What ails our small industries? Could “flipping the model” be the answer?

Your guess is as good as mine. Well, all most. But a report from a “special task Force on Diversifying the New York State Economy through Industry-Higher Education Partnerships” indicates that perhaps our small industries should change the way they do business. In particular the way they bring about new ideas and innovations. You see, all along the way, industries have depended on either their own people or those working in research institutions to come up with ideas. However, because of cost constraints, most small industries and enterprises can’t afford their own R & D department, or even if they have one, little comes out of it. Whilst most researches are done at universities and state funded research institutions, the ideas that come out of it doesn’t fully feed into industry demands, simply because researchers don’t understand industry demands, or they are out of date. How then to resolve the mismatch?

What the New York State Economy special task force recommended was that instead of the industry people looking for ideas from the institutions, the industry people must go to these institutions to tell them what to research, and to come up with ideas that the industry needs. Now, that is a no brainer and something that should have been done long time ago. In an apparent emphasis of the importance of idea creation, the task force indicated that “intellectual properties are the raw material that leads to the creation of companies, jobs, and wealth”. Period. They also charted a way for New York based industries to talk to New York Universities. Julie Shimer, CEO of Welch Allyn, a New York-based medical equipment manufacturer and a member of the task force said “industries need to change the habit of waiting for researchers to come up with ideas, and instead should challenge them to develop ideas that would help our strategic needs and plans”. The idea is simply called “flipping the model”.

It is indeed a sad truth that there are tons of ideas sitting in the vaults of institution of higher learning, some of them have even obtained patents that are near expiring and without any takers for commercialization. And all those work paid from the people’s money! One of the obvious reasons is that academia is run for the sake of expanding education; it is not run to complement the industries. Looking at the heart and model of most universities, even some who are touted to be modern will show that academia is a traditional showpiece, one that has not changed its practice since the early days of education. It is a very inefficient machine. It creates mounts of books, research papers, most of which sits in the vaults, waiting for the day someone to pick it up and work on it. Unfortunately, there is no urge to change the system in these silver citadels because somehow or rather, the budget to run them is always available. You seldom see universities getting bankrupt! But just for how long, you may ask? This “flipping the model” idea might just be the start of the wind of change, and for good measure too.

Intellectual property rights might exacerbate world hunger!

There are an estimated 200 million hungry children in the world now, and most of them lived in squalid conditions in countries that are inundated with floods, drought and man made war. Their sustenance is being partially supported by world food aids from developed nations. But as these poor malnourished children numbers are increasing at an ever alarming rate, the availability of food aids is decreasing due largely to pilferage from organized corrupted groups operating with or without the knowledge of local authorities. So what can be done to alleviate the situation? What about those wonder foods created by biotechnology that the developed countries have been espousing?

True, there have been much progress in the development of genetically modified (GM) strains of corn, wheat and rice but there has been a great fear from the under developed countries that widespread cultivation of these wonder crops might shackled them to the patronages of companies who have made the GM possible. The reason is that GM species of food crop comes with intellectual property rights. The patents belonged to the companies, most of which are giants from the west. Developing countries would not like to be chained to their necks. Could they not develop their own varieties, even though they might not be as good as the GM species? But when you are poor, and in need of aids, there is no resource to develop it on your own and receiving aids is the only solution.

It does look as if the developed countries are just biding their time with their GM programs. They know that sooner or later, the poor and the destitute will have to plant these GM species. What not when the world’s weather pattern is rapidly changing with global warming. Freak weather report is almost as frequent as the local scandals, and mankind just can’t do anything about it in the short term. So feeding the world will become a big task and the only way is to plant better crops, with or without the blessings of the patent holders. Will a time come when the GM patent holders have to give away their properties just to avert world hunger and in somebody’s courtyard? Certainly not by any measure! So it would be good to assume that intellectual property rights will exacerbate world hunger instead of its stated intention of helping mankind to progress.

December 10, 2009.

Small is the only way to survive!

Here is the clincher. Apple sold seven million iPhones in third quarter 2009 and Nokia sold 113 million of theirs. But it defies logic when the profit Apple made is 1.6 billion dollars compared to Nokia’s 1.1 billion dollars! Some economists are scratching their heads because the doctrine that they espouse seems to be working in reverse. Yes, we have been told often that the most efficient way to go about anything is have economies of scale. It has always been true that it works out very costly if we will to just make one unit instead of making multiple units. Even a child will know that. But why then is Apple’s profit so much more than Nokia’s even though they are only churning out a small number of phones?

Ah, the reason could be that the profit margin for Apple is much higher than Nokia’s. Unfortunately, this is not a clear cut case as Nokia also have good margins for some of their smartphones. Perhaps, Nokia has grown too much and spreading it thin with churning out many models, some of which not selling too well. Indeed, almost three quarters of their models are considered duds and have to be withdrawn from the market prematurely. Obviously, Nokia is not the only example, nor the phenomenon is exclusive to the mobile phone industry. A look at the automobile market tells a similar story. We have the big threes like GM, Chrysler and Toyota having to trim down their productions during the financial crisis. Some of them even faces bankruptcies and had to be baled out by their governments. But look at the small players like Ferraris and Porsches! They are doing well with plenty of orders. So small is the way to go!

Small is indeed the preferred way. Smallness will ensure that a change in direction can be effected during trying times. A mouse can easily outwit an elephant. Going forward to the next decade, it would be useful for business schools to champion the small enterprise. It would be even better if they can operate in their niche area. In today’s economic climate, where competition is everywhere, there is a real need to create unique brands where people can associate with. No where will we find it truer than in the land of the middle kingdom (read China). Here you can find thousands of factories turning out similar looking goods with almost similar sounding brands with each trying to undercut each other in their prices. It is the norm here that for a product costing a hundred dollars, the production profit is around two dollars! So, before you jump into starting your business, first, think SMALL. It might be the only way for our troubled world.

Can you be sure that your idea will work 100%?

According to Guy Kawasaki, “if you are not confident about your own product, then nobody else will be. Believe in yourself, believe in what you believe and the world will follow your belief”. As much as I would like to endorse what he said, I would like to add that you will never have a one hundred percent belief that your idea will work the way you envisioned it. The most you can have is thirty percent. Make it sixty five percent if you have conducted life testing on it. Behind this truth is that no matter how good you can design your product, you will always have that fear that perhaps you have not taken into account something that will render your conception unworkable. Although we have to show confidence in what we do, we are after all not infallible, and just like what Murphy’s Law states, “if anything can go wrong, it will”. And what if you are not sure?

If you have an idea and would like others to follow that idea, you will need plenty of showmanship. You not only need to be positive, you also need to act positive, no matter what amount of issues that you are worried about behind your mind. You will also have to pray diligently, hoping that the dreaded thing will not have the opportunity to disentangle all that you have built. But still, acting is acting, and reality will still be reality. Occasionally though, there are people out there who seems to have more confidence than ourselves. They have that intuition that our idea will work, even though they do not know about the mechanism that makes our idea work! And imagine the amount of euphoria that they can give us when they indicate to us that our idea is that fantastic. They are like the missing enzyme that can propel our idea to the stratosphere. It is rare, but it does happen, and most creators need it.

What about those who are dead set that their idea will work out, no matter what? These are incredible guys, no, make it obstinate guys, or gals if you like. They have what we called a ‘one track mind’, and they can really focus well. But unfortunately, some ideas don’t work at all, even after years of trying by their proponent. The least they can say is that ‘well, at least I have tried’. However, some of these ideas are revolutionary, to say the least. And like revolutions, there is a time and place for it to happen. Obviously, stories abound of ideas that failed, and obviously, many others were unrecorded. If however there is a place or a repository of these failed ideas, then perhaps someone can pick on it at a later date, and combined with newer materials, could add one and two together and make it work. If we look at some of those ideas that have changed our lifestyles through the ages, we will find many examples of ideas that are reworked from previous known ideas.

But looking back again where we have others who are more confident about our ideas than we ourselves. It does happen more often than we realize. And it does not confined to tangible ideas only. Certainly when a politician goes up the pulpit and shout out their battle cry for the first time and find that the crowd out there responded with plenty of agreement, the politician’s adrenalin will shoot up few hundred degrees. The unexpected boost will make the politician go further. He is made to believe that even God is with him! So are purveyors of ideas. If you are not sure about it yourself, go out there and tell it out loud and clear. Perhaps someone out there will give you that boost, that so called ‘intuitive endorsement’ that will make everything possible. Don’t be disheartened if you are only thirty percent sure of your idea working. Your other seventy percent might come from somewhere out there, on a fine day!

By an overworked inventor

Quo Vadis EU?

According to a group of EU thinkers, there is a great need for forward thinking in the types of investments that should be implemented just so that the EU can better compete with the rest of the world. Consisting of policy makers and think-tankers, they have advised that the European Investment Fund (EIF) be expanded to also fund corporate ventures and innovation projects. Much of the funds have been used for building infrastructures and the likes. They would like the politicians to use the European Innovation Act, which will be launched in mid 2010 to better steer the direction of the EU in the face of massive debilitating unemployment among the member nations. Not withstanding the emergence of a third force ( BRIC) knocking at their doorsteps, the EU must seize the opportunity to come together and start leading again like what their forefathers have done during the industrial revolution. Much of their opinion was culled from an online discussion held recently.

Just what are they concerned with? First of all, they are concerned with the limited number of projects that do have a pan European cooperation. Things seem to move very slowly, perhaps due to the differing languages and the lack of impetus from the EU Commission themselves. There is real bureaucracy within the group. So the thinkers are suggesting that less political interference from Brussels and EU governments should be the order of the day. And of course the private sector should be roped in for any kind of investment financed by the EIF. One of the sectors that should be looked into is the intellectual property sector. They have suggested a real relook at the inefficiencies that bestride this sector, pointing to the large number of unused patents that are lying around in research labs and universities. The ideas are there, but there is no lead from those holding the funds, and this cannot go on if the EU is to be group to be respected by others.

Are there areas that the EU can pioneer and lead? Certainly, and they don’t have to look too far away. Remember there was a time when the combustion engine was the new toy. Well, the automobile is still the thing to get around places, and not forgetting to show off as well! In the face of global warming and the melting of the North West Passage, what can be better than to reinvent the car and make it greener? Europe, and in particular Germany, has got very little to show as far as designing a greener car is concerned. The Japanese are leading with their hybrid engines, followed by the Koreans. Can EU be depended on with reinventing the ubiquitous car? It is going to be a difficult task, looking at the disarray thrown up by the sale of Opel. And pressure is running high with the Copenhagen round in December 2009 where the leaders from around the world are scheduled to knock out an agreement to tackle global warming. There are noises from the emerging markets to get access to green technology for a song if they are to sign any sort of agreements to bind them to cut gas emissions but the question is whether a disarrayed Europe can have anything to concede? Perhaps only when they start to lead again, perhaps years after the Copenhagen summit!

Virtual world problems heading for real world courtrooms

Whilst the recession has brought many real world economies to its knees, and many companies looking at cutting down employees number, the good stuffs has taken place in the virtual world. Yes, Second Live and Everquest have gained ground. So have many computer games companies recording strong growth for 2009. And one of the unbelievable things that happened in cyberspace is the stealing of intellectual properties. In cyberspace, you can buy or trade items that others have created to dress your virtual avatars, or to arm them so that they can win combats. There is buying, trading and stealing in virtual space now, and these activities will only increase as the activities claimed more adherents.

Just like in the real world, trading activities of virtual entities have their share of problems. People who patronize virtual websites have begun to horn their skills to such an extend that they have found it necessary to steal ideas and properties designed by others. The alternative is to pay for these items. Instead of buying such objects legally with virtual money, they just copied them without permission. Those who had earnestly spent their time creating these virtual objects are at a lost as to how to seek redress. And bringing these robbers to court might proved to be costly. To make it worse, real world lawyers who can understand this virtual world going on are few and difficult to find.

Just how big is the problem then? It was estimated that the virtual world transaction for 2009 could reach $5 billion! The virtual transaction cost for the US was estimated to be over $600 million for 2009 and growing at a rapid pace. There are many who now spend their full time designing unique caricatures, avatars, weaponry and costumes and put them up for trading and sales in the virtual space. And like the real world, they should have them copy righted, just in case someone comes and just copied it and called them theirs. Although in legal terms, once you have created something, and published it, you should hold the copy right; but in reality, you should seek proper documentations and proofs so that others cannot dispute it in a court. So a little bit of real world practice is needed if you want protection and a peace of mind, cyberspace or not.

Dump that car now.

I now realize that the earth is warming towards a cataclysmic endpoint. No. I did not realize it yesterday. I still don't realize it now. I am told. Yes, everywhere you go, you are reminded to do your part. What part, you might ask? Global warming.....yes, we are constantly reminded that we have lead a spoiled life. We have over burnt! We have designed our lives around comfort, we drove in comfort, worked in comfort, lived in comfort.........and the bill goes on and on...And in the process, burnt away all those fossils that nature took millions of years to bake. Perhaps now, we are reaching towards irreversible self destruction? I prayed not, otherwise, others (those who came before us and those who are supposed to come after us) will blame us for the debacle! Where will we be able to hide then?

Here are some somber stats that might say something. Americans spent one third of their total fuel consumptions on using their cars and trucks. If they were to be deprived of using their vehicles just for twenty four hours, the gas that is saved will amount to 8 million barrels, capable of meeting the fuel needs for the whole population of Laos (population of 7 million).........for 7300 year! Is it necessary then to reluctantly wake up to the tune of our alarm clock in the early morning, washed and draped in expensive colognes, rush through bacon and eggs, plunged our bottom in the driver's seat, zoomed through traffic lights and clocked in at our office with just one minute to spar.

That is work you said, with a tinge of pride. Mind you, mankind (the modern type), have been doing it for hundreds of years. Oops....sorry, mankind was on the wrong path for hundreds of years.....and still is. So now, we ought to do something about it yeah before it is too late to do anything. Looking hard at it, I still could not fathom why we should be doing those silly things that we have been doing for hundreds of years, in the name of work? And this driving to work thing is really stupid, to say the least. Starring at the other frustrated guy during traffic crawls is even more stupid. But it is certainly not true that the whole world is doing such stuff. Just for want of an example, look no further than this Shangri-La place called Bhutan. Nestled somewhere between the Himalaya mountains and India, Bhutan does not have highways (those that allowed autos to speed at one hundred over miles per hour). Oh no...it’s incorrect, it does have highways, but those that straddles up high mountains and serviced by horses and mules.....Yes, this Bhutan and many other less known places don't have this thingy thing called driving to work. Their work place is their farm, situated very close by their homes. They don't need cars and they don't burnt fossils to clock in to work. And when they do go to work, their faces project those smiles that you so seldom see among our office slaves! They really enjoy live, and in the comfort of fresh mountain air to boot. Looking back at those office calisthenics and back stabbing that is too common in our perverted societies, I would like to just ask...wtfiiaa..(sorry for the unspoken expletives)? Can't we just stay at home ....and do our work from there? By doing so, we could have saved loads of fossils and most certainly averted global warming, and there might not been an Iraq war....shhhhh. Just imagine, with all these new fangled devices and crack berries, we should take a holiday in Bhutan and still finish our work from up those sweet mountain air and send it back via satellite connections. We do need a portable battery though! And not to forget mentioning plenty of blessings from our neglected loved ones still staying put pushing those clunky (yah, you are right, even President Obama calls them that) jalopy that sucks in earth's juices just to go to work. If it is anything, we should have good reasons to re-architect our way of doing the 'political right thing' before we stand accused of bringing down mother ship.

Think of intellectual property as Noise: The more the Better.

So you don't believe?
Well, to most people, when the topic of intellectual property is mooted, they will usually withdraw from giving any opinion or worse, they feign total ignorance. The reason I found out was because intellectual property is a heavy word. Certainly they did not learn it in school. And they probably first come across it reading the news papers. But being the less intellectual types, they probably will not go any further to find the actual meaning from the dictionary (small dictionaries usually don't have the term). Asking Mom or Pop about the meaning probably gets them a vague answer. So as time past, people will just grab the meaning from thin air. And it is usually the wrong one.

Soon enough, they will knock unto a story in the news that some big shot is suing somebody for 'infringing their intellectual property', and since it is a good talking point, the topic was passed around at the coffee table. There, more opinions was traded, but still, no body knows exactly what is that infringement thing is all about. Then, someone asked in a toned down voice does illegal downloads get tracked by big brother? Obviously they were referring to stories of illegal downloads of music as intellectual property infringements. Now, the number piles up here. Big companies filing suits against small little guys for stealing their music (and videos as well). This is noise to be sure, and the bigger it is, the better! People like to add to the noise and want to be in the know. But seriously, when asked what is intellectual property infringement, nobody knows exactly what it is. These things are best left to your lawyers!

And not any lawyers at that, only intellectual property attorneys know what is intellectual property infringements. So for the rest of us, intellectual property means being sued for something. Intellectual property itself don't mean anything. But because of these high profile cases, like the case of Microsoft suing people for using pirated software, and the fact that average Joe could be a victim, people learn more about what constitutes an intellectual property. And being hauled to court for infringement makes a big noise. The bigger the noise, the better the topic, and lives goes on.