Gravitytank. The World's Most Innovative Companies. It was a fitting way to wrap up the first day of IBM's (IBM) innovation-themed leadership forum, held in Rome in early April. Guests were treated to small group tours of the Vatican Museum, including Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. They sipped cocktails on a patio in the back of St. Peter's, the vast dome of the basilica outlined by the light of the moon. They dined in a marble-statue-filled hall inside the Vatican. What better place than Italy to hold a global confab on innovation, the topic di giorno among corporate leaders? Quiz>> The next day, at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, 500-odd corporate executives, government leaders, and academics listened as a diverse group of innovative leaders took the stage.
Their stories echoed a comment IBM CEO Samuel J. Palmisano, to be sure, was making a subtle pitch for IBM and its ability to help the assembled leaders do well in an increasingly challenging business environment. Slide Show >> Procter & Gamble Co. Welcome » EPIC 2010. 道 Dō captures the sense of individual mastery that is achieved only with the help of a community and its rich heritage. 道 Dō implies a body of knowledge and tradition with an ethic and an aesthetic. 道 Dō is the "path" we have travelled and also the way ahead of us. 道 Dō in ethnography symbolizes the dynamic between ethnography's internal strengths (its essence, our values, its heritage, its rigor and disciplined approach) and its applications to the world (to enhancement of people's lives, to innovation, to transformation of industries, to business growth).
It is the "path" we have come from but also the way ahead of us. "Do" in English represents action, execution and optimism. EPIC 2010 will feature a wide range of ethnographic applications in industry, different "ways" forward. Organizational. Ethnography.com. Institute of Shopper Insight | Sei-katsu-sha Insight | Hakuhodo Inc., 東京大学i.school. Claro Partners - Our work. The Fundamentals of Innovation | Jump Associates. How IBM, Hallmark, and Apple get innovation right—but not for the reasons you might think. Originally Published in BusinessWeek, February 2010 As the economic environment stabilizes, there’s a temptation to return to business as usual.
And although much about the future of the economy is uncertain, I can say with some confidence that a return to the recent status quo would be a colossal mistake. GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt said it best in a speech he gave to the Business for Social Responsibility conference in November 2008. “This economic crisis doesn’t represent a cycle. It represents a reset. It’s an emotional, social, economic reset. How do you navigate an enterprise through uncertain times? Get In Touch With the World For individuals, empathy affords the ability to step outside their own perspective to see the world as other people do.
In the early 1990s, IBM (IBM) was in crisis. Hungering For Wild Ideas All companies run on creativity—it’s how they add value. Punish Inaction. Ideas – The Future of Strategy is Hybrid | Jump Associates. Going beyond usability and incremental innovation to target new markets - PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) Going beyond usability and incremental innovation to target new marketsNEC Display Solutions Innovation is human nature Situation Analysis Global Fortune 500 company NEC provides core technologies for a connected world, including broadband, e-commerce, and enterprise business solutions. One of its key businesses, NEC Display Solutions, Ltd. Insight With experience analyzing workscapes, people, practices, and various technologies in diverse settings, PARC ethnographers had already identified a number of problems with general projector use.
Projectors are not designed appropriately for social contexts of use. Process/Methods Through a brief, exploratory needs-and-opportunity discovery study, PARC ethnographers had already identified a number of problems with workplace projector use. Classroom contexts introduced a new set of problems. Results In practice, projectors are social objects that present problems that, in turn, cause more problems. Downloads PDF of this case study (106K)