$1 billion twist “You don’t need to have an amazing idea or innovation to succeed. You just need to improve or “twist” something that already exists…in a big market.” Bernie Schroeder One can debate whether Instagram was an amazing idea of innovation, but you can’t argue with the results. In less than two years after…
Many autonomous car efforts use lidar (light detecting and ranging) to “see” the world. Combining a laser transmitter and receiver, lidar detects the tiny but measurable time it takes for the laser to bounce off an object to determine how far away it is. By steering the laser, the lidar can produce a 3D scan…
Why do I want to fit Principles into SCAMPER approaches? In a recent post (check it here first) I explore how SCAMPER can embrace the 40 Principles of Inventive Problem Solving. The goal is to wrap the complexity of the Principles in the approachability of SCAMPER. Adapt defined in Applied Imagination Under the category of…
Alan Mulally was a leader at aircraft manufacturer Boeing before he joined Ford as CEO in 2006. While at Boeing, Mulally was involved in the development of several aircraft. He lead the design of the 757/767 cockpit which was one of the first “all glass” aircraft, meaning it relied on screens rather than physical gauges.…
Amazon is a dominant player now, but its birth was plagued with doubt and financial weakness, reveals the book The Everything Store by Brad Stone. Amazon started as an online book seller, and this was a canny move by Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder. Books were true commodities – all the same, no question of whether…
Divide and conquer? Saturn was a division of car manufacturer General Motors (then alongside today’s survivors like Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac) that was started in 1985 as a semi-autonomous company with its own models, designs, dealer network and manufacturing plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee. This was a bold move, because at the time GM was…
Silverado frame rails General Motors uses hydroforming to produce frame rails for its vehicles including the Silverado pickup and the aluminum pieces found in the Corvette. This process makes stronger, lighter and to more accurate dimensions than typical welded multi-piece components. In tube hydroforming, pressure is applied with hydraulic fluid inside a tube that is…