PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD
PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD How many times have you come across a new product or service and said, "Why didn't I think of that?" It could be as mundane as those upside-down tomato planters you see advertised on late night television, as far reaching as Internet search results tied to advertising messages or as socially profound as providing micro-finance loans to poor, but hard-working citizens in third-world countries.
I recently attended a round of conferences, summits and one-on-one new product meetings, all of which had a couple themes in common. Innovation often starts with looking at the world through the eyes of smarter technologies. We live in an era in which the technologies that used to be costly and difficult—mobility, social networks, business applications—are now inexpensive, widely available and easy to implement. You could summarize the current process by a revision of the old caveat of management by walking around. Innovation by walking around consists of looking at products that are dumb and thinking about what would happen if you added some smarts. Such as:
Dumb pill bottles made smart. A team at MIT has created a smart pill bottle that alerts, controls and records prescription pill usage. It doesn't seem too far off when those same pill containers will be able to keep out those who shouldn't have access to those pills, reorder pills automatically and destroy pills that are past expiration.
Shock absorbers as energy sources. As you bounce down that rutted road, you might want to start thinking about all the energy that goes into dampening the rocks and rolls your car is receiving from those ruts. Turning those bounces into energy by using the shock absorber pistons to power electrical generators is not the crazy idea it might sound at first.
Turning grocery receipts into a financial and health care database. You go shopping and you get a paper receipt you toss away. Efficient, ecological, valuable? No, no and no. What if you could have that information delivered to you digitally for you to analyze, store and manipulate? Valuable? Yes, yes and yes. Click here for some examples of the developing digital receipt business.
Those three examples don't fall into the category of Einstein-level intelligence to create useful and potentially very profitable smarter businesses. What those examples do show is the value of looking at old products in a new digital way. Take a smarter walk around your house, neighborhood and local stores, and I bet you'll find lots of areas where smarter digital technology can make a big difference.
Good morning from Los Angeles! #ibmcloudThat's it from me! Over to North America.The data processing of Roland Garros 2012 (#RG12) rests on IBM Private Cloud http://t.co/JUaY1ItM [French Press release]IBM Accelerates Business from Supply to Demand with New #Cloud Offerings For Smarter Commerce http://t.co/OFxknOb0 [Press Release]How IBM #SmartCloud Foundation technology powers cloud adoption?
IBM VP @SLHebner explains here http://t.co/sSzfa0O5 [VIDEO]IBM's Fiona Cullen will present ‘The Power of #Cloud: Driving Business Model’ On May 24 @ Utrecht, Netherlands #cloudforum2012 #ibmcloudBlog Post: Why service providers should not ignore cloud http://t.co/ZfQyue4r via @eMarcusNet #thoughtsoncloudHave any #cloudmoment? Share your story with us via Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and tag it. See other stories http://t.co/J4ntsaQ5Sign up now for IBM #SmartCloud Enterprise! No charge for select VMs (only till May 28). More Details >> http://t.co/2LEzOUZC #ibmcloudRT @HansMoen: See this video from @IBMCloud to learn how to cut costs in building innovation in your business http://t.co/XOyJoFn6 #clou ...
Like us on Facebook 
Follow us on Twitter 
Get the Smarter Tech Newsletter 
Register to view the archived "Data Center Optimization Techniques: Stop Wasting Time & Money" eSeminar
Register Now > 
