Posted by: Michael Arndt on November 22
Patent volume, based on new analysis, isn't necessarily a valid proxy for innovation. Tallies of U.S. patent grants are published every year, giving IBM reason to strut since it invariably comes out on top. (Last year, as IBM notes here, it was the first entity to bag more than 4,000.) And recently I wagged a finger at Ford Motor in a blog post, based on patent data from Thomson Reuters that showed Ford ranked far behind in new patents for alternative energy and other innovative automotive technology.
But a study by the Patent Board, an intellectual-property consultancy, shows there are other—and better—ways to quantify innovation. The company looked at all active U.S. patents in one field, automobile collision-avoidance technology. Ranked by sheer volume, Honda Motor is No. 1, with 54. That's almost twice second-place Panasonic, which has 28. (Only two U.S.-based companies make the Top 10: TRW Automotive, in fifth place with 22, and Delphi, which is tied for eighth with 17.)
Ranked by other metrics, though, Honda isn't a leader. In a scorecard in November's Intellectual Property Today, the Patent Board publishes five more ways to put a value on patent portfolios, including citations by other patent seekers, innovation cycle time, and age. Honda does no better than second and as poorly as sixth. Delphi leads, for instance, when it comes to having the newest patents, while Fuji Heavy Industries is fastest at turning ideas into patents.
Remember this when the list of 2009 patent winners is announced.
Posted by: Venessa Wong on November 19
American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) is giving its shoppers 15 seconds of fame. A 15,000 square foot LED display atop the retailer's new store in Times Square, which opened on November 19, is adding more flash to New York’s busy hub. Anyone who makes a purchase can broadcast a photo and a 20 character-long message on the screen, which towers over the corner of 46th Street and Broadway. Already, one man popped the question on the big screen (she said yes).
I headed to the new store this afternoon and took a photo with my BusinessWeek colleague Anne Vandermey. One of the AE staffers operating the studio, which is in the lower level, said that in the last hour he had photographed more than 50 people (some in groups). They came from Ireland, the U.K., Germany, Australia and other countries.
Continue reading "American Eagle Outfitters offers 15 secs of fame in Times Square"
Posted by: Jay Greene on November 17
My 11-year-old son had a dilemma last night. He had zipped through the first two books in the Twilight series and was keen to start on the third, Eclipse. But the book my wife quickly picked up at the library was in Spanish. Oops.
So we tried an experiment. Two weeks ago, I won a Sony Reader Pocket Edition in a raffle. It’s a slim gadget with a 5-inch screen, the electronics giant’s answer to the Amazon Kindle. I futzed with it a bit since I got it, but really hadn’t put it through its paces.
Last night was my son’s turn. One of the neat features of the Sony Reader is that you can “borrow” electronic books from participating libraries, including ones in New York, Chicago and my public library in Seattle. So I went to digital media page on its Web site and searched for Eclipse. It turns out that six of the library’s eight copies of the book in Adobe’s eBook format, which works with Sony’s eBook devices, were available to borrow for 21 days. I typed in my library card number and PIN, clicked download, and a few seconds later, the book was on my PC. Then, I connected the Sony Reader via the USB port and the book zipped over to my device.
My Pocket Edition version is the least expensive of the Sony Readers, priced at $199. Sony has one other Reader on the market now, the $299 Touch Edition, a 6-inch touch-screen model. And on Dec. 18 it will launch the $399 Daily Edition, a 7-inch touch-screen version with 3G connectivity, so users can download books without having to plug the device into their PCs.
Continue reading "Sony's Digital Book Downloads from the Public Library"
Posted by: Damian Joseph on November 16
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University aren't waiting for big car companies to bring affordable electric vehicles to the market. They're proving that with some tinkering, today's gas-powered models can be rigged to save as much as 80% in energy costs.
Project ChargeCar, led by the school’s Robotics Institute, is a holistic approach to automotive over-consumption. Here are the basics...
Continue reading "Carnegie Mellon Converts Gas-Powered Cars to Electricity"
Posted by: Michael Arndt on November 11
Nearly two years after the U.S. tumbled into a recession, business is starting to think about ways to grow again. And for many, this means spending more money on innovation, says a new study from Accenture. In a survey of 630 execs in the U.S. and the U.K., 48% said their companies had upped their innovation budgets from six months ago. A third said innovation outlays were flat.
There's a gray lining in these numbers: One in every five companies is still cutting spending on the development of new products or services.
And there are other findings that suggest that companies really haven't kicked their recession habits. While new products or services have the biggest potential to generate sales and profit, 74% of the respondents told Accenture that their companies were pursuing incremental advances, like line extensions. (How many varieties of Coca-Cola will we really drink?) Along the same lines, 66% said their companies were more interested in short-term gains than long-term ones. (Same question.)
In the U.S., at least, companies may not be getting better at innovation, either. Accenture said 73% of American respondents said their employers didn't learn from mistakes. (In the U.K., only 30% were such slow learners.) Respondents blamed failed innovation mostly on inability to meet customer needs, being late to market, and incorrect pricing.
What's going on at your companies? Are you seeing any lift in innovation allocations?
