Category: innovation | 革新 | 독창성 | 改変

Innovation, alongside disruption are two of the most overused words in business at the moment. Like obscenity, many people have their own idea of what innovation is.

Judy Estrin wrote one of the best books about the subject and describes it in terms of hard and soft innovation.

  • Hard innovation is companies like Intel or Qualcomm at the cutting edge of computer science, materials science and physics
  • Soft innovation would be companies like Facebook or Yahoo!. Companies that might create new software but didn’t really add to the corpus of innovation

Silicon Valley has moved from hard to soft innovation as it moved away from actually making things. Santa Clara country no longer deserves its Silicon Valley appellation any more than it deserved the previous ‘garden of delights’ as the apricot orchards turned into factories, office campus buildings and suburbs. It’s probably no coincidence that that expertise has moved east to Taiwan due to globalisation.

It can also be more process orientated shaking up an industry. Years ago I worked at an agency at the time of writing is now called WE Worldwide. At the time the client base was predominantly in business technology, consumer technology and pharmaceutical clients.

The company was looking to build a dedicated presence in consumer marketing. One of the business executives brings along a new business opportunity. The company made fancy crisps (chips in the American parlance). They did so using a virtual model. Having private label manufacturers make to the snacks to their recipe and specification. This went down badly with one of the agency’s founders saying ‘I don’t see what’s innovative about that’. She’d worked exclusively in the IT space and thought any software widget was an innovation. She couldn’t appreciate how this start-ups approach challenged the likes of P&G or Kraft Foods.

  • Jamie Hewlett + more news

    Jamie Hewlett

    Jamie Hewlett was not someone that I would have associated with luxury menswear brand Dunhill. Dunhill have been creating interesting content for a number of years, that used to be accessed through an iPad application and their own site. This interview with Jamie Hewlett is brilliant. Hewlett’s talent as a comic creator developed early with him working in the studios of Bob Godfrey. Godfrey is famous to UK TV watchers for the cartoon series Rhubarb & Custard. After college Jamie Hewlett was recruited for Deadline magazine, which is where his iconic Tank Girl creation was formed and his relationship with Damon Albarn of Gorillaz.

    Jamie Hewlett submarined during the 1990s when the underground became mainstream drawing Get The Freebies. Eventually Jamie Hewlett teamed up with Albarn to provide the visual look of The Gorillaz.

    Economics

    Is the U.S. Startup Economy Failing? ~ I, Cringely – yes.

    FedEx Says Economy is Worsening, Cuts Outlook | TIME.com

    Ethics

    Google Bans Online Anonymity While Patenting It – Slashdot

    Ideas

    Neal Stephenson on the Future of Books and the Ubiquity of Gadgets – Technology Review

    Bringing the Future Back from the Dead | VICE

    Innovation

    Silicon Valley is in danger of losing its name | VentureBeat

    Media

    Salon Sells The Well to Longtime Members – NYTimes.com

    What’s Facebook’s Next Business? – Technology Review

    Facebook ends Reach Generator program in favor of Promoted Posts product

    Facebook’s embedded option – Chris Dixon

    Online

    Canon launches Project 1709 social image management service in UK beta | The Verge

    Security

    Facebook ends facial recognition in Europe – FT.com – EU mandated privacy regulations biting at Facebook’s heels

    German government urges public to stop using Internet Explorer | Reuters

    Web of no web

    Exploring Local » Google Maps announces a 400 year advantage over Apple Maps

    Wireless

    iPhone 5 Benchmarked: The Fastest Smartphone in the Land | PCMag.com

    Why iPhone 5 Doesn’t Have NFC – The Mac Observer

    All you need to know about nano SIMs – before they are EXTERMINATED • Reg Hardware – software SIMs apparently the future

    Apple’s A6 chip development detailed – CNET News