I’ve worked with a lot of companies big and small that have been struggling. They’re stymied by the challenges of this economy, and are looking for new ways to achieve growth and customer satisfaction. But there is hope. Their challenge is to change what the world needs rather than letting the world change them. That…
Open innovation’s secret: It takes a crisis: BusinessWeek.com NEXT Innovation Tools & Trends blog, December 3, 2009
One of my painful experiences in the pursuit of patents has been surprisingly close prior art. Even after serious and careful searching related to an invention that seems entirely new, one may later find that someone else pursued a very similar idea many years ago. Like the Good Book says, there is no truly novel…
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is seen as the busiest travel day of the year in the United States, and as I post this, millions of Americans are sitting in airports, train stations or in their cars waiting to get going on their Thanksgiving travel plans. About 38 million domestic travelers are expected to go somewhere…
It’s been a couple of months now since Starbucks launched its instant coffee, after spending years developing it and months preparing its employees to pitch the granules. The product is called Via, and comes in three-packs that go for $2.95. So has Via been an idea that will work? I haven’t had a chance to…
Could the smallest commercial gimmick in the world become a new trend in advertising? Maybe not, but I couldn’t resist posting this innovative and unconventional way of delivering messages to customers. At this year’s 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair a German book company, Eichborn, decided to create an ad campaign that was highly unusual, but effective…
Remember the hot toys from years past–Tickle Me Elmo, Cabbage Patch Dolls and Furby? This year the holiday season’s early hit is the Zhu Zhu Pets hamster, an interactive mechanical rodent. But it is also almost impossible to find as the holiday shopping season draws near. It’s not because parents are rushing out to buy…
Here’s an interesting article sure to raise controversy in the scientific community: To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, scientists at Toshiba Corp. in rural Japan are working on a way to send noxious pollutants deep into the ground. It is a technology called “carbon capture and storage” (CCS), and is being tested at the Mikawa power…
Many of our readers understand how a sound patent system can advance the public good. The US patent system, for example, is based on a social compact between inventors and the public in which inventors are asked to teach the world their secrets in exchange for a limited monopoly on the invention. For a few…
The innovation process isn’t something that is widely understood outside of the corporate realm, which is why I have a passion for writing about it and inspiring others. It’s always exciting to me when the people in the media take notice and are truly enthusiastic about inventors. Check out this nice feature article published last…