Plantbeat measures the health of crops

Have you heard of PlantBeat for farms? It’s being developed in Israel thanks to an Open Innovation partnership that is bringing the so-called “internet of things” to the U.S. and Central America. More on what it is in a moment. First, the partnership. Israeli agritech firm Phytech, is partnering with ADAMA Agricultural Solutions to sell…

Leading Transformative Innovation – Gaining Speed, Agility and Higher Margins

An exclusive interview with Jean E. Spence Former Executive Vice President, Research Development & Quality, Mondelez International, Inc. (formerly Kraft Foods, Inc.) Most firms today have had to change their game to compete. The economy, industry fragmentation, increasing cost of goods, consumer price-shopping, the Internet, globalization – the list of reasons goes on. While everyone…

At Boeing, Innovation Means Small Steps, Not Giant Leaps

This is a great lesson learned for aerospace giant Boeing, who recently discovered that saving up a trove of advanced technologies for a single new project was simply too expensive and disruptive to succeed.  The WSJ has the story: After a turbulent decade, Boeing Co. is rethinking its formula for innovation. The 99-year-old aerospace giant…

Innovation helps Japan’s tsunami-hit farmers bounce back

Here is a great example – one of many innovative approaches taken to help eastern Japanese farmers bounce back from the tsunami, modernize the region’s agriculture and increase farming output. SENDAI, Japan – Even before a tsunami swamped fields east of the Japanese city of Sendai in March 2011, Chikako Sasaki and her husband, a…