Archives: October 2005

Is Ford Innovative?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 31

I opened my Wall Street Journal this morning (yes, I still do that) and there is a two-page ad spread with Bill Ford at a podium and his words on...

Sony should send its people to the Institute of Design.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 30

Something is clearly wrong when a company such a Sony that combines great design excellence with Hollywood movie-making can't integrate the two businesses to develop a Sony video MP3 player...

Shopping for design and innovation outside the US.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 30

Gerhard Heufler is one of my favorite designers. He has an amazing product that is in the SAFE exhibit at the MOMA--a handheld land mine detector that saved thousands of...

Is Song Like Saturn and Delta Like GM?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 30

Seth Godin talks about the failure of Song in terms of Delta not living up to the reality of copying JetBlue. As Diego Rodriguez notes, Goldin says it was all...

Shopping for innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 28

Core77.com has a terrific article by two of my favorite design bloggers Steve Portigal and Niti Bhan on what you need to consider in choosing a design firm (now that...

Companies say they want to be like Apple so how can you help them out?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 28

Signal vs. Noise has a good what-to-do list for designers trying to satisfy their corporate client needs. It's by consultant Joe Grant. My favorite part of the item is the...

The art and innovation of the loo.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 27

Architects have been making the "loo experience" an important part of the hotel experience for years. Walls of water, slick metal toilets, subtle lighting--it's all part of the experience. Now...

Target is a great design innovator.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 25

There are a handful of companies that really get design--Nike, Starbucks, Apple, Motorola, Virgin and especially Target. Target began the practice of getting named architects, such as Michael Graves, and...

Alan Greenspan "got"innovation. Does Ben Bernanke?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 24

The announcement that fed chairman Alan Greenspan will be replaced by Ben Bernanke, the chief economist to President Bush, has enormous implications for CEOs, managers and consultants trying to foster...

Hot Honda hybrid.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 23

The 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid is a lesson in innovation and design. It comes out as Honda announces its new motorcycles for next year (and just days after Honda showed...

The National Design Awards are a failure.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 23

Cooper-Hewitt just announced the winners of its Sixth Annual National Design Awards and it's really time to say out loud what so many design and innovation professionals have been saying...

Virgin mainstreams space tourism

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 23

Thanks to Terrestial Musings for pointing out that space tourism is no longer a giggling matter. In factor, the intrepid serial entrepreneur, Richard Branson head of a new company, Virgin...

Outsourcing to India and China is getting more expensive.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 21

Latest reports from India show a labor shortage. Can you imagine that? Yes, a labor shortage is growing among both white collar and even blue collar workers. Amazing what growth...

Are women too female to be creative? Is WPP too dumb to ask this question?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 21

So one of WPP Group's top creative directors Neil French said that women can't become top media execs because they are too busy having babies and caring for families and...

Do Ford and GM really get innovation?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 21

Bill Ford and Bob Lutz are two of my favorite car guys. Ford gets the environment and Lutz gets design. But I'm wondering if either one really gets innovation. Ford...

Google vs. intellectual property.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 19

The lawsuit against Google filed by the Association of American publishers, that includes Pearson, Simon & Schuster, Penguin and McGraw-Hill for copywright infringement on scanning books is a very big...

Why Walter Mossberg doesn't get Apple--or innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 19

I enjoy reading about the latest gadgets from engadget, shinyshiny, and the Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg. They're all pretty much the same in that they focus on two things--the...

TED's top 10 smart people in the world.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 19

For those of you not acquainted with TED--the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference that draws a top-notch crowd of techies, media and design people every year--there's a TEDblog that...

Motorola's design and innovation pay off.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 19

Any CEO or manager still doubting the power of design and innovation in the marketplace should take a look at Motorola's strong third quarter showing. A couple of years ago,...

JetBlue Rocks The Outsourcing Argument.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 18

We've all heard the economic arguments about outsourcing--the good, the bad and the ugly ones. A most compelling point is that outsourcing is a deflation phenomenon. It's all about cutting...

Have you heard of the all-girls 3iYing marketing firm?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 18

I've known Heidi Dangelmaier (yes, Dangelmaier) ever since she won an Industrial Design Excellence Award several years ago. She was one of the few female geeks who started early in...

Newell Rubbermaid's CEO didn't get design or innovation

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 18

The chief executive of Newell Rubbermaid just resigned after 10 quarters of bad earnings. The news was buried in most business newspaper pages, overshadowed by the good IBM earnings announcement...

The real message in the metrics of IBM.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 18

IBM's 22% profit rise reflects a lot of things, including significant cost cutting, but the deeper message in the figures is that IBM is making progress on becoming an innovation...

Does your company need a design audit?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 17

I had a great lunch with RitaSue Siegel, a top head-hunter for senior designs and design managers. She is doing a design audit for a big company. It's a fascinating...

The fragility of The New York Times brand name.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 16

Credibility, transparency, reliability and performance are all critical to maintaining brand trust and all appear to be in jeapordy at The New York Times over the Judy Miller episode. We...

With India and China, can we manage innovation in a post-geographic way?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 16

We are all fascinated with how our worklives are radically changing. We talk about the difficulty of managing innovation across cultures and across distances, but is the real boundary biology?...

Is the Samsung brand in danger?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 14

Imagine for a moment what would happen to Apple's reputation and image among cool, hip consumers if it had to plead guilty to price fixing, was investigated by Congress for...

Swedish ski helmets and body armor rock.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 13

With the spread of global information networks that tie everyone together over time and space, it is amazing what small companies in distant parts of the world can create and...

MOMA SAFE design exhibit is brilliant.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 13

There was a design/innovation/creativity double-header this week in New York City with the opening night celebration of the new Paola Antonelli exhibit of SAFE design at MOMA on the same...

Ipod Video Vs the Nano--Too Much Apple?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 13

The new iPod Video is clearly the start of a media revolution that will drive established film and TV companies into a frenzy while making consumers who want what they...

Apple's nano can be scratched--and wash and dried.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 11

Apple appears to have disappointed investors and the stock market even though its fourth quarter profits zoomed on sales of iPods and Macs. It didn't live up to the wildest...

Design outsourcing may be big--think India.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 11

David Kohler, the group president of that great bath and kitchen appliance maker (and award winner) that goes by his great, great grandfather's name writes from India to say it...

R&D spending doesn't always pay off--Booze Allen.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 11

A new survey out by business consultant Booze Allen Hamilton says that big companies that spend more on research and development than their peers don't necessarily get a higher payoff...

Serenity may be product placement free. Wow.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 08

Joss Whedon's movie Serenity, is simply terrific. Like all great science fiction, it is set in the future, but the story-telling elements that make it so wonderful are very traditional....

Are CEOs out of touch?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 07

Engadget and a bunch of blogs from Weblogs were just bought by AOL. Gawker and its clutch of blogs are in a deal to be distributed in Europe. Newscorp. buys...

Are CEOs naive about innovation?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 07

A recent BCG survey shows a disquieting gap between CEOs and their top managers over the criticial issue of innovation. The full report, industry by industry, will be available on...

Can Apple--or Motorola--deliver a truly great cell experience?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 06

Piper Jaffray has a report out saying that the new Rokr cell-- a joint venture by Motorola and Apple--appears to be selling below expectations. Why am I not surprised? This...

The AttentionExtension--control your digital life

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 05

GK VanPatter points to the launch of AttentionTrust.org that will promote open source "attention recorders." These are devices that will allow people to capture what is being recorded about them...

The commoditization of knowledge spreads.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 05

The commoditization of knowledge has been a great surprise to many who thought knowledge would forever be a competitive advantage to the U.S., Europe and Japan. Not so, as knowledge...

Honda's got a motorcycle airbag--really.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 05

Designing safety into motorcycles sounds like an oxymoronic enterprise. These babies are supposed to be dangerous, right? Sure, except perhaps for the huge number of graying boomers increasingly riding big...

Poker has serious lessons for design strategy

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 04

It is increasingly important for managers and designers to go outside their traditional paradigms and structures to learn about innovation and poker--yes poker-- may provide useful insight. Thanks to a...

SAP founder gives $35 million for Stanford D-School

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 03

Corporations on the hunt for more innovative, creative managers and employees should check this out--Hasso Plattner, co-founder of the business process software giant SAP, is donating $35 million to fund...

MBAs and MFAs should date.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 03

I've often thought that one of the reasons why business people and design people can't communicate well is that they didn't date in college. They didn't listen to the same...

Stealing intellectual property.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 02

The theft of IP is one of the most serious problems facing designers and product developers. Corporations seeking to innovate must always take the probability, not just the possibility, of...

Inside Apple's design machine

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 02

I received this extremely thoughtful letter on innovation and product design on and why Apple may have responded as it did last week to the Nano-storm. It's from Omar Khalifa...