“I’m from Seattle.”
“Seattle? Oh, Ichiro.”
This was quite the reoccurring conversation during my time in Japan. Seemingly, Ichiro was the only thing the Japanese knew of Japan. There had always been ties between Seattle and Japan (Kobe and Seattle are sister cities, Seattle’s international district was once J-town, etc.) but it was Ichiro debut in 2001 that put Seattle into the prime-time consideration set of the Japanese. It’s really amazing how much of an inter-cultural proliferation Ichiro caused. Now that he’s moved on to New York, I wonder what will happen to that connection Seattle has enjoyed for over a decade (monetary, cultural and other). This article takes a stab at answering that question.
npr:
Um, this has got to be the third best thing ever. — tanya b.
Although I agree with all ten of them, I’m kind of surprised to find this on a Harvard caliber site. Then again, I guess it’s just a blog so I can lower my expectations. I’d wager anyone who’s worked in an established organization could come up with a similar list (ability to generate list directly proportional to size of organization). I might even swap out two of them for “Pet innovation projects go through flavor of the week syndrome” and “Managers don’t know how to recognize or manage sustaining vs disruptive innovations (yes, stealing from Christensen).” I’d even go so far as saying any manufacturing company (especially public and largely diversified) displays these traits in spades. Nonetheless, reading lists like these is a good reminder of how simple the issues sound and yet how difficult they are to overcome.
This is a great move by Columbia Business School. The school kind of missed the beginning of the entrepreneurial wave in NYC but this will go a long way towards catching up. I love the fact that the school is willing to do more for alumni, especially those who are taking a chance and trying to start their own businesses. This will help CBS elevate it’s position as a forward-thinking business school, get away from the one-trick finance pony image, and attract top-notch talent.
A while back, while sustainability was a luke-warm topic (and still possibly is), I figured one of the best ways to get the general public to be more aware was to get sports more involved. Sports teams are visible players in their communities and stadiums/arenas have some pretty low hanging fruit in terms of waste reduction and renewable energy opportunities. I also figured the Pacific Northwest would be one of the best places to get some traction because of the existing green inclination. The region’s teams had the same thing in mind because in the mid 2000s, the Mariners and Seahawks started down the greenification road and in 2010 the Green Sports Alliance was formed. A little over a year ago, the Obama Administration included the GSA in the Better Buildings Challenge. And this week there was another White House sponsored conference to keep the momentum going. Go M’s. Go Green.
Japan Society continues to great works by distributing earthquake relief and restoration funds to local NPOs and entrepreneurs rather than large funds like the Red Cross. Keeping it local ensures the funds are used by groups that understand what’s going on in the trenches and will hopefully do more to revitalize Tohoku.
There are few surprises among the six brands that creative agency types most want to work with in the latest global desirability rankings. But how do those brands create the kind of culture that makes them consistent talent magnets? Gary Stolkin, head of talent recruitment and consulting company, The Talent Business, discusses the traits of idea-first brands.
THE 6 BRANDS THAT CREATIVES MOST (AND LEAST) WANT TO WORK WITH AND WHAT YOU CAN LEARN FROM THEM
Interesting conversation with the father of Open Innovation, Henry Chesbrough. One part that caught my attention was where he called out the Japanese labor system as not ideal for the application of Open Innovation. I largely agree with him on this point; Japan’s traditional practice of lifetime employment and seniority based promotions are two significant barriers to the influx and interchange of ideas and perspectives required for OI Zen. But at the same time these practices yield employee sustainability/stability and a body of experience and knowledge that are hard to find in working cultures where employees constantly look to escape to the next great opportunity. Let’s not forget that some great innovations of modern history have come from Japan (not just tamagotchi and talking toilets). Not to mention that the menu at any Japanese diner offers smorgasbord of concoctions sourced from a variety of cultures. Squid and mayonnaise on pizza? If that’s not a pillar of OI driven ingenuity, I don’t know what is. In all seriousness though, I wouldn’t underestimate Japan’s ability to openly innovate just because of the labor culture. Japanese companies have been some of the best in innovating along the supply chain (see Toyota) and there are currently numerous collaborations and joint initiatives on the green front. It is a restrained form of Open Innovation, but it is Open nonetheless. Or at least semi-Open.
Greenway Wants To Put An End To Traffic Jams | TechCrunch
Traffic jams are annoying, but they are also responsible for extra CO2 emissions and plenty of wasted productivity. Greenway, Germany’s entry into Microsoft’s 10th Imagine Cup student technology competition in Sydney this week, wants to do nothing less than put an end to traffic jams. To do so, the three-person team has developed a mobile app, which is basically a very smart turn-by-turn navigation system, and a cloud-based routing and tracking service that ensures that drivers use streets as efficiently as possible. Ideally, the Greenway team says, its app can cut driving times during peak traffic hours by half. What’s cool about the service isn’t the impressive underlying technology, though, but also the team’s innovative business model.
Here is how Greenway is tackling this problem: most of the time, drivers choose the most direct route between two points and because of this, traffic tends to converge on a small number of roads, making traffic jams inevitable.
What would happen, though, if you could route cars more efficiently and have them use underutilized roads? To find out, the team developed an algorithm that constantly monitors where cars are in a city and then routes them as efficiently as possible, keeping in mind where all the other cars are as well. The team built a number of impressive traffic simulations to validate its approach. In addition, it’s also running a small pilot project in Germany right now that has already validated the team’s approach.
Rare earth recycling research is abundant these days in Japan but accomplishing it with no harmful by-products? University of Tokyo and all the major Japanese manufacturers are doing some amazing work in the name of sustainability and reducing reliance on outside countries for rare earth metals.
