Last night I found a 50% off deal for custom created calendars. I thought it would be a good idea to buy one and customize it with my photos from China. I believed it could make a great present for my parents for Christmas, as they are always asking me for pictures and we don’t see each other so often. (Sometimes is hard to be so far away from home.)

I was all enthusiastic and started to look through all my pictures in order to find the best 12. I uploaded the pictures and double checked everything for printing. According to the website I should pay €7.99 as the calendar is half price. I went on and decided to start the checkout steps:

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Recently I came across the article ‘Survive the Recession – Become an Innovator at Work’ by Paul Sloane and I found it really interesting. The article starts with a quote of Bill Gates saying:

‘We are in an economic downturn but an innovation upturn.’

And from here it gives seven ways of focusing on the opportunity for innovation than on the downturn and the dangers it poses. One of the best advices Paul Sloane gives is to become a change agent.

Make suggestions. Introduce ideas and recommendations. Look for ways in which your department could bring in new products, business processes or partnerships. Ask yourself – is there a better way to meet the needs of our customers? Anticipate trends and suggest ways of changing the department to exploit new opportunities and new technologies.

The other six advices are as follows:

1. Adopt a positive attitude.
2. Listen to customers.
3. Watch the competition.
4. Be sensitive to office politics.
5. Don’t insist on the glory.
6. Be prepared for rejection.

If you are interested to find out more about these steps you can take towards ‘maximising your chances in the change maelstrom’ you can read the rest of the article here: ‘Survive the Recession’. What are your thoughts on this? What are your steps to survive the recession?

Picture by Jacques Strappe

The other day I received an email from a website I registered with, asking me for feedback. The website provides training in different technologies and a lot of times they have special offers and even free courses that I am more than happy to take.

I consider asking for feedback as being a good example of service design. It shows that the company is looking to improve and they are open to suggestions. They want to learn what their customers want in order to implement the changes and perfect their services to fit the customers’ needs.

Most of the times this goes well. People like to be asked about their opinion: this gives them confidence and the feel that their opinion matters. In my case, I know if I was the one asking for feedback I would like people to respond and this is why I usually reply to the feedback questioners.

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Perhaps the first question should be whether “standard” and “innovation” should even be in the same sentence. However, I feel very strongly that there are certain systematic approaches to managing innovation that might not guarantee you’ll end up with a string of guaranteed innovations, but you’ll stand a much better chance of success if you apply some best practice.

Every day we hear calls to innovate our way out of the current crisis, but there is little practical, step-by-step how-to for organisations to apply. It was with great enthusiasm that I participated within a group to help the NSAI draft a National Workshop Agreement on a Guide to Good Practice in Innovation and Product Development Processes. It’s not a perfect document. How could it be after two day-long meetings? It is a start and highlights the need for a practical approach and more practical tools.

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Last Tuesday I attended the BizSpark Innovation Accelerator in Dublin, an event organised by Microsoft Ireland in collaboration with Digital Media Forum.

The Event brought together over 200 attendees from different backgrounds but most of them  having a common goal for the day: gathering information about starting up a business.

In my opinion the event was a success as it covered everything from Licensing Agreements to HR, from Founding to PR, from research to product management to increase profitability. I firmly believe that even though the information was presented at a high level there wasn’t one person present that didn’t learn something new on the day. I know I returned with pages of notes.

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In today’s world most managers face the same problems, which become more pressing since most of the countries are facing recession. The most common question in the current economical environment is: ‘How can we reduce costs?’ and it doesn’t take long for a company to realize that one powerful opportunity lies in improving their energy management strategies.

At this stage there are lots of software companies which provide Real Time Energy Monitoring Systems and there are a lot more which are planning to enter this market.

During the last months I’ve been researching software that allows a company to monitor their energy consumption and here is what I found:

• Most of the software provides real time monitoring and alert systems.
• In order for that to happen, the companies providing the software will install their own meters.
• They store historical data in a database which can be accessed at any time through their software.
• They send alarms every time the energy consumption rises over a certain value.

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Dale Fahnstrom, IIT Institute of Design. Photo: Jordan Fischervia Core77

I would have liked to have been there to judge for myself, but Nico McDonald penned this review of the Institute of Design Strategy Conference 2007. The topics and level of presentation sound marvelous. Nico correctly calls out several questions that went unaddressed.

Which skill sets or approaches, if any, were working or being applied in the areas which design is now claiming? If the case for design is so strong, why isn’t it being adopted more by corporations, organizations and governments? And to the extent it is being adopted, are other motives driving this adoption, and might their impact derail delivery?

I’ll also note the list of usual suspects from Steelcase to Phillips to Roger Martin to Hasso Plattner. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with their approach and you’ll find their quotes and case studies sprinkled throughout this site, but where are the representatives from smaller organisations that resonate with the SMEs we primarily work with?

Bruce Nussbaum is at it again with a compelling speech naming the two greatest barriers to innovation as ignorant CEOs and ignorant designers.

Cost and quality are commoditized today, merely the price of entry to the competitive game. Design and design thinking—or innovation if you like–are the fresh, new variables that can bring advantage and fat profit margins to global corporations. In today’s global marketplace, being able to understand the consumer, prototype possible new products, services and experiences, quickly filter the good, the bad and the ugly and deliver them to people who want them—well, that is an attractive management methodology. Beats the heck out of squeezing yet one more penny out of your Chinese supply-chain, doesn’t it? Let me emphasize this. I think managers have to BECOME designers, not just hire them. I think CEOs have to embrace design thinking, not just hire someone who gets it. I think many business schools have to merge with design schools, not just play poke and tickle with them.

Imagine the scene. You are a young designer, perhaps just finishing your degree and you already have 3 job offers from exciting companies in your own country.

Where is this nirvana? India, where companies are falling over themselves to employ designers as a means of generating competitive advantage.
Does this sound like Ireland? Well, no. Not yet anyway. Most of the brightest and best still find the only way to work is overseas. The future of a successful design industry in Ireland is demand-led; and it can’t come too soon.

There have been many examples of people openly protesting organisations that blatantly destroy the environment. Could this be the first example of a peaceful campaign to urge a manufacturer to adopt sustainable practices? I was astonished to read earlier this year that Apple ranked lowest in a study of environmental practices by 14 electronic manufacturers.

Greening your products and services is a point of differentiation today. Will it be a cost of entry in the future?

Green My Apple website