Is There Magic Sauce?

I just found out my friend Sarah has launched her own business start up!  This is for Sarah!

Invention v. Innovation: What's the Difference?

Invention is the idea, and innovation is bringing the idea to market.  As we claw our way out of the Great Recession toward recovery, invention is needed to generate new economy.

Enjoy today's reads as we head into the Christmas weekend! 

Question of the Day?  Do you still think there are great American inventors?

 

• Invention v. Innovation (IP Frontline)
• Invention is The Mother of Economic Growth (Bloomberg)
• Malcolm Gladwell on the difference between invention and innovation (Tech Dirt). 

• Alexander Graham Bell: Inventor of the Telephone
• Though he was born in Scotland and spent some time in Ontario, Alexander Graham Bell didn't actually start inventing until he settled in Boston and became an American citizen...
  John Moses Browning: Inventor of the Semi-Automatic Shotgun
  With over 30 million firearms based on his designs, great American inventor John Moses Browning is one of history's most accomplished weapons designers...
  Willis Carrier: Inventor of Air Conditioning
  If someone made a list of everyday innovations that Americans just couldn't live without, Willis Carrier's invention might be at the top...
  Samuel Colt: Inventor of the Colt Revolver
  Nothing says "Old West" more than Samuel Colt's revolver invention. Originally patented in 1836, many historians have gone so far as to say that Colt's invention changed the course of American history...
  Henry Ford: Inventor of the Moving Assembly Line
  Contrary to popular belief, great American inventor Henry Ford did not invent the automobile. The invention of the first automobile is generally credited to Karl Benz...
  Robert Fulton: Inventor of the Steamboat
  Famous American inventor Robert Fulton didn't actually create the machine he is most commonly associated with (the steamboat), but his innovations did make it commercially viable...
  Charles Goodyear: Inventor of Vulcanized Rubber
  By the mid 1830s, it seemed as though the rubber industry in America was going under. Miraculously, it was saved by a great inventor who had no knowledge of chemistry...
  Cyrus McCormick: Inventor of the Mechanical Reaper
  Not long after Eli Whitney invented the Cotton Gin, Cyrus McCormick invented another significant agricultural invention that revolutionized farming...
  Samuel F.B. Morse: Inventor of the Telegraph and Morse Code
  Like many other great inventors throughout history, Samuel F.B. Morse was fairly eclectic in his interests. This diversity would lead him to his most famous accomplishment..
  Dr. Jonas Salk: Inventor of the Polio Vaccine
  While there is still no actual cure for Polio, thanks to inventor Dr. Jonas Salk there is a way to prevent the infectious viral disease...
  Eli Whitney: Inventor of the Cotton Gin
  If some people are born with the natural ability to invent, Eli Whitney certainly was one of them. From a young age, Whitney had an innate understanding of machinery...
  Orville & Wilbur Wright: Inventors of the Airplane
  On December 17, 1903, a pair of great inventors from Ohio named Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the world's first airplane. The invention, known as the Wright Flyer, took to the skies for 12 seconds...
  
  

Tech Tuesday

My Tech Tuesday reading:

• As Banks Start Nosing Around Facebook and Twitter, the Wrong Friends Might Just Sink Your Credit (Beta Beat)  
  
• What is a Brand Worth Online?  (IdeaLab)  
• Mobile App Trends 2012 (IT Business Edge)
• A look back on what PC World said the hottest new innovations would be in 2009.  How did they do in their predictions?  (PC World)
• 2012 Innovation Honors (International CES)
• The NTSBs Proposed Phone Ban: Tech Policy Goes Off The Road
  (Consumer Electronics Association)
  * 2017 Update: The Truth and Consequences of Districted Driving (Best of Bikers). 

Question of The Day: Do you support the proposal by The National Transportation Safety Board to ban use of all portable electronic devices while driving?  Post your comments.

How I see it: While it always seems like a good idea to make laws to protect human life, we must think before we act.  Freedom of American citizens on the one hand, and the regulatory powers of government on the other, are always the politics of lawmaking. 

Adult Americans do not need a nanny state.  What we need is to learn how to be safe drivers and use technology responsibly.  Banning modern communication technologies will hurt jobs and business growth in this fragile time of economic recovery.  There must be a better way. 

If we all make our personal safety, as well as that of others a main priority while driving, and remember a motor vehicle is a powerful, and potentially deadly machine when not operated properly, we might pay a little more attention while driving.  Each of us making a choice to drive safely so we do not end a human life is one we should all make right now.   

Think about if you die from doing something stupid driving.  Who will be hurt by your death?  Think about killing another person.  Someone's father, or mother, or brother, or sister, or grandparent?  What child will suffer the loss of their provider and caregiver?  How will that change their life?  

Let's stop being stupid and drive smart from this day forward!

Stat of the Day:  In 2010, 32,885 people lost their lives in motor-vehicle accidents; “distraction-affected crashes” caused 3,092 of those fatalities, while 10,228 resulted from drunk driving.

Follow us on Twitter @whatsnewamerica

Monday Startup

What's New for a Monday?

•  Innovation in urban planning is a challenge for old rust belt urban cities like my hometown--Buffalo.  "Buffalo, Then and Now (1902-2011)" is a very interesting read.   (The Atlantic).
• As a follow up, this book "Small, Gritty, and Green" by Catherine Tumber is an interesting idea for American small to medium industrial cities to show innovation and ingenuity in urban revitalization. 
• Three Things Entrepreneurs Do For Our Economy (Kauffman Foundation).

China Thieves: Time for Justice

Quick Saturday thought before heading out the door...

Thought leadership = global leadership. The Chinese, in all their supposed superiority, have yet to learn this lesson. (Bloomberg--China Based Hacking Cyber Cold War).

Last week, I blogged about Steve Jobs' wisdom, "You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new."

Stolen American intellectual property, not Chinese ideas, are meeting their demand for what is new. This strategy will work in the short term, but not forever. 

America needs to give the Chinese justice right now, and make them pay for their thieving ways using every means of economic, political, technological, and monetary force we can to make China pay back what they have stolen. Bottom line: The Chinese lack character, morals, and integrity. This is why they will never be America. How can we make China pay for what they steal?

First, we need to innovate new cyber security systems for government and business, and effectively lock out the Chinese hackers.  

Then, we can fight them with monetary policy, trade policy, and other political means.

Most powerful of all, we can use market forces. Is it more important to get cheap goods or stand up to the bully who steals your lunch every day?

U.S. companies can also gradually focus on developing nations. American innovation and investment in the next emerging markets can put competitive pressures on the Chinese. When China no longer has ideas to steal, they will have to stand on their own innovation capabilities.   Their students may have studied in America, but they cannot copy the fabric of what it means to be American. Chinese culture is not America. What makes America great is who we are. The fruit of who we are produces our innovation, economy, government, military, and free society.

  It is time for America to get a backbone and tell China we could care less how much debt of ours you hold. American political, financial, and technological innovation can lock the Chinese out of our market of ideas.

China can only copy and steal from America.  China is goof at building things, but terrible in creativity.  We are the nation where people like Steve Jobs are free to become inventors and innovators without restraint. Right now, the Chinese want what we have so they are stealing it. Those days are numbered. Eventually, China will want new things, and will not be able to steal them for America. Then what? They obviously cannot produce world changing ideas.

When China's thieving ways produce global justice and they are punished by government policy, market forces, and American genius to prevent the thieves from breaking in, America will still be innovating, entrepreneurs will be creating new ventures, and China will have to stand in line to get the American life--again.

Innovate or Die. Innovate and Die.

Every Friday, we will devote this space to HOW TO NOT DO IT!  Let's be honest.  We all have ideas that stink and do not work out from time to time.  We are not here to "pile on" people who had decent ideas that did not work out.  We all can feel bad for good people who chased a dream that died. 

This space will draw attention to innovation and entrepreneurship failures that fit the category, "What were they thinking?!" Failures so big or ridiculous we all need to learn a lesson from them. 

As we come to the end of another year, here are my two picks for the "What were you thinking" prize for 2011.  These are the business school case studies of tomorrow on innovation and entrepreneurship gone bad.

What were they thinking????  Lesson: INNOVATE OR DIE. 

Founded in 1971 by the Borders Brothers, Tom and Louis, while in college at The University of Michigan, then acquired in 1992 by Kmart, they stopped making a profit in 2006.  In February 2011, they filed chapter 11 and closed its doors in September. 

If you boil down to one underlying strategic error Borders made, it is this: LACK OF INNOVATION.  They were never first movers on anything.  They were forever "come-along" "me-too" players in the book selling industry when the internet and Amazon changed everything. 

1. Giving their online business over to competitor Amazon was a huge mistake.  It was a branding message to the market, "We really fell behind, and want to make money off this internet thing, so Amazon does it better than us, so buy from Amazon."  Unbelievable!
2. Ever hear of Kindle and Nook?  Absolutely.  Ever hear of Kobo and Cruz?  Me neither.  Too late to the e-book and e-reader game as well.  The CEO and Board of Borders failed their investors, ruined the brand, and fell behind in the book seller race never to catch up.  
3. Borders majored on the minors and minored on the majors.  Again, by being behind the times instead of leading the times, Borders decided it would be a good idea to invest into CD sales of music when iPod and the Apple Store were revolutionizing the music industry.
4. Bad management also plagued Borders.  Too much debt, expanding too much during the real estate boom years, and their branding and marketing failures are now a lesson that B-School case studies will teach for years to come on HOW TO KILL A BUSINESS.
   
   
   

What were they thinking? LESSON: INNOVATE AND DIE.

When CEO Reed Hastings got over-confident and then lost 800,000 customers, you have to ask, "What were they thinking?"  The market understood that Netflix would eventually raise prices.  Streaming content means licensing costs from content generators.  People get that.  They will compare on demand from their cable provider versus Netflix. 

But call the red envelopes we get in the mail to buy movies Qwikster?

After losing 800,000 customers their shareholders panic.  Then, those they buy content from want more money up front just in case they are a little short on cash.  Then, being short on cash, Reed Hastings has to go to the capital markets for money.  We get it.  Netflix is toast.

We do believe streaming video is the future of entertainment.  We also believe the content generators are looking for ways to eliminate the middle man distributor like Netflix and vertically integrate (MBA speak for "do it yourself). 

It was nice while it lasted.

On Political and Social Entrepreneurs; You or The Market?

Today's thoughts:

• Political campaigns are high risk entrepreneurial ventures that make America free as compared to say—China.  For the stats scoring these ventures, Nate Silver does a great job.  (FiveThirtyEight). 
• In the Ugandan children’s education funding project I lead, I have been working on getting resources into Bugiri district.  The last mile is always the hardest.  (Social Edge).  

• This article just struck me as "pie in the sky."  “Forget The Stock Market; Invest in Yourself” (Fast Company). 
• There are many non-financial thinking people in business.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Many visionary thinkers have no idea what something costs, but they come up with great ideas!
• When you work on a venture, since there is not an unlimited supply of capital, it is a good idea to have a financial person on your team to ground the venture in a profit and loss orientation, and more importantly in a positive cash flow!
• Why this article struck me as pie in the sky is it seems very "shoot from the hip;  trust your hunches."
• There are many people who make statements such as  "you can do better investing in yourself than in the securities markets."  While that may be true, without quantitative measurements, investing in yourself may be gambling just as much as someone going into the stock market who does not know how to do a valuation and wants to play the casino. 
• When you make a decision to invest in yourself, just make sure you do the numbers and project your return on investment. If you can make 8-9% in a balanced portfolio net of fees, you have to be be able to do 10% return on yourself to make it worthwhile. 
•  This has helped many entrepreneurs from using dollars as toilet paper.

What I am reading today

• Social Innovation gift idea from actor Matt Damon (Just Means)
• Great books to read about innovation (The Idea Connection)
• Zadro Health Solutions.  Check out Zadro 365 Sunlight.  Four weeks of artificial sunlight makes a big difference during the long gray winter! I am trying it this year!!!
• The Foursquare app is amazing.  Want to see how they used analytics to determine the most rude cities in the world? No offense to all of you polite folk in these locations:)  (Foursquare)

Top Christmas Gifts Since 1929: Why An Organization Can Never Stop Innovating

Why did I start a blog and podcast about ideas, innovation, and entrepreneurship?  In my inaugural post of this project, I answered this question in a quote by Peter Drucker: The purpose of a business is to create a customer.  America still does this better than any other nation. That is why we are still the leading creative force in the world!

As the Christmas hustle and bustle reaches its annual climax,  it is evident that a successful business never stops looking for the next big thing.  That is how you create customers, beat competitors, and stay in business.  In finance, we say, "Past Performance is No Guarantee of Future Results."

As the passing of Steve Jobs is still fresh in our minds, one of the most important legacies he left is his wisdom.  An oft quoted nugget from Mr. Jobs is “You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”  

What lesson does Christmas past have for the future of America?  If we want to stay on top of the global heap--KEEP INNOVATING.  Here are "must-have" Christmas gifts of bygone years as told by the ghost of Christmas past--you can still buy all of these--but they are no longer "must-have!"

1929--Duncan yo-yo. 

1930--Minnie and Mickey Mouse handkerchiefs

1936--Monopoly by Parker Bros. 

1943--The Slinky  *I am thinking about Ace Ventura right now...

1952--Mr. Potato Head

1959--Barbie

1975--The Pet Rock

1977--Slime

1978--Hungry Hungry Hippos

1980--Rubik's Cube 

1981--The Smurfs 

1982--BMX bike

1983--Cabbage Patch Kids

1984--Transformers

1985--Care Bears

1989--Nintendo Game Boy

1990--Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

1991--POG

1992--Talking Barney Doll

1993-1994--Might Morphin Power Rangers

1995--Beanie Babies

1996--Tickle Me Elmo

1997--Tamagotchi

1998--Furby

1999--Pokemon

2000-Razor Scooters

2001--Bratz

2002-2003 Beyblades

2004--RoboSapiens

2005--Xbox 360

2006--Playstation 3

2007--iPod Touch

2008--Elmo Live

2009--Nook

2010--iPad

2011---Kindle Fire, Let's Rock Elmo

 

Monday Startup

Ideas To Get Your Brain Back in Gear, Yeah It's Monday Again

Here is what I am reading to start the week:

• Why Twitter is the future of news.  
• Jeff Hollender's "The Essential Guide to Successful Social Entrepreneurship."
• Dr. Daniel Isenberg on the Babson  "Entrepreneurial Revolution."   If you had a hard weekend, let's do the picture book version because the Professor does actually profess pretty well on paper.  The ecosystem concept is good stuff!
• As long as we are on Babson, get the FREE BOOK "Action Trumps Everything."