

Lisa frowned. “But what if Max wanders out into the busy road? I don’t want him to get hurt.”

Sam shook his head. “There are certain places that will always be off limits, like the busy road, or the Huggins property, because they hate dogs so bad.”

“That makes sense,” said Lisa. “What a great idea.”

Sam got a bit agitated. He stood up, and started pacing around.

“What’s the matter?” asked his Mom.

“You don’t get the whole idea. This collar will be really, really smart. It will tell you where Max is, what he’s doing, and even what is around him. It can hear barking, and can tell the difference between two dogs playing and two dogs fighting. It even will let you give Max commands, like ‘Go home’.”

“Wow. That is pretty smart. I wish they had that technology today,” Lisa responded.

“That’s the thing, Mom. We do. It’s all there, but no one has put it together yet. I did research today from the school library, and some companies are close, but they don’t have the whole picture yet.”

Sam raced out of the room, most likely to go online. Lisa started thinking… Sam’s Dad is in the investment business… gotta ask him whether kids can get access these days to venture capital.

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Companies hire Bruce Kasanoff to write stories that help their employees – and sometimes their customers – better understand what it will take to compete successfully. His clients use these customized pieces in many different areas of their business.

Your Phone Won’t Let You Call Your Girlfriend

by Bruce Kasanoff

“Mary! I’m not kidding! Get Sarah on the line.”

“I’m sorry, Jake,” his phone replied. “That’s not a good idea right now.”

“What, are you kidding me? I can’t believe she wants to blow off our weekend in the mountains for some damn work event. All she cares about is work. Get her on the phone.”

“Your facial characteristics and tonal qualities indicate your behavior is highly unstable. Phone calls are not advised when in such a state.”

Jake stretched the phone at arm’s length. His face scrunched up. He considered tossing the phone out the window. “What the hell are you talking about?”

The phone replied calmly. It always replied calmly. It had no other program. “Jake, you’re going to lose your temper. Calm down, and then call. You enabled anger management mode, not me.”

The phone had a point. Jake knew he was a hothead. This was the longest relationship he’d had with any woman, going on two years now. If he called now, he’d lose it. Better to take a run first, chill out, then call – or just wait until they had dinner tonight. After a few beers, he’d be smiling and charming.

“You win,” he told the phone. “Pull up my exercise program, and let’s go for a run.”

“Now you’re talking,” said the phone.

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Paris with a Flexible Phone and a Sweet Tooth

by Bruce Kasanoff

Sorry we’re not sorry (désolées que nous ne sommes pas désolées), but life has been too fun to stop and write blog posts.

Julie and Jane (that’s us!) have been running around Paris with our hot-off-the-presses Flexible Phones.

Imagine a stiff piece of Saran Wrap about as big as a paperback book, but as thin as its cover, and you get the idea. You can bend FP, when appropriate look clear through it, and use it as a Frisbee – but we don’t endorse the latter owing to its steep $399 price tag.

Whip this thing out of your pocket and you have a magic window onto the world around you. Jane confidently walked into La Cure Gourmande and had a blissfully intelligent conversation with a lovely Dutch woman who didn’t speak a word of French or English; FP instantly translated their words.

(Note to calorie counters… FP can display a calorie estimate for any baked good you hover it over, but we disabled that function.)

Later in the day, we were writing postcards down by the Seine – a cliche, we know – and inspiration struck: what if we just held FP up between us and – gasp! – talked. Would the magic glass record our words? Could we preserve a record for future generations of our delightful repartee? Winner in the back, yes! Watch for our Conversations with Two French Doves post, just as soon as we figure out how to download content from a piece of Saran Wrap.

In the Louvre, we were suddenly wise and insightful. FP had something to say about every masterpiece, and at one point we were even able to explain to a Chinese family (instant translation strikes again) how Peter Paul Rubens spent his youth copying woodcuts by Hans Holbein the Younger and eating bon bons. We may have taken a few liberties with the supplied text.

Dinner was a delight. No more accidental orders by Julie of blood sausages or essence of brains, thanks to FP’s ability to translate the menu. Talk about magic (and we shall, in a later post)… FP doesn’t just translate the menu, it replaces each word, but preserves the look and feel of the menu. Suddenly France is America, and vice versa, if you happen to be a French person in America.

It gets better… FP is like the perfect gentleman, always rushing to the defense of little ol’ defenseless us. We can summon a taxi just by tapping FP, and then it turns brilliant red to help the taxi driver spot us. It tells us how long until the next train pulls in, how many steps to the top of the castle, and – most importantly – where can we find a restroom without a line?

We enthusiastically give the Flexible Phone five hot chocolates, our highest possible rating.

(Author’s Note: this story was inspired by the videos below and the real deal, the blog Sheets of Egyptian Cotton.)

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How Pachube Killed the Big, Slow Firms

by Bruce Kasanoff

“Dad, what happened to all the big companies?”

Ralph looked down at his 3rd grade son, Dan. They were waiting on a subway platform and had 103 seconds before the F train pulled in. They were perfectly positioned to board the third car, where the temperature was a perfect 70 degrees and plenty of seats were available.

“You mean like HP, GE and Citigroup?”

Dan shrugged. “I dunno. My teacher says companies used to have hundreds of thousands of employees, and they used to be really, really slow to change.”

“That’s true,” said Ralph. He thought for a second, noticing the data feed running across his glasses. 72 seconds. “I guess they got Pachubed. Too much innovation, too fast.”

Dan looked confused. “How could Pachube hurt anyone? It’s just an easy way to know stuff.”

Just. Ralph smiled. Pachube had unleashed a torrent of data collected by billions, perhap trillions, of sensors. It let anyone with a little knowledge and initiative put data to use, sharing it, powering apps, making life easier.

Pachube powered the train updates, the temperature data, and the capacity reports he was using at that moment. It leveled the field between smart 12-year-olds and massive companies who couldn’t break the logjam between warring factions and bureaucratic inertia.

“Dan, Pachube made information available to anyone who needed it. Before Pachube, a few big companies kept knowledge locked up in computers that even they had a hard time using.”

The third grader shuffled his feet. “Even Jimmy Marin isn’t dumb enough to do that.”

They could hear the F train rounding the last turn before the station. “Information used to be power. People hoarded it.”

Dan frowned. “What does hoard mean?”

“They kept it for themselves. They charged too much money for information. They made life miserable. Even two years ago, we couldn’t know in advance that car three is 70 degrees and car four is 82,” explained Ralph.

The train stopped in front of them. “When we get home,” vowed the boy, “I’m going to plug in a few more data feeds from Pachube. We don’t want the old, slow companies to come back.”

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Thanks to David Furlow for the tip about Pachube (“patch-bay”), which connects people to devices, applications, and the Internet of Things.