Monthly Archives: February 2008
You Measure What Matters
29/02/2008 | EditorCass PursellIs innovation mutually exclusive with continuous improvement? “Incrementalism is innovations worst enemy!” Sam Walton has declared. “We dont want continuous improvement, we want radical change.” Large, established firms seem to find it much easier to focus on incremental improvement … Read More
The Decline of the Corporate Lab Rat?
27/02/2008 | EditorCass PursellThe Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), is an organization that was once described as a think-tank for rich countries. In a recent publication, the OECD defined innovation as “new products, business processes and organic changes that create … Read More
Innovation Lessons From Italian Furniture Design
21/02/2008 | EditorJames Todhunter
I stumbled upon an interesting article courtesy of the developerlife blog. The article, “Radical Design, Radical Results”, is found on the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge site and presents some fascinating insights from HBS visiting scholar Roberto Verganti.
Verganti … Read More
Creative Thinking
20/02/2008 | EditorPraveen Gupta
Recently, I asked a group of students to raise their hands if they thought they were creative. I saw about 20% raising their hands that they were creative. To validate my understanding I asked them to write at least … Read More
Strange Attractors and Ideality
15/02/2008 | EditorMichael S. Slocum
Dissipative dynamical systems contain some sort of friction. The chief feature of a dissipative system is loss of energy. A pendulum swinging in air will have dissipation. Energy is lost continuously through the various kinds of friction experienced … Read More
Training For The Innovation Ultra-marathon
15/02/2008 | EditorJames Todhunter
In “Forget about an idea marathon,” Katie Konrath uses the metaphor of racing and marathons to discuss how to work on creating a lot of ideas when the need arises. The analogy is interesting because in business, the race … Read More
Innovators in My Neighborhood
08/02/2008 | EditorPraveen Gupta
Writing for realinnovation.com makes me look around for new ideas to write about. It occurred to me that my neighbor, who a few years ago showed me a charger for cell phone was also working on a spa system … Read More
Unorthodox Use: TRIZ for Non-intended Product Use
04/02/2008 | EditorLots of companies deliver products that serve a determined purpose – but they often are wrong about how the product is finally used. Such diversions sow the seeds of creativity to generate ideas for new product outcomes and problem solutions.Read More
Challenges in Lubricant Additives Technology
04/02/2008 | EditorTRIZ provides a number of tools to not only solve, but also to properly define, problems. In that sense, TRIZ ensures that the effort is directed toward solution of a real problem and no time is wasted on answering inappropriate questions.Read More
TRIZ Principles in Action – Improving Solar Cells
04/02/2008 | EditorLooking at clever designs created by others within the desired field and determining what principles are embedded within is a frequently used teaching/learning tool in TRIZ. In particular, the 40 inventive principles have broad use potential.Read More
Student Corner: Overcome Assumptions – Use Fuzzy Logic
04/02/2008 | EditorClassic logic comes down to the law of the excluded third – A or not A, white or not white. In ancient Greece they started to consider paradoxes – a "mismatch" problem, "The world is gray, but science is black and white."Read More
Key to Teaching TRIZ: Breaking Mindsets
04/02/2008 | EditorPresent education often has a dysfunctional approach in that it gives students knowledge and examples of how to solve problems using that knowledge, and then assumes that the student will understand how to solve further problems in that domain.Read More
Welcome to the February 2008 Issue of The TRIZ Journal!
04/02/2008 | EditorLast month, a reader suggested that each issue of The TRIZ Journal include a round-up of mentions of TRIZ in other literature. The good news is that we already do this – on a daily basis!Read More
The IBM Study on Innovation
01/02/2008 | EditorJack Hipple
The IBM Innovation Study–What Does It Say?
The recent pioneering global study and interview of corporate CEOs regarding innovation and its importance provides many insights into not only the world of innvoation, but the competitive nature of it. If … Read More