Education, healthcare, banking and innovation
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It is always fun discussing new product ideas, solutions to existing problems and potential new markets. A couple of markets that consistently crop up in discussions I have had lately include: education, healthcare and banking.
Healthcare
Healthcare is an emotive subject, especially in the US, and a space ready for some new innovation.
“Don’t listen to the naysayers. The time to jump into healthcare IT is now, said Frank Moss, director of new media medicine at MIT’s Media Lab.”
This is easier said than done due to the complex nature of the market. I am interested in learning more about this space and as part of my research came across a few start ups:
Open innovation continues to pay off: The use of external partnerships grows increasingly productive over time
It is great to read in this report that an open approach to innovation is paying off now and setting a course for bigger dividends down the line. Open Innovation has challenges, however, I feel we are entering a new world of product development, funding, growth and delivery; openness is becoming a real asset both internally and externally for companies, especially SMEs. Large organisations are also experimenting.
Open Design City Berlin: let’s see more of this happening
The Open Design City in Berlin is an interesting initiative focusing on community driven innovation and collaboration. Through providing affordable access to space, resources and community they aim to foster a powerful movement promoting innovative thinking, problem solving and imaginative delivery. Excellent stuff.
Innovation is one of the most powerful forces in the world
Bill Gates says that Innovation is one of the most powerful forces in the world - I couldn’t agree more – the context for his statement was the ongoing challenge to find a vaccine for Malari [Charting a Course to End Malari], something which would impact millions of lives [Malaria vaccine could save millions of children's lives]. Innovative thinking touches every aspect of our life and needs to be encouraged [China sets up award to encourage innovation on campus] – although I disagree with the goal being patents – and supported [A new way to Reward Innovation].
BTW – happy to see Toronto ranked number four in the City Innovation rankings for USA, Canada and South America.
A Toronto Weekly Roundup
Plenty happened this week from Government funded support for startups in Ontario through to the Conference Board of Canada giving Canada D for innovation. A couple of upcoming events in the Toronto area worth putting in the diary including: Open House at the Digital Media Zone and Toronto Startup Weekend Nov 18 – 20th - this upcoming keynote about Universities and their role in Innovation and Entreprenuership looks like it will address an important topic; are universities doing enough for entreprenuers?
Startups, innovation and university incubators
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When I started out with Curverider, I wish there had been services such as the Digital Media Zone at Ryerson University and Velocity at the University of Waterloo available. There wasn’t, at my university, so it was a case of plunging in feet first, making lots of mistakes and learning on the job. While I think learning by doing is powerful, I would also argue that there is no accounting for experience. Starting a business is a minefield and the help that these university backed incubators provide is invaluable.
In the early days I am sure we were not alone in focusing on the product with the business side being more of an after thought. Personally speaking, I was not prepared for all that running a business entails: company legals, accounting, employment law, trademarking, patents, growth strategies, financing, shareholding, forecasting, company boards, intellectual property, marketing, software licensing, dispute management, PR, market segmentation, budgeting …
Product Development, Fuzzy Interpretation and Innovation
Open Design (Image available under Creative Commons via Z33 Arts Centre)
After a stimulating conversation with Jay Bal over at WMG (Warwick Uni) around open innovation, I have been thinking some more about the potential for small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to harness an open approach to product development and what this could mean for innovation.
There is evidence to suggest that significant benefit can be derived through opening up the product development process to external collaborators (Chesbrough, 2003). Open-source hardware development at MIT in conjunction with Nokia highlights some benefits of such an approach:
Nokia decided to work with MIT on open-source video decoders (among other open-source projects) because it realized that if all chip makers–even those that compete with Nokia’s suppliers–had access to decoder designs, Nokia could reduce development time overall and reap the benefits of potential innovation. (Greene , 2008)
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