Sustainability Evolves from Fad To Force

Sustainability is evolving quickly to become a major force in business practices and in business models. One of the best ways to think about sustainability is the triple bottom line model. This model speaks to developing business models that can show profit in three major areas - environment, economic, and social.

Sustainability holds the seeds of much of the major innovation we will see over the next 100 years. Every aspect of business can, should, and will be transformed. This represents a serious opportunity for competitive advantage in the short term and significant profit in the long term.

On June 30, 2009, Langdon Morris, one of the founders of InnovationLabs was quoted in a CNBC article about sustainability. He mentions that for most large corporations today they need to develop what we call 'edge competence' in order to see where innovation will take place for them. This capability is challenging for large organizations with so much investment in their 'core' business.

“The problem is that change rarely originates in the core,” says Morris. “It originates at what, for them, is the edge. So while they all talk a lot about core competence, what they really need to do to maintain a viable business model is to develop ‘edge competence,’ which is the ability to see change coming and respond to it before it becomes a huge problem.”

You can read the entire article here.


(the image above was taken from AM Consortium - an energy and environment consultant).

Planning for the Unthinkable Through Relentless Innovation

Joshua Cooper Ramo’s new book, The Age of the Unthinkable, provides a useful portrait of our difficult times, and an even more useful set of frameworks for how we ought to be dealing with it.

Ramo shares insights he has gathered through dialog with some of what appear to be the world’s most interesting thought leaders in the military, business, science, philosophy, and economics, and together they enable him to define the nature of the challenges we face in a compelling way that justifiably should attract attention.

The strength of the book is not necessarily that his thesis is stunningly new – the warnings have been increasing for decades that Western society has been following a dysfunctional set of decision-making strategies. But Ramo links his analysis of contemporary events such as the financial collapse and the failed US occupation of Iraq to broader issues that relate ultimately to the very models of reality that decision makers use, and then to illustrate how flawed models lead to disastrous outcomes.

In the end he proposes to a set of strategies that converge on a single conclusion: the only way we’re going to survive in the world of the future (which, by the way, has already arrived) is through innovation.

More specifically, “steady, intense, relentless innovation.”

Having identified the “what” and “why,” however, Romo does not deal with the “how,” leaving it to the reader, and perhaps to the literature on innovation, to deal with that aspect of things.

We may have a few suggestions in that regard, starting probably with the book that this blog is designed around, Permanent Innovation.

Hydrogen Car going Open Source

Whether you have much experience with open source or have explored the potential in engaging a community in co-design and develop or not - it sure is a good idea to pay attention to possible disruptive nature of open source business models in every industry.

The manufacturer of a hydrogen car is going to make their designs available online so the cars can be built and improved locally. This in itself is a unique innovation in a business model for cars but they aren't stopping there. In addition, they are going to lease the cars and the lease includes fuel and repair costs. In order to make refueling easy they are planning a very specific city by city roll out and partnering with a company that will built hydrogen refueling stations in these cities - making it easy for customers to refuel.

You can read the whole article about taking the hydrogen car open source by clicking here.

Honda Foresight

I was doing some research the other day on Honda, and I found the following fascinating piece of information:

In a Business Week article from 1992, the head of engine development for Honda is quoted as saying, "We don't have much time," referring to the need to develop new, low-emission engine technology.

His assessment of the future market (I'm paraphrasing): We have about 20 years more with gasoline before we will need to have alternative fuel technologies in place.

Yes, the article was from 1992. It makes those guys at Honda look pretty darn smart.

What do you have to do to see the future that clearly? It's probably not 'planning,' at least not planning in the conventional sense. Scenario planning could be more useful - that is, the process of looking at multiple futures, and developing strategies that are effective for many different sets of circumstances.

It also helps to be working an organizational culture that takes the long view, and invests according to real priorities with patient capital.

Honda is not a perfect company, but this small example of thinking ahead is nevertheless impressive for its accuracy, and for its strategic importance. I wonder what they're expecting for 2032? Robots, for sure. Flying cars too?

"Honda Sets Its Sights on a Different Checkered Flag," Business Week, August 19, 1992, p 45.

Armano on the move - to Austin and a new career

Anyone who has followed my scribblings has recognized my appreciation for David Armano's work and his generous contributions to the creative commons of impactful visuals to explain the reach and power of social media. David epitomizes the values of the Creative Commons.

Here's a quote from his blog announcing a major change in David's life and work:

"There has to be a systematic bottoms up and tops down transformation starting with strategy and supported by the right types of technology which can enable more effective human and system interactions. This is the place we hope to play in.

I look forward to playing with David in that same place.

Logic Emotion: And Now For Something Completely Different:

Idea Generation

Idea Generation is one of the stages in any innovation process. There are many techniques that can be used for idea generation but how do you know which one is the right one?

Set the Context
Most likely, the right method to use for idea generation is based on the context and reason you are generating ideas. Take time to understand what problem we are really trying to solve. "Creating the Problem" is one way to think about this part of the process.

Develop the Question
Once the reason or context is known it's a good idea to 'develop the right question' to focus your idea generating processes. What question will drive your idea creation process?

Generate Ideas
In many idea generating processes the goal is lots of ideas - without evaluating or judging the merit of those ideas.

In the book, Permanent Innovation, we outline a number of different ways to approach the idea generation phase of an innovation process.

There are six major categories of ideation processes to consider:

1. The Universal Search Methods
2. Trend Gathering
3. Idea Hunting
4. Problem/Solution Finding
5. Outside in and Peer to Peer
   
6. Future Dreaming
   

Within each of these categories we offer a total of 44 different 'methods' to generate ideas.

Eliminate Ideas
After generating the ideas there will likely be a process of 'eliminating' those ideas that might not be suitable in this context. We view the elimination process as a creative act as well (there is a lot of creativity in figuring out what to eliminate!).


Here's a simple technique to consider using in a meeting where brainstorming is one of the agenda items:

The purpose of brainstorming in a group is to gather the greatest number of ideas possible. A little quirk of the human mind, however, is called “anchoring” – we are heavily influenced by our first impression of things. Therefore the first idea tossed out in a group setting tends to lead the group down a particular path of thinking and creativity, eliminating a huge range of options that might have been considered with a different “first idea” as a starting point. To minimize this problem, start a brainstorming session by having everyone in the group brainstorm a list of ideas individually on their own sheet of paper. Then start the group brainstorming session. As the energy around one idea path winds down, ask for someone else to call out one of the ideas they wrote down – this will seed another round of group brainstorming.

Assignment: At your next brainstorming meeting, take five minutes at the beginning of the brainstorming to have everyone write down their own ideas first.

Put these ideas up where everyone can see them and then continue the brainstorming as a group. Try to generate as many new ideas as a group as were created by the individuals working separately. It’s important for the group to push itself past the hard spots where it gets hard to think of new things. At this point it’s tempting to give up and the stretches of silence may feel embarrassing. But push through the embarrassment and the silence and keep adding ideas. Even silly ones. Just don’t stop. Good ideas are not a dime a dozen. They’re not easy to come up with. It takes a lot of work—more than most people realize. There are times that feel like failure and these must be worked through. Everyone in the group needs to transcend any emotions that would make them quit. If the group gets totally stuck, grab one of the ideas that’s already been generated and ask, “what other ideas does this make us think of?” Remember that a professional photographer may take 20 or more pictures to get one that really captures the subject. It may take 50, 60 or 70 ideas from the group to find one that is the best. Edison tested over 1,000 different kinds of filaments for his light bulb before choosing one. Diligence and dogged determination will usually win out over technique when it comes to brainstorming.

The Innovation Economy - INGENESIST

IN this slide deck (embedded below) , Daniel Robles explains his unique vision for an Innovation Economy. His concepts of information, knowledge and innovation shown in the slide above are the driving forces for his Open Source project : Ingenesist - . You can view his presentation on this page or see a larger size version by clicking on the slideshare logo at the bottom right of the presentation .

I had run across Dan's vision over a year ago and posted on it here Thoughts Illustrated: The Great Train Wreck of Social Networks - can we be saved?

Here's the slide deck:

Innovation Economics Next

View more presentations from ingenesist. (tags: innovation economics)