The Four Tempations of an Innovator

Great article on the Four Tempations of the Innovator from the Idea Hub section of American Express's website. Home Run syndrome, Bells & Whistles-itis, over-complication and the dangers of incentivizing...a well-articulated write up of some of innovation's most notable adversaries.

(via Open Forum)

Baby Crying? There's an App for that

Wondering why your baby is crying? Check out the Cry Translator, an innovative new piece of software from Biloop Technologies slated to hit the App store next week. It analyzes the pitch, volume, and tone of your babies howl, and “translates” it's findings into one of five categories: hungry, sleepy, stressed, annoyed or bored.

On a grand scale, this strikes me as a baby step (pun intended) towards the development of point of care healthcare diagnostics. On a smaller scale, echoing what the Wired folks said a bit, this really reminds me of the "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes" episode of the Simpsons, where Homer's brother Hank develops and makes a bundle off an invention that translates baby-babbly. Either way pretty cool...

[via Wired's GadgetLab]

Denim Means Business

The Prez! Throwing his fast ball...in jeans! But not just him; what about Steve Jobs and his classic jeans-with-no-belt look? In what has to be the most innovative repackaging, repositioning, re-whatever-you-want-to-call it, jeans are back in a whole new way, now the most integral part of the trendiest "power" look in business class.

Check out this story about Power Jeans from the Wall Street Journal.

Stephen King Scavenger Hunt

UK publisher Hodder & Stoughton has schemed an innovative way to release Stephen King's upcoming book, Under the Dome. They've broken the horror novelists new tome into 5,000 snippets, and scattered the pieces across the UK and hundreds of websites (the most recent discovery was made on GQ.com). The person who finds the most wins a grand prize – obviously – but for King's rabid fan base, the chance to read new stuff, no matter how little, prior to the book's release date is a prize in and of itself.

Stairways to Heaven

On the off chance that anyone is spending Sunday afternoon designing their dreamhouse, these photos of innovative staircases should provide some inspiration.

Part of this Complete Breakfast

Happy Halloween everyone!

I was in the supermarket yesterday morning buying candy for trick or treaters, and decided to run a little mental exercise. I asked myself, what are the three largest products categories in the store, in terms of choice and variety? I did a quick lap around, and here's what I came up with:
1. Cereal
2. Potato Chips
3. Toothpaste

Numbers 1 & 2 didn't surprise me, but the third did. You'd never think toothpaste would make this list, but maybe that's because the product tends to be smaller, and come in palm-sized packaging. But look for yourself next time your in a supermarket. "Whitening," "now with Scope," "Tartar control," "citrus splash"...these are the descriptors consumers want, and the toothpaste people are listening. Each brand now has a laundry list of extension products, flavor selection is approaching the rainbow-status of Vitamin Water, and the result is one of the dense-ist aisle gauntlets in the store.

Now in terms of cereal, the fact that they were my clear #1 shouldn't surprise anyone. There are more variations of Raisin Bran than there are gossip magazines at the checkout. The selection of names runs a gamut from cartoon characters (Count Chocula) to Biblical references (Ezekiel 4:9). Every fruit, nut and grain in the world is present and accounted for in some form or another.

Recognizing that the cereal world now has such a complete selection of ingredients made me think of an innovative new business I saw online, named Moja Mix. A build-your-own-cereal service, Moja Mix essentially plops someone into the cereal aisle, tears the box tops off everything, and lets customers pick and choose what they want and the dosage size. Face it – the cereal aisle is as vast and huge as the world itself, with recipes and flavor combinations as culturally representative as a UN summit. Something like this, that puts the customer in charge, seems like a natural progression.

Paint your Walls with Ideas

I remember seeing black board paint for the first time and being impressed by the concept. Write on the walls? Why not - loved the idea! However, a few "clapping the erasers" in middle school detention flashbacks and the thought of having chalk dust swirling around in the air during meetings made me hold off and stick with paper and pen for a bit longer.

But a couple of weeks ago one of my fellow innovationists saw something at the ICA in Boston that showed me how far along the broader concept had come. IdeaPaint, conceived by some college buddies during a brainstorming session, is a paint that turns any surface into a white board. Very cool!

An Ice Breaker for Power Lines

By now, those of you who follow the NFL have probably seen highlights of Tom Brady & Co.'s 59-0 drubbing of the Tennessee Titans last Sunday. More ridiculous than his statline (6 TD's and 380 yards passing in less than 3 quarters work) was the fact that a wintery mix of sleet and snow - keep in mind we're talking about mid-October - moved in over the field about an hour before gametime and lasted until the final whistle.

The HD vision of Foxboro got the rest of New England thinking about Jack Frost breathing down their neck, and probably triggered a mad, postgame dash to Home Depot for bags of sand, ice melt and shovels.

Winter in New England can run the gamut of blizzards to Nor'easters, hail and rain to weeks of sub-zero temperatures. It can mean everything from school closings to grocery store's running out of milk within an hour of the weatherman giving his forecast. It can also mean ice storms, trees collapsing under their own weight, frozen power lines, and millions of people across our region losing power for extended periods of time. As it did last year.

That's why we're hoping this innovation from Dartmouth engineering professor Victor Petrenko has legs. He's envisioned a system that increases the amount of power/heat that courses through a set of power lines. The lines can be juiced up with the flip of a switch, until they are hot enough to melt any ice that may build up during the course of a storm. If implemented, his invention could mean saving millions in cleanup and repair...not to mention keeping folks with power in thier homes during a season they need it most.

Sears Gives Shoppers the Points Up Front

Here is some interesting business model innovation from KMart/Sears, just in time for the Holidays (which, according to the world of retail, starts the day after Halloween). The Sears Christmas Club gets shoppers to sign up for a certain amount of spending, and then gives them the bonus points that amount entitles them to up front. This is like a Sub Club card where they start you off with a freebie. Not a bad idea, especially considering that the economic climate that will likely hang like a dark cloud over the shopping season.


(via Springwise)