May 1963…
Glasses light your work. Tiny bulbs above the lenses of these spectacles and batteries in the earpieces would put light where you want it and let you use both hands.
Opaque reflectors behind the bulbs would focus the light and keep it out of your eyes. Switches in the frames would let you use either or both lights.
German inventor creates robot… When a German inventor found the task of dialling telephone numbers too burdensome, he did not bewail the mechanization of the service in the interests of efficiency.
Instead, he went one better than the telephone engineers and invented an automatic dialler.
Stops, on this device, are preset for the fifty numbers most frequently called.
A knob on top of the attachment is moved to the desired number. Pressing a thumb lever at the front of the device does the rest.
The fifty numbers may be changed at any time, to correspond with a new list.
December 1963…
You wouldn’t have to inch your way to a pump at a busy gas station that had track-mounted pumps like these. The recently patented system would let you park in any vacant bay at the service island and wait (in or out of the car) for the pump to come to you. Reel-up hoses would feed the movable pumps from a central supply.
Punch a hole in the wall of your victims home behind where a picture usually hangs. Make sure it’s a plasterboard wall otherwise you could quite seriously hurt yourself!
Purchase a fish from your local supermarket or fishmonger.
Place the fish in the wall and then rehang the picture!
Researchers from the university of California have created a new invention that can create energy at night.
Solar panels have always had one massive drawback that of they are no good at creating energy when the sun has gone down!
The team of University of California Davis researchers have developed what they are referring to as an “anti-solar-panel”.
Instead of generating energy from the sun anti-solar panels, as the name suggests, do the opposite. Anti-solar panels generate energy by using the heat that radiates off of the earths surface at night.
So, where a traditional solar panel would absorb photons from the sun’s radiation to generate energy anti-solar panels use a process known as radiative cooling. Air grows cooler at night and so heat radiates from the earth’s surface. The heat radiates in the form of infra-red light. The new panels can absorb this energy to generate power.
by Dean Himmelreich
(Milwaukee)
June 1963…
Garden edging blocks with long stakes precast and protruding from one side would prevent the need for having to dig a trench and would also keep them from moving or getting kicked around your garden.
This idea from April 1963 might be useful for those who like to do a portage – fold in wheels that can help you carry your boat or canoe.
The lightweight wheels can be carried in a small boat or canoe, making lake to cabin hauling or lake to lake portaging much easier. This idea which was patented; the wheels would be hinged to a frame and clamped to the gunwales.
Thumbscrews would lock them in riding position and then could be released to enable them to swing inboard, one on top of the other.
One downside is that there could be slightly less room for storage of all the rest of your essentials.
Also this idea may not be quite as relevant now given that modern day canoes can be made with very light materials.
October 1963…
Sunken ships might be raised quickly and economically, according to this recent patent, by pumping in foam. A diver would locate or prepare a closed compartment, insert a hose and nozzle. Pumps on a salvage ship would force in resin and catalyst. Combined at the nozzle, they’d set up to form a buoyant, closed-cell foam.
Open market innovation is a term that was first coined by Darrell Rigby and Chris Zook. Its basic premise is that companies can reach beyond their internal environment. So rather than relying on the company’s research and development department for the latest innovations the company reaches out to the market using such techniques as licensing, joint ventures, and strategic alliances or innovation partnerships to bring ideas in or to put ideas out.
It is also a term promoted by Henry Chesbrough who defines it as
a paradigm that assumes firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology
The advantages of seeking external sources to import and export ideas not only increases a company’s ability to innovate but also should assist staff retention. Creative people will be more motivated if their ideas are being used externally in terms of licensing arrangements with outside firms rather than simply being tossed to one side. Such licensing arrangements can also provide the company with additional revenue.
Obviously there are risks from such open market undertakings too. With the main risk being not able to effectively monetize from the ideas that are collaborated across organizational boundaries. This risk is best mitigated by putting a deal structure in place to protect your company’s best interests.
Done effectively open market innovation can extract creative ideas from government laboratories, universities, suppliers, customers and even the public as a whole. General Electric have effectively involved external sources for ideas by creating a web site where businesses, entrepreneurs, scientists, innovators, students and anyone else can submit ideas to help create a cleaner, more efficient and more economically viable power grid. Ideas are submitted via an ecoimagination web site and the best ideas are assisted with financial investment.
Define your objectives. Have you got a particular problem domain that needs solving? Have you got great ideas that don’t tie in particularly well with your businesses core competencies but don’t want to see these ideas go to waste? New consumer needs to satisfy?
Consider what networks you already have available. Is your organization a member of any external groups? Do you employ interns through the summer from the local university? Does your Internet facing web site encourage participation from the public? Do you meet with your top suppliers / customers? All of the aforementioned are avenues that you can explore for sharing ideas.
Consider adjacent products that may complement and enhance your existing brands. Procter and Gamble did this with their Crest brand, they expanded from Crest toothpaste to Crest electric toothbrushes, Crest floss and even Crest whitening strips.
Fast innovation surprises competitors and therefore assists in gaining competitive advantage by increasing overall speed to market which in turn should ultimately increase profitability.
The rapid introduction of new or enhanced products or services leaves competitors with two options: they can either continue as planned, introducing a product or service to a market with a very much reduced opportunity or they can re-direct their efforts on to other projects.
Providing quick innovations delights customers by frequently improving their perceived levels of added value.
Of course producing innovations so that they meet the required delivery date and so that they create a differential offering with a high probability of success is no easy task.
Fast innovation does not mean hurried innovation.
One method used by many large organizations for accelerating the innovation process is rapid prototyping.
Another method is to re-use wherever possible. What aspects of the innovation process are you able to re-use? One is of course knowledge that is already available elsewhere – such as open innovation or knowledge directly from your customers or suppliers.
A further method is to adopt some of the techniques but forward by the lean movement. One simple but clear definition for Lean is
“…the relentless pursuit of the perfect process through waste elimination…”
Here you would apply lean tools and techniques to the innovation process to reduce any waste that is inherent in the process.
Lean defines seven types of waste that can exist in a process…
| Type of Waste | Description |
| Over Production | A product has been made for no specific customer |
| Waiting | A product is sat waiting to be processed |
| Transport | Moving a product between locations |
| Inventory | Waste in terms of the costs to store the product |
| Over-processing | Process steps that do not add value |
| Motion | The excessive movement of people |
| Defects | Errors during or within the process |
Fast innovation also incorporates some of the tools and techniques from the six sigma realm including VOC or voice of the customer and QFD or quality function deployment.
VOC to ensure that you are building the right thing and QFD to ensure you are focussing predominantly on what is most important to meet your customer’s CTQ (Critical To Quality) aspects.
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In the book, Fast Innovation – Achieving Superior Differentiation, Speed to Market, and Increased Profitability by Michael George, James Works, Kimberly Watson-Hemphill, and Clayton Christensen
Three innovation imperatives are proposed:
This book’s key focus is on fast time to market and suggests that one way to get faster at this is to reduce the number of projects that you currently have active.
US Residents can purchase this book from Amazon by clicking here and UK residents by clicking here
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