I’m a designer by heart. As such, I find no inspiration in making peoples lives cheaper; I only find inspiration in making their lives better. ROI – Return On Investment – is a metric that bores me. And I certainly … Continue reading design vs. “return-on-investment”
I’ve heard rumors that my former employer, Micron Technologies, is finally killing its floundering LED lighting ambitions, at least at the fixture level. Micron has a long, sad history of starting “hobby businesses” in an attempt to diversify outside of its core memory-chip business; Micron already killed its foray into PV Solar, which actually had far more traction then the LED group. Micron is clearly at fault for its own failure to achieve any meaningful traction in the hot LED market over the course of four years. But I think it is a great example of what you will see over the … Continue reading foretelling a massive industry shakeout?
I found a nice treasure trove of academic papers from Eric Von Hippel, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Business, regarding user-centered innovation. I particularly like his concept for describing “sticky” information: The author’s point is that economists too easily discount the cost of “information transfer”. Connecting the critical information of an end user’s problem to a problem solver/problem solving organization is complicated by how difficult or costly it is to transfer the required key information. http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/papers/stickyinfo.pdf “The need to transfer information from its point of origin to a specified problem-solving site will not affect the locus of problem-solving … Continue reading “sticky” information
“They are not just copying our products; they are copying our way of doing business.” This was a comment recently made by a colleague in the lighting industry, referring to the endless small startups attacking the lighting business. It was an astute comment. In one quick phrase he summed up why the lighting industry desperately needs service innovation. LEDs are cool, and there are several other technologies driving change in the industry. But nowadays, any technology is easily copied by any hack company. Customer service on the other hand, particularly excellent customer service, is a very, very difficult thing to … Continue reading copycats
“The cost of assessing risk is now often greater than the cost of failing.” Rather than letting risk restrict exploration, why not let results be the filter? Joi Ito, Director of the MIT Media Lab Via hbr.org Continue reading the cost of being afraid
A short interview with Rogier by Lux Magazine. After working for him for a half year, I can truthfully say he lives by his words. No meaningless corporate babble from Rogier; he deeply believes in the things he says and that he is attempting within Philips. He has an astonishingly accurate read on customer service and ways to innovative the customer experience. Repost below: Chief design officer, Philips Lighting Joining Philips is an amazing opportunity It started over a coffee in Moscow. I was setting up an Arup office in Russia and I met Rudy and then later at some point he asked … Continue reading lux magazine interview with Rogier van der Heide
From Inc., the following is a terrific article by Geoffrey James that actually goes far beyond just how “bosses” should perform, and into general principles on why some companies succeed in creating great places to work and others slowly choke the life out of their people. A few years back, I interviewed some of the most successful CEOs in the world in order to discover their management secrets. I learned that the “best of the best” tend to share the following eight core beliefs. 1. Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield. Average bosses see business as a conflict between companies, departments … Continue reading 8 core beliefs of extraordinary bosses
“The term ‘innovation’ dated back to the sixteenth-century England. Originally it described the introduction into society of a novelty or new idea…innovation began to fill a descriptive gap. If an idea begat a [scientific] discovery, and if a discovery begat an [engineered] invention, then an innovation defined the lengthy and wholesale transformation of an idea into a technological product (or process) meant for widespread practical use. Almost by defintion, a single person, or even a single group, could not alone create an innovation. The task was too variegated and involved.” Quoted from The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age … Continue reading the meaning of “innovation”
“Remember, more candles are sold today than when they were the only source of light. So there are a lot of legacy technologies that will remain viable for many decades.” From EdisonReport.net, in an interview with outgoing President of Philips Lighting North America, Zia Eftekhar. Continue reading quote
There are three levels of innovation in the lighting industry. Two are common, one is incredibly rare. The first level is where the market, application and topology is defined and the expected feature set is also tightly defined. Here, small “innovations” such as incremental refinements in functionality or new accessories are expected. For example, a new, easier way to attach track fixtures to track. Market X Application X Topology X New Features! The second level is where the application is defined, but someone wants to do it “better”…just not necessarily differently. New types of products may be created, but they achieve the … Continue reading 3 tiers of innovation: feature, typology, application
How to explain innovation for the masses: “People are very open minded about new things…as long as they’re exactly like the old ones.” –Charles Kettering, founder of Delco autoparts Continue reading quote
Companies will go a long way toward understand good customer service with this quote: “Customers who detect a cut-and-paste job feel unloved” –Harvard Business Review: “Coming Through When it Matters Most“ Continue reading quote
I propose that successful Product Management/Marketing employs three key functions: listening, synthesis, and advocacy. Listen. Listen to your customers, your sales team, your management, popular culture, your heart. Listen to industries outside your own; that is where the “cool stuff” usually appears from. Organize. Build an institutional memory system that everyone can openly access. Synthesize the tremendous volume of inputs. Recognize the “white space” opportunities outside of existing product categories. Blend innovation risks. Determine priorities (“focus” is the ability to NOT do the other 101 good ideas on the list). Be willing to pause and think, to recognize incomplete information. … Continue reading being a good product manager = listening, synthesis, advocacy
This is not lighting related, but this is a very interesting article from Nick Denton, the publisher of Gawker Media, about how they are advancing the design of their commercial blogs. It really provides insight into how these sites make money. Continue reading Gawker Media: Moving Beyond the Blog
This a great quote, nicknamed “The Shirky Principal,” attributed to Clay Shirky. “Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.” If lighting reps (or better yet, the actual manufacturers) simply posted lighting costs and markups openly, poof…no more reps. If lighting manufacturers simply took money directly from…OMG…the actual customer, there would be no more need for wholesale distributors. Continue reading the problem with reps and distributors
Lucept 