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.
Martin Gilliard
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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.
BEFORE EMBARKING ON OPEN MARKET INNOVATION YOU SHOULD…
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.
Please note that as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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:
- Differentiation: “Providing the customer with superior performance per unit of cost.”
- Fast time-to-market: Quickly creating new innovations to displace the commoditized old and getting to the market quickly enough to earn high margins from the product or service.
- Disruptive innovations: Embracing disruptive innovations in order to empower growth and break away from the competition.
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
(Photo Credit: National Museum of American History)
Elias Howe Jr. or inventor Howe as he is also known was the pioneer of the sewing machine. Although there had been several inventions at around the same time as that of Howe yet it was his design and patented sewing machine that made its way to become the first most successfully developed and sold sewing machine in the world.
Elias Howe Jr. was the son of Elias Howe Sr. and Polly Howe. Descendants of Edmund Rice and John Howe, Elias Howe Jr. was raised in Spencer, Massachusetts and later moved to Cambridge pretty early in his career in search of work.
Howe started off working for a mill, a textile factory, as early as 1835 when he was only 16. He was born on 9th of July, 1819. The panic of 1837 lead to the shutting down of mills in Spencer and that compelled Howe to move to Cambridge where he worked as a mechanic until 1838 along with his cousin, Nathaniel P Banks. Howe would do quite a few jobs in the following years, get married to Elizabeth Jennings Ames in 1941 and have three children named Jane, Simon and Julia.
Inventor Howe had been contemplating on developing a sewing machine for quite a few years and he finally succeeded in acquiring the first US Patent on 10th September, 1846.
For almost a hundred years preceding Howe’s invention, there have been numerous models of sewing machines but what Howe did differently was that he used the needle with an eye at the point which eventually made its way to every sewing machine model and variant including the electric ones in years and centuries to come.
Despite Howe’s significant achievement, times were tough for him when he struggled to sell his design and find investors to get the ball rolling. He, along with his elder brother tried to make it big in the UK where initially they had found an investor, client and friend in William Thomas but soon the association broke down and Howe was back to the US in 1948 when he almost had no money on him.
Another pioneer of the sewing machine, Isaac Singer who had by then started to manufacture and sell sewing machines on a large scale, had been gaining a lot of recognition. Shortly after the death of Howe’s wife, he filed a lawsuit against Singer and his associates for using his design without the consent. Howe won the lawsuit and his association thereafter with Singer and others brought in a revolution of sorts in the world of sewing.
Inventor Howe later served during the Civil War, made handsome contributions to the Union Army, made contributions to the invention of zipper but did not pursue to see it take shape. Elias Howe Jr. died on 3rd October 1867 as a multimillionaire.
There is thought to be no one single inventor of hockey in fact the creation of hockey is somewhat of a mystery. There are many claims to its invention, but no consensus.
Ice hockey is a sport that is played throughout the world in professional leagues such as the NHL and in cul-de-sacs across North America and it is also the national pastime in Canada. Known as the “coolest game on Earth and also one of the fastest because of the ice too!
When considering its invention no one can pin point the exact origins of hockey, there are several ancient sports that resemble hockey however all of these sports differ in specific areas.
One of these sports was Ijscolf a game where a wooden curved bat was used to hit a wooden or leather ball between 2 poles at an object with the least amount of shots.
Another game that resembled ice hockey is a game called Knattleikr which was played by the Vikings many years ago.
The most popular theory on the invention of hockey is that it evolved in Canada sometime around when the country was being settled by Europeans.
The winters brought snow and cold weather but this didn’t deter Canadians from continuing with sporty pastimes – new sports were created using the ice as their new playing fields.
The European settlers played a primitive form of hockey that was influenced by the game of Knattleikr – a game played by various Aboriginal groups and Icelandic immigrants in which the players would hit a ball with sticks.
Not long after the arrival of the modern ice skate in the nineteenth century people started making there skating experiences more interesting by shooting a ball or a puck across the ice with a stick.
Many generations of improvements have led to what today is now known to be the world’s most popular winter team sport.
What is clear is that hockey as we know it today evolved from Canada and Canada is the country that provides the main supply of NHL talent.
The people of Quebec believe that modern day hockey was first played at McGill University in Montreal, whereas the people of Ontario believe it was first played in Kingston. Then there is also the city of Halifax in Nova Scotia who also makes claims to the invention of hockey.
Hockey the name actually derives from the French word hoquet which means “shepherd’s crook”.
Hockey as an organized team sport began in Canada in the mid-1850’s with the first league forming in Kingston and consisting of four clubs.
Everyone has their own take on who created hockey but one thing we know for sure is that there is no one inventor of hockey as hockey developed over centuries with the game still being changed today.
Photo Credit: Airselfie
This new invention called Airselfie is a great replacement for the traditional selfie stick!
Even with a selfie stick, it can often be very difficult to get a big group of people into a photo. This problem is resolved by this new drone that flies in the air and takes that perfect selfie for you.
The device has been invented by a US Company called Airselfie.
“People are taking 100 million selfies a day,” says general manager Greg Appelhof. “Our market is Gen Z and millennials, who want to get that perfect shot.”
The selfie drone is expected to retail for $99.95 (£76.40) and it has special technology built into it that can help it focus on the people in the picture it is about to take.
Photo Credit: Nexmind
This clever device invented by French technology company Nexmind aims to do away with such things as a television remote control.
Using sensors it scans for electrical brain activity. The user can focus on a particular thing on the screen in front of them and the device can then work out what you are focussing on.
As well as remote controls it could also be useful in certain video games.
Photo Credit: Orcam
If you wear a hearing aid yourself or you’ve ever discussed them with someone who does yo may well be aware that hearing aids pick up sounds from all over the place. Often sounds that the wearer is not particularly interested in hearing, such as distracting background noises.
In an attempt to resolve this problem an Israeli company called Orcam has developed The Hear, which is basically a wearable camera. The camera identifies who is speaking and then uses lip-reading technology to enable the hearing aid to focus-in just on the conversation coming from that individual.