The Manila Times
Business Times p.B3
Thursday, September 29, 2005
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/sept/29/yehey/business/20050929bus12.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Mistakes can become the beginning of good ideas
MAJOR barriers to innovation are fear of making mistakes and wrong decisions, negative attitude toward failure, culture of blaming and discomfort about faults, risks, oddity, weirdness and the like.
Yet, many useful inventions and innovations today are by-products of errors. In her best-selling book, Mistakes that Worked, Charlotte Foltz Jones cites “accidents” that led to outstanding discoveries. She asserts that it is easy to fail and then abandon the whole idea, but it is more difficult to fail, then recognize another use for the fail-ure. As Bertolt Brecht in 1930 said, “Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.”
Some examples Charlotte gave are:
While mixing a batch of cookies, Ruth Wakefield ran out of baker’s chocolate. As a substitute, she broke some semisweetened chocolate into small pieces and added them to the dough, expecting the chocolate bits to melt and the dough to absorb them, producing chocolate cookies. When she removed the pan from the oven, she was surprised that the chocolate had not melted into the dough, and her cookies were not chocolate cookies. Wakefield accidentally invented the yummy chocolate chip cookie.
In 1905 11-year-old Frank Epperson of California mixed some soda-water powder and water, which was a popular drink in those days. He left the mixture on the back porch overnight with his stirring stick still in it. The temperature dropped to a record low that night.
The next day Frank had a stick of frozen soda water to show his friends at school. Eighteen years later, Frank remembers his frozen soda water mixture and began a business producing Epsicles, later changed to Popsicles, in seven fruit flavors. Today, one estimate says three million Popsicle frozen treats are sold each year.
In 1174 the Italian engineer Bonnano Pisano began work on a bell tower for the cathedral in Pisa, Italy. When he started, he had no idea it would be famous because of a mistake. The tower was to be 185 feet high, but construction was halted for almost a hundred years, because the soil beneath the tower was soft and the foundation was not strong enough to support the weight. The tower was finally finished in the fourteenth century, but each year it leans 1.25 millimeters. It currently tilts 5 degrees, or about 17 feet. While the town of Pisa enjoys the money tourists bring when they visit the leaning Tower, they fear someday their tower will lean too far and become the Toppled Tower of Pisa.
The Swiss engineer George de Mestral returned from a walk one day in 1948 and found some cockleburs (weeds) clinging to his cloth jacket. When he loosed them, he examined one under his microscope. The principle was simple. The cocklebur is a maze of thin strands with burrs (or hooks) on the ends that cling to fabrics or animal fur. He recognized the potential for a practical new fastener. It took eight years to experiment, develop and perfect the invention, which consists of two strips of nylon fabrics. One strip contains thousands of small hooks while the other strip contains small loops. When the two strips are pressed together, they form a strong bond. Velcro, as George named it, is strong, easily separated, lightweight, durable, washable, comes in a variety of colors and won’t jam. There are thousands of uses for this amazing fastener—on clothing, shoes, watch bands, backpacks; around the house or garage; in automobiles, aircraft, parachutes, space suits, or space shuttles; to secure blood-pressure cuffs and artificial heart chambers. The list is never-ending.
What do you do when you commit a mistake or had an accident? How do you react when your subordinates or colleagues fail, or make a mistake, or have an accident? Careful, careful, you or they might be discovering something. The author Jones detailed about 40 mistakes that worked in her book. Read it and be inspired.
The Rotary Club of Quezon City North will again give an accelerated learning workshop for 100 more public elementary-school teachers in Quezon City for four Saturdays from October to November. Our volunteer trainers, Joey Uybarreta, Ces Munos, Tina Maramba, Owie Salazar and Butch Nayona, are giving their services for free. We need your help to defray some administrative expenses like handouts, materials and supplies, meals (4 lunches and 8 snacks) and others. Please call 0917-8996653, or e-mail paradigms@mydestiny.net for how to help.
Moje is president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp. and RCQC North. Send your feedback to moje@mydestiny.net
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Innovate or perish
The Manila Times
Business Times p.B3
Thursday, September 22, 2005
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/sept/22/yehey/business/20050922bus12.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Innovate or perish
CANADA’S largest cultural export—Cirque du Soleil—was created by a group of street performers in 1984. It has entertained almost forty million people since then and has achieved a level of revenues that took industry leaders, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, more than one hundred years to attain. This also made Cirque very attractive to many serious, multitalented circus performers.
The authors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne relate in their book, Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, what makes this rapid growth all the more remarkable is that it was not achieved in an attractive industry, but rather in a declining industry in which traditional strategic analysis pointed to limited potential for growth.
Kim and Mauborgne also write that another compelling aspect of Cirque’s success is that it did not win by taking customers from the already shrinking circus industry, which historically catered to children. Cirque did not compete with Ringling and Barnum. “Instead, it created uncontested new market space—blue ocean—that made the competition irrelevant. It appealed to a whole new group of customers: adults and corporate clients prepared to pay a price several times as great as traditional circuses for an unprecedented entertainment experience.
Significantly, one of the first Cirque productions was titled “We reinvent the circus.”
Kim and Mauborgne continue to describe a different strategic logic they call value innovation. “What consistently separate winners from losers in creating blue oceans was their approach to strategy. Instead of beating the competition, you focus on making the competition irrelevant by creating a leap in value for buyers and your company, thereby opening up new and uncontested market space.
“Value innovation places equal emphasis on value and innovation. Value without innovation tends to focus on value creation on an incremental scale, something that improves value but is not sufficient to make you stand out in the marketplace.
Innovation without value tends to be technology-driven, market pioneering, or futuristic, often shooting beyond what buyers are ready to accept and pay for. In this sense it is important to distinguish between value innovation as opposed to technology innovation and market pioneering. Value innovation occurs only when companies align innovation with utility, price and cost positions.”
Back to Cirque, instead of outpacing the competition by offering a better solution to the nagging problem, it sought to offer people the fun and thrill of the circus and the intellectual sophistication and artistic richness of the theater at the same time. “This led to a whole new circus concept that broke the value-cost trade-off and created a blue ocean of new market space. Whereas other circuses focused on offering animal shows, hiring star performers, presenting multiple show arenas in the form of three rings, and pushing aisle concession sales, Cirque did away with all these factors.
“The lasting allure of the traditional circus came down to only three key factors—the tent, the clowns and the classic acrobatic acts. Cirque kept the clowns but shifted their humor from slapstick to a more enchanting, sophisticated style. It glamorized the tent, an element that, ironically, many circuses had begun to forfeit in favor of rented venues. Seeing that this unique venue symbolically captured the magic of the circus, Cirque designed the tent with a glorious finish and a higher level comfort, making its tents reminiscent of the grand epic circuses. Gone where the sawdust and hard benches.
“Acrobats and other thrilling acts are retained, but their roles were reduced and made more elegant by the addition of artistic flair and intellectual wonder to the acts.
By looking across the market boundary of theater, Cirque also offered new noncircus factors, such as storyline and with it, intellectual richness, artistic music and dance and multiple productions.”
By injecting all these value innovations into the well-loved, traditional circus, Cirque has given people a reason to come to the circus more frequently and dramatically increase demand.
Innovation, indeed, help companies rise beyond mediocrity and outrun competition not by engaging in a head-to-head competition, but by creating new, blue ocean markets and strategies for itself. In whatever business you are in, remember that nothing ever stands still—innovate or perish.
Teacher Training: RCQC North will conduct accelerated learning workshop for the 120 teachers of elementary schools in Quezon City, namely Aurora Quezon, Betty Go Belmonte, P. Tuazon and Valencia. To make your contribution, please e-mail paradigms@mydestiny.net or call 0917-8996653.
(Moje is president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp. and the Rotary Club of Quezon City North. Send feedback to moje@mydestiny.net)
Business Times p.B3
Thursday, September 22, 2005
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/sept/22/yehey/business/20050922bus12.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Innovate or perish
CANADA’S largest cultural export—Cirque du Soleil—was created by a group of street performers in 1984. It has entertained almost forty million people since then and has achieved a level of revenues that took industry leaders, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, more than one hundred years to attain. This also made Cirque very attractive to many serious, multitalented circus performers.
The authors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne relate in their book, Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, what makes this rapid growth all the more remarkable is that it was not achieved in an attractive industry, but rather in a declining industry in which traditional strategic analysis pointed to limited potential for growth.
Kim and Mauborgne also write that another compelling aspect of Cirque’s success is that it did not win by taking customers from the already shrinking circus industry, which historically catered to children. Cirque did not compete with Ringling and Barnum. “Instead, it created uncontested new market space—blue ocean—that made the competition irrelevant. It appealed to a whole new group of customers: adults and corporate clients prepared to pay a price several times as great as traditional circuses for an unprecedented entertainment experience.
Significantly, one of the first Cirque productions was titled “We reinvent the circus.”
Kim and Mauborgne continue to describe a different strategic logic they call value innovation. “What consistently separate winners from losers in creating blue oceans was their approach to strategy. Instead of beating the competition, you focus on making the competition irrelevant by creating a leap in value for buyers and your company, thereby opening up new and uncontested market space.
“Value innovation places equal emphasis on value and innovation. Value without innovation tends to focus on value creation on an incremental scale, something that improves value but is not sufficient to make you stand out in the marketplace.
Innovation without value tends to be technology-driven, market pioneering, or futuristic, often shooting beyond what buyers are ready to accept and pay for. In this sense it is important to distinguish between value innovation as opposed to technology innovation and market pioneering. Value innovation occurs only when companies align innovation with utility, price and cost positions.”
Back to Cirque, instead of outpacing the competition by offering a better solution to the nagging problem, it sought to offer people the fun and thrill of the circus and the intellectual sophistication and artistic richness of the theater at the same time. “This led to a whole new circus concept that broke the value-cost trade-off and created a blue ocean of new market space. Whereas other circuses focused on offering animal shows, hiring star performers, presenting multiple show arenas in the form of three rings, and pushing aisle concession sales, Cirque did away with all these factors.
“The lasting allure of the traditional circus came down to only three key factors—the tent, the clowns and the classic acrobatic acts. Cirque kept the clowns but shifted their humor from slapstick to a more enchanting, sophisticated style. It glamorized the tent, an element that, ironically, many circuses had begun to forfeit in favor of rented venues. Seeing that this unique venue symbolically captured the magic of the circus, Cirque designed the tent with a glorious finish and a higher level comfort, making its tents reminiscent of the grand epic circuses. Gone where the sawdust and hard benches.
“Acrobats and other thrilling acts are retained, but their roles were reduced and made more elegant by the addition of artistic flair and intellectual wonder to the acts.
By looking across the market boundary of theater, Cirque also offered new noncircus factors, such as storyline and with it, intellectual richness, artistic music and dance and multiple productions.”
By injecting all these value innovations into the well-loved, traditional circus, Cirque has given people a reason to come to the circus more frequently and dramatically increase demand.
Innovation, indeed, help companies rise beyond mediocrity and outrun competition not by engaging in a head-to-head competition, but by creating new, blue ocean markets and strategies for itself. In whatever business you are in, remember that nothing ever stands still—innovate or perish.
Teacher Training: RCQC North will conduct accelerated learning workshop for the 120 teachers of elementary schools in Quezon City, namely Aurora Quezon, Betty Go Belmonte, P. Tuazon and Valencia. To make your contribution, please e-mail paradigms@mydestiny.net or call 0917-8996653.
(Moje is president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp. and the Rotary Club of Quezon City North. Send feedback to moje@mydestiny.net)
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Concept of innovation will thrive, survive and build teams
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B3
Thursday, September 15, 2005
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/sept/15/yehey/business/20050915bus11.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Concept of innovation will thrive, survive and build teams
I ASKED my good friend, Elaine Dundon, author of The Seeds of Innovation (McGraw-Hill), for her short take on innovation and this is what she wrote: This concept called Innovation is garnering quite a lot of attention lately! This is because we are in the midst of a radical shift in the way we work. Competitive pressures have intensified, the adoption of new technology is more widespread, and the demand for quicker response times has escalated. As we move from linear to more complex relationships in our work (the shift to more horizontal organizations, the shift to a more open, networked work world, and the shift to more contract versus full-time assignments), we, of course, are feeling the pressure to improve our abilities to think more innovatively, and of course, to do so at an accelerated pace.
In order to survive and thrive in this new world, we can’t be obsessed with the way it has always, or hope that we don’t need to change. We need to learn how to “unlearn” some of our old ways of thinking to make room for new answers on how to adapt to this new world. In the gardening analogy that I used in the book, The Seeds of Innovation, we need to clear out the garden of old weeds in order to plant new seeds (ideas). If we don’t clear out old thinking in our gardens, we will waste resources tending to ideas that might have been good in the past but won’t benefit our future.
We also need to nurture this garden to protect the new seeds from the elements and ensure that they have a chance to take root (before we yank them out of the garden with such criticism as “that won’t work,” “that’s not the way we do things around here,” etc). We all have the ability to enhance our knowledge, skills and attitudes in the area of innovative thinking—but we must do it now, or we will miss the harvest in the months to come!
You may get in touch with Elaine at E-mail address Elaine@seedsofinnovation.com, or read more on innovation at her website: www.seedsofinnovation.com.
Here’s how innovation works in simple, yet profound ways, at PAHRDF-Sagric.
From Mark Flores: Here is the e-mail announcement on our activity in support of your cause.
WHAT: Karaoke Night!
WHEN: July 21, 2005, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
WHERE: Karaoke Lounge (Training Room)
WHY: We plan to sponsor elementary-school teachers of Tatalon to undergo a training that will contribute to the objectives of the program entitled, “Building a Creative and Caring Learning Environment” for elementary schools in Quezon City.
The program is being sponsored by the Rotary Club of Quezon City North, with Tatalon Elementary School as the lead school. The cost of the training is P2,500 for every teacher which will include four whole-day sessions, food, materials and other administrative expenses.
During the karaoke night, there is no cover charge but you can donate any amount for every song that you will sing . . . yes, yes, we are encouraging you to sing as many as you can so we can generate more money. Drinks are on the house . . . but again, let us think that this is an activity for us to strengthen our bonding and at the same time heighten our awareness about our social responsibility to our brethren.
Sagric will give its share to the amount that we will be able to raise during the karaoke night. Why Thursday? We have some people in the office who will be out on Friday for work and some have scheduled appointments previously. Of course, everybody is welcome! We will be using Magic Sing with standards and pop music. RSVP: local 102, Lalay Pangan.
With innovation, giving could be an enjoyable bonding activity and not a no-brainer pass-the-hat-around. They contributed P4,000.00.
Congratulations to Service President Jun Raymundo and RC University District. They are helping uniformed police field operatives to update and practice their know-how on ownership, handling, maintenance and operation of firearms and make them ready and effective at all times. Jun (0917-8430579 or 928-6344) says this training program is intended to help the Philippine National Police help us especially during crisis. Let us support them.
(Moje is president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp. and RCQCNorth. Pls. send your feedback at moje@mydestiny.net)
Business Times p.B3
Thursday, September 15, 2005
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/sept/15/yehey/business/20050915bus11.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Concept of innovation will thrive, survive and build teams
I ASKED my good friend, Elaine Dundon, author of The Seeds of Innovation (McGraw-Hill), for her short take on innovation and this is what she wrote: This concept called Innovation is garnering quite a lot of attention lately! This is because we are in the midst of a radical shift in the way we work. Competitive pressures have intensified, the adoption of new technology is more widespread, and the demand for quicker response times has escalated. As we move from linear to more complex relationships in our work (the shift to more horizontal organizations, the shift to a more open, networked work world, and the shift to more contract versus full-time assignments), we, of course, are feeling the pressure to improve our abilities to think more innovatively, and of course, to do so at an accelerated pace.
In order to survive and thrive in this new world, we can’t be obsessed with the way it has always, or hope that we don’t need to change. We need to learn how to “unlearn” some of our old ways of thinking to make room for new answers on how to adapt to this new world. In the gardening analogy that I used in the book, The Seeds of Innovation, we need to clear out the garden of old weeds in order to plant new seeds (ideas). If we don’t clear out old thinking in our gardens, we will waste resources tending to ideas that might have been good in the past but won’t benefit our future.
We also need to nurture this garden to protect the new seeds from the elements and ensure that they have a chance to take root (before we yank them out of the garden with such criticism as “that won’t work,” “that’s not the way we do things around here,” etc). We all have the ability to enhance our knowledge, skills and attitudes in the area of innovative thinking—but we must do it now, or we will miss the harvest in the months to come!
You may get in touch with Elaine at E-mail address Elaine@seedsofinnovation.com, or read more on innovation at her website: www.seedsofinnovation.com.
Here’s how innovation works in simple, yet profound ways, at PAHRDF-Sagric.
From Mark Flores: Here is the e-mail announcement on our activity in support of your cause.
WHAT: Karaoke Night!
WHEN: July 21, 2005, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
WHERE: Karaoke Lounge (Training Room)
WHY: We plan to sponsor elementary-school teachers of Tatalon to undergo a training that will contribute to the objectives of the program entitled, “Building a Creative and Caring Learning Environment” for elementary schools in Quezon City.
The program is being sponsored by the Rotary Club of Quezon City North, with Tatalon Elementary School as the lead school. The cost of the training is P2,500 for every teacher which will include four whole-day sessions, food, materials and other administrative expenses.
During the karaoke night, there is no cover charge but you can donate any amount for every song that you will sing . . . yes, yes, we are encouraging you to sing as many as you can so we can generate more money. Drinks are on the house . . . but again, let us think that this is an activity for us to strengthen our bonding and at the same time heighten our awareness about our social responsibility to our brethren.
Sagric will give its share to the amount that we will be able to raise during the karaoke night. Why Thursday? We have some people in the office who will be out on Friday for work and some have scheduled appointments previously. Of course, everybody is welcome! We will be using Magic Sing with standards and pop music. RSVP: local 102, Lalay Pangan.
With innovation, giving could be an enjoyable bonding activity and not a no-brainer pass-the-hat-around. They contributed P4,000.00.
Congratulations to Service President Jun Raymundo and RC University District. They are helping uniformed police field operatives to update and practice their know-how on ownership, handling, maintenance and operation of firearms and make them ready and effective at all times. Jun (0917-8430579 or 928-6344) says this training program is intended to help the Philippine National Police help us especially during crisis. Let us support them.
(Moje is president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp. and RCQCNorth. Pls. send your feedback at moje@mydestiny.net)
Thursday, September 8, 2005
Invent or Innovate--what we need are workable solutions for targeted problems
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B3
Thursday, September 08, 2005
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/sept/08/yehey/business/20050908bus12.html
Learning & Innovation
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Invent or Innovate--what we need are workable solutions for targeted problems
Innovation seems to be a very tricky topic. Let's hear it from two of our readers, Rico Belmonte and Bob Embry. Earlier Rico quoted Peter Drucker: "Invention is creating something new and original like devices or processes, innovation is putting the invention to commercial use. Thus, invention is technology and innovation is commerce."
Bob replied saying that Drucker points out that an innovation can be political, social, or economic, a change that creates a new dimension of performance. Bob said he is fairly familiar with Drucker's work (over 40 years of it) and that he doesn't remember Drucker using the term commercialization in connection with innovation.
A rejoinder from Rico: Here is what Peter Drucker actually wrote in his book "Innovation and Entrepreneurship."
. "Entrepreneurs innovate. Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. It is the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth. Innovation, indeed, creates a resource. There is no such thing as a "resource" until man finds a use for something in nature and thus endows it with economic value."
. "Innovation, then, is an economic or social rather than a technical term. It can be defined the way J. B. Say defined entrepreneurship, as changing the yield of resources. Or, as a modern economist would tend to do, it can be defined in demand terms rather than in supply terms, that is, as changing the value and satisfaction obtained from resources by the consumer."
. "Systematic innovation therefore consists in the purposeful and organized search for changes, and in the systematic analysis of the opportunities such changes might offer for economic or social innovation."
To summarize his points, innovation has to do more with economics and entrepreneurship than technology. Of course for innovation to have an impact to the economy and society in general, it has to be commercialized. Whether or not he actually said "innovation is commerce" is probably not as important as the central idea that innovation is closely related to entrepreneurship (and commerce necessarily).
Bob's reply is in his homepage: http://homepage.mac.com/bobembry/studio/biz/conceptual_resources/authors/peter_drucker/entre_innovation.html
I read this newsclip somewhere in the Internet: On Tuesday night, as the city started to lose all hope, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin lamented that water from Lake Pontchartrain continued to flow into the city because promised attempts to repair the busted 17th Street Canal with giant sandbags never materialized. He should've known that stopping the flood wouldn't work. That plan was like so many that came before it: an
innovative but impossible solution to an intractable problem.
My final take here is in this story about a Cup of Coffee: A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old University of Notre Dame professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you
consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups. Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."
We'll have more on innovation next columns. Let us hear it from my favorite author and friend, Elaine Dundon (Seeds of Innovation).
BIG THANKS to kind-hearted ladies Pearl Catahan, Gigie Penalosa and Venus Tiamzon (Virginia, USA) for their contribution to RCQCNorth's Teacher Training Program for elementary school teachers in Quezon City. We are now undertaking Adopt-A- Classroom Program for Tatalon Elementary School. We still need 35 classroom guardians. To volunteer, please send email to paradigms@mydestiny.net or call 0917-899-6653.
(Moje is president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corporation and RCQCNorth. Please send feedback to moje@mydestiny.net)
Business Times p.B3
Thursday, September 08, 2005
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/sept/08/yehey/business/20050908bus12.html
Learning & Innovation
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Invent or Innovate--what we need are workable solutions for targeted problems
Innovation seems to be a very tricky topic. Let's hear it from two of our readers, Rico Belmonte and Bob Embry. Earlier Rico quoted Peter Drucker: "Invention is creating something new and original like devices or processes, innovation is putting the invention to commercial use. Thus, invention is technology and innovation is commerce."
Bob replied saying that Drucker points out that an innovation can be political, social, or economic, a change that creates a new dimension of performance. Bob said he is fairly familiar with Drucker's work (over 40 years of it) and that he doesn't remember Drucker using the term commercialization in connection with innovation.
A rejoinder from Rico: Here is what Peter Drucker actually wrote in his book "Innovation and Entrepreneurship."
. "Entrepreneurs innovate. Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. It is the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth. Innovation, indeed, creates a resource. There is no such thing as a "resource" until man finds a use for something in nature and thus endows it with economic value."
. "Innovation, then, is an economic or social rather than a technical term. It can be defined the way J. B. Say defined entrepreneurship, as changing the yield of resources. Or, as a modern economist would tend to do, it can be defined in demand terms rather than in supply terms, that is, as changing the value and satisfaction obtained from resources by the consumer."
. "Systematic innovation therefore consists in the purposeful and organized search for changes, and in the systematic analysis of the opportunities such changes might offer for economic or social innovation."
To summarize his points, innovation has to do more with economics and entrepreneurship than technology. Of course for innovation to have an impact to the economy and society in general, it has to be commercialized. Whether or not he actually said "innovation is commerce" is probably not as important as the central idea that innovation is closely related to entrepreneurship (and commerce necessarily).
Bob's reply is in his homepage: http://homepage.mac.com/bobembry/studio/biz/conceptual_resources/authors/peter_drucker/entre_innovation.html
I read this newsclip somewhere in the Internet: On Tuesday night, as the city started to lose all hope, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin lamented that water from Lake Pontchartrain continued to flow into the city because promised attempts to repair the busted 17th Street Canal with giant sandbags never materialized. He should've known that stopping the flood wouldn't work. That plan was like so many that came before it: an
innovative but impossible solution to an intractable problem.
My final take here is in this story about a Cup of Coffee: A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old University of Notre Dame professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you
consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups. Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."
We'll have more on innovation next columns. Let us hear it from my favorite author and friend, Elaine Dundon (Seeds of Innovation).
BIG THANKS to kind-hearted ladies Pearl Catahan, Gigie Penalosa and Venus Tiamzon (Virginia, USA) for their contribution to RCQCNorth's Teacher Training Program for elementary school teachers in Quezon City. We are now undertaking Adopt-A- Classroom Program for Tatalon Elementary School. We still need 35 classroom guardians. To volunteer, please send email to paradigms@mydestiny.net or call 0917-899-6653.
(Moje is president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corporation and RCQCNorth. Please send feedback to moje@mydestiny.net)
Thursday, September 1, 2005
Outplacement counseling helps displaced employees
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B3
Thursday, September 01, 2005
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/sept/01/yehey/business/20050901bus11.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Outplacement counseling helps displaced employees
THANK you Enrico Belmonte for your e-mail: “Innovation and invention are used interchangeably in everyday language. Peter Drucker differentiated them this way: Invention is creating something new and original like devices or processes, innovation is putting the invention to commercial use. Thus, invention is technology and innovation is commerce.
“Oftentimes, inventors and innovators are not the same people. Swan invented the incandescent lamp, but Edison commercialized it. A small software company invented DOS. Bill Gates bought it for a song and made a killing by licensing it to IBM. Engineers from Xerox Parc invented the PC. Steve Jobs copied it and built the first commercial version—Apple. There are exemptions. Karl Benz invented the automobile and established a car-manufacturing company—Mercedes Benz (named after his daughter).
“In companies, inventors and innovators must work together to produce new products and services. Distinguishing these two types of creativity can spell the difference between success and failure. Asking innovators to invent and inventors to innovate could be disastrous.”
Indeed, these inventors and innovators make life in business challenging and fulfilling and the business of life exciting and comfortable. Years ago, when companies streamline their operations, they retrench their employees, give them separation benefits and wish them luck.
Now one company has innovated on such experience and is advancing the concept and professional service of outplacement counseling. DBM Philippines helps companies manage changing workforce during restructuring by helping employees affected by this change and resultant job loss.
From a company’s standpoint, the decision to terminate an employee or group of employees is not without legal, public relations and business implications, as well as being traumatic for the manager undertaking the termination. From a personnel perspective, terminations can be physically, emotionally and financially devastating.
Outplacement counseling can be a significant support to minimize the trauma from the employee and the organization. “Helping retrenched employees update their resume or interview skills is only a small but key component of transition,” says Vicente “Binky” Kilayko, director of DBM Philippines. “An individual outplacement program provides coaching, counseling, training and job search for displaced employees. Such program may include relocating to a new job more in line with values, strengths and career goals, starting a business, returning to school, investigating active retirement and becoming involved in a totally different, but nonetheless interesting, endeavor. DBM’s statistics show that the vast majority of dislodged employees get back into the workforce faster, find positions equal to or greater than their previous job, and the overall reemployment rate is better than 95 percent.
“This is a service that beleaguered companies could provide, through us, to their employees. We partner with them in developing and implementing strategy, policy, programs, communication and regulatory compliance during squeeze times. These companies could then focus unperturbed on the business of getting their operations and performance back on track or of attaining targets for business excellence.”
But as my favorite TV talk-show host Suze Orman would say, “Remember people first, then things, then money.” Increasing global competition, mergers and acquisitions, downsizings and productivity improvement as well as commitments to customers, shareholders and board of directors might force some companies to make numerous adjustments; yet people should be the last “resource” cut.
If all else fails, still don’t. Life is hard enough with a job, how much more without a regular pay.
Thanks for unlimited blessings of friendships. From former PAL Maintenance Engineering big boss Pons Tuano Jr.: “Hope the attached check for your teacher training program is not too late else you can use it for your other programs at Tatalon Elementary School. Wish to help personally, but am busy nowadays with grandchildren, church activities and others. Wish you continued success.”
God bless your kind heart, Pons, and also Rotary District 3780 potential governor, Alex Cureg, for his generous contribution. The whole day yesterday, I ran around chasing paper and people for our application for financial assistance with a US-based foundation. It was soooooo tiring. It is the kind of tiredness that brings a smile in your face, because you know that people care for each other and, given the opportunity, will extend their wholehearted help. Please keep your contributions coming.
(Moje is president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp. and RC Quezon City North. She awaits your feedback at moje@mydestiny.net)
Business Times p.B3
Thursday, September 01, 2005
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/sept/01/yehey/business/20050901bus11.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Outplacement counseling helps displaced employees
THANK you Enrico Belmonte for your e-mail: “Innovation and invention are used interchangeably in everyday language. Peter Drucker differentiated them this way: Invention is creating something new and original like devices or processes, innovation is putting the invention to commercial use. Thus, invention is technology and innovation is commerce.
“Oftentimes, inventors and innovators are not the same people. Swan invented the incandescent lamp, but Edison commercialized it. A small software company invented DOS. Bill Gates bought it for a song and made a killing by licensing it to IBM. Engineers from Xerox Parc invented the PC. Steve Jobs copied it and built the first commercial version—Apple. There are exemptions. Karl Benz invented the automobile and established a car-manufacturing company—Mercedes Benz (named after his daughter).
“In companies, inventors and innovators must work together to produce new products and services. Distinguishing these two types of creativity can spell the difference between success and failure. Asking innovators to invent and inventors to innovate could be disastrous.”
Indeed, these inventors and innovators make life in business challenging and fulfilling and the business of life exciting and comfortable. Years ago, when companies streamline their operations, they retrench their employees, give them separation benefits and wish them luck.
Now one company has innovated on such experience and is advancing the concept and professional service of outplacement counseling. DBM Philippines helps companies manage changing workforce during restructuring by helping employees affected by this change and resultant job loss.
From a company’s standpoint, the decision to terminate an employee or group of employees is not without legal, public relations and business implications, as well as being traumatic for the manager undertaking the termination. From a personnel perspective, terminations can be physically, emotionally and financially devastating.
Outplacement counseling can be a significant support to minimize the trauma from the employee and the organization. “Helping retrenched employees update their resume or interview skills is only a small but key component of transition,” says Vicente “Binky” Kilayko, director of DBM Philippines. “An individual outplacement program provides coaching, counseling, training and job search for displaced employees. Such program may include relocating to a new job more in line with values, strengths and career goals, starting a business, returning to school, investigating active retirement and becoming involved in a totally different, but nonetheless interesting, endeavor. DBM’s statistics show that the vast majority of dislodged employees get back into the workforce faster, find positions equal to or greater than their previous job, and the overall reemployment rate is better than 95 percent.
“This is a service that beleaguered companies could provide, through us, to their employees. We partner with them in developing and implementing strategy, policy, programs, communication and regulatory compliance during squeeze times. These companies could then focus unperturbed on the business of getting their operations and performance back on track or of attaining targets for business excellence.”
But as my favorite TV talk-show host Suze Orman would say, “Remember people first, then things, then money.” Increasing global competition, mergers and acquisitions, downsizings and productivity improvement as well as commitments to customers, shareholders and board of directors might force some companies to make numerous adjustments; yet people should be the last “resource” cut.
If all else fails, still don’t. Life is hard enough with a job, how much more without a regular pay.
Thanks for unlimited blessings of friendships. From former PAL Maintenance Engineering big boss Pons Tuano Jr.: “Hope the attached check for your teacher training program is not too late else you can use it for your other programs at Tatalon Elementary School. Wish to help personally, but am busy nowadays with grandchildren, church activities and others. Wish you continued success.”
God bless your kind heart, Pons, and also Rotary District 3780 potential governor, Alex Cureg, for his generous contribution. The whole day yesterday, I ran around chasing paper and people for our application for financial assistance with a US-based foundation. It was soooooo tiring. It is the kind of tiredness that brings a smile in your face, because you know that people care for each other and, given the opportunity, will extend their wholehearted help. Please keep your contributions coming.
(Moje is president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp. and RC Quezon City North. She awaits your feedback at moje@mydestiny.net)
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