Blog 10

Steve Jobs' life story is a great example of why a hunger for knowledge and a desire to learn are more meaningful than formal education. He inspires me to think outside of the box and pursue opportunities that are not the norm. In today's society all kids are forced to go to school for a certain number of years and all are set on a path of college preparation. While not all kids choose to go to college, most are still trained for it and expected to at least attempt a college education. This means that people who do not care to learn or who are simply not mature enough to gain the full experience that a college education can provide are guided into a system they care little about.

His story as well as the story of many others I have encountered in the past few years inspire me to keep an open mind when it comes to advising my own children to attend college in the future. Although I feel that education is very important, if you are not passionate about you are learning, the information is useful. I want to instill a since of desire in my children and guide them to think for themselves and pursue anything they are interested in. If this means that they do not go straight to college from school, I need to remember that some of the most successful people follow their own path. As long as I am constantly learning and they are too, we will all be happy and successful.

Assignment 9

What's unique about design thinking approach to innovation?

Design driven innovation is different from innovation in general because it is not innovation in response to consumer demand. Innovative companies design new ideas and then get the consumers' attention. The consumer may not even know that they want what the company has created, but once they see the idea they may gradually begin accepting and embracing the new product. Apple is a great example of a design driven company. They tell the consumer what they want, what they need even.

Employees of design driven companies are constantly brainstorming and sharing their ideas, even if they do not know how their ideas will be used yet. Once they have a collection of designs, they can begin finding ways to use them and then share them with consumers.

Another key difference is that a design driven company may not focus solely on products, but on the processes of the entire company. From work flow to tangible products, every aspect of the workplace has potential for improvement in a designer's eyes.

Assignment 8 - Neural NetworkingTechnology

Neural networks can be useful for a wide variety of business applications. Anything that requires finding and analyzing patterns in a series of inputs can benefit greatly from neural network software. One interesting use of neural networks is in the the real-time face detection used to identify people in videos and pictures. To use a neural network for this purpose, the network must be trained to identify faces, non-faces and face masks using a complicated training technique.

The Use of Neural Networks in Real Time Face Detection

The neural network in this case cannot stand alone. It requires a series of steps to train the network, prepare data for input and interpret the output. Face recognition tricky since the human face is constantly changing. The more "practice" the network gets in identifying faces, the more accurate it will become as it will be exposed to more and more unique circumstances. Different backgrounds affect the recognition and no one can predict every possible combination of colors and shapes that the network will be exposed to.

No Harmony, All Flux Presentation

Slideshow

New Rules for the New Economy

Kevin Kelly's main argument in Chapter 8 of his book New Rules of the New Economy is that in this new economy, companies must constantly walk the line between order and complete chaos to be truely innovative. Some of the points he makes are very important for maintaining a knowledge economy. While innovation is important, it is not useful if it is too radical nor is it effective if there are only subtle changes to the existing.

Knowledge management requires innovation and a framework in an organization to support new discoveries. Companies must understand that to have a rigid infrastructure is to stifle innovation. If there are too many rules, people are unable and unwilling to try anything new for fear of the repercussions and innovation becomes only minor changes to existing processes or products. Changes that will cost more to implement than they are ultimately worth. Companies must position themselves so that they have some structure, but not so much that they are unable to adapt to the constant flux that Kelly mentions in his book.

The flux is the constant changing due to innovation in the market. If companies are not flexible they will bend and break.  If companies are too flexible then they will stretch too far, spreading resources thin and crumbling before they are able to gain their footing again. Knowledge management requires not only facilitating an environment of innovation and knowledge sharing, it requires finding a way to maintain the balance between too much order and constant chaos.

Assignment 5

Mr. Chambers speaks about how Cisco uses collaboration and a unique business model to create an innovative and successful business. One of the key points the Mr. Chambers makes is that collaboration is great, but when you add a visual aspect its benefits are amplified. Productivity can be increased, especially in companies in which travel is needed to hold national and international meetings.

Cisco also uses workgroups and a flat rather than hierarchical structure to work on projects. Cisco empowers more people within its organization to take charge of projects and make the necessary decisions which in turn allows the projects to come to completion much more quickly. The leaders involved in each project are able to focus their energy on just two or three projects rather than having only a superficial involvement in ten projects.

Cisco has found that if they provide the means for their employees to collaborate, they are more likely to use those channels not because they are forced to, but for the leverage that the collaboration offers. Over time, people begin to see the advantages of sharing information which one another and more and more become involved in blogging, messaging and other forms of collaboration.

Assignment 4

Nucor Steel created a social ecology which created a knowledge spiral within the company. By creating an environment in which employees are encouraged to learn and share knowledge, the socialization of knowledge occurs. During socialization, Nucor employees are able to pass tacit knowledge along to each other. The combination and externalization of knowledge is encouraged in Nucor Steel since the employees are able to receive bonuses based on discoveries they make. Employees are taught that they are accountable for their decisions, but that mistakes are an expected part of the learning process.  To reap the benefits of the pay incentives, employees must have a way to document and share their knowledge. Nucor Steel not only uses IT to help transmit the documented knowledge, but also takes advantage of face-to-face communication for knowledge that is difficult to document.

Nucor employees are empowered with the ability to thoroughly learn the ins and outs of the steal industry. Because they are able to internalize the information they are presented with, they are able to make better decisions when it comes to engineering technologies.

Because the knowledge created at Nucor Steel is retained, the company is able to move through a knowledge spiral into a deeper and deeper understanding of all that affects the steel industry. While other steel companies may make discoveries, not having a process in place to share these discoveries keeps them at the top or shallow part of the spiral; constantly acquiring the same knowledge.

Assignment 3

Beaumont Hospitals in Michigan is utilizing an Electronic Health Record (EHR) keeping system to help improve patient care. According to beaumonthospitals.com, by using EHRs, physicians will have the ability to enter all orders onto the system rather than writing physician’s orders by hand. This will help reduce error caused by messy handwriting that is so stereotypical of doctors. Although the hospital has added an EHR system partially to receive funding from the government, it has participated with enthusiasm and has seen an improvement in patient care. In addition to the provisions required by the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs to receive funding, the hospital plans to “optimize” their use of the system by analyzing current use and making changes where needed. The EHR system also includes a feature unique to Beaumont Hospitals called MyBeaumontChart in which patients can “access to their personal patient record. This allows them to see test results, schedule appointments, check payment balances, review immunization records and download patient education material related to their condition”.

The addition of an EHR system will dramatically improve patient care in hospitals, but there are a few things that developers and doctors should keep in mind. While alerts about dangerous drug interactions and allergies are extremely useful, they should be careful that the doctors do not see these alerts so often that they click through them without acknowledging them. Also, doctors should be aware that the system is not going to be infallible and when they are in doubt they should use their intuition and research further if needed. If doctors become too reliant on the system, they will lose their ability to think critically and identify faulty information.

Assignment 2

Businesses are highly dependent on the warehousing and analysis of data to make a majority of their strategic decisions. Although this information is highly valued, the concept of systematic irrationality may actually decrease the significance of the charts and graphs derived from the data so carefully collected everyday. Systematic irrationality introduces the idea that although humans are rational beings and are expected to use that gift to make daily decisions, other factors come into play such as the emotions that making certain decisions might evoke. In addition, a person may choose differently based on relative rather than actual data.


In The Mind of the Market—Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans and Other Tales From Evolutionary Economic, Micheal Shermer studies the economic impact of such irrationality. Adding emotions and other unforeseen factors into decision making means businesses need to reevaluate the data they collect. Drawing linear conclusions using concrete statistics is not enough to make decisions, because many people are not actually choosing the most rational (mathematical) method to make their decisions.


As a society, we need to recognize the importance of constantly reevaluating the data we keep, and try to capture the less obvious information as well as the obvious. Recording and managing trends, while helpful, will be difficult as new environmental factors will constantly come into play. We must steer away from making assumptions that something that has worked in the past will always work. Dan Ariely touches on this concept when he talks about the nurse who insisted that removing the bandage quickly was the best way because that is the we she has always done it and that is how she was taught to do it. If she were to take a step back and discover for herself the best way, she would have brought more comfort to her patients. What was more comfortable for Dan may not be comfortable for every patient, and it is important to reevaluate each situation. For each new patient, she can draw on past experiences to help make decisions, but keep an open mind.


Businesses can apply this same concept to assist in making better decisions. By involving historical data and observing the current environment, thereby incorporating both rational and irrational decision making; businesses will enhance their ability to make strategic decisions.

An Innovative Solution to Over-consumption

I recently came across a website called swap.com. This business uses an innovative approach to address a couple of key issues that plague consumers today: a falling economy and a disintegrating environment. Swap.com creatively connects consumers with the goods they need at a much lower cost while reducing the amount of waste we create each day. Reducing this overconsumption can positively impact our environement and increase the quality of life for all of us. To do this, the website maintains a database of millions of items that website users have posted. Items such as CD’s, books or video games that they are either willing to trade or are wanting to procure. The idea is to fulfill the consumers' needs without the exchange of money. Each person receives something of value to them while getting rid of something that was sitting on a shelf untouched. The consumer no longer has to pay retail value for an item that does not need to be new to be valuable, and instead, pays the cost of shipping (which is relatively low for media mail). As long as the item has value to someone using the site, the item can be traded or recycled indefinitely.

For swap.com, this “want to have” and “have it” information is key to running the business. They hold knowledge that otherwise would be unknown to consumers and can operate with a lower overhead than most businesses. They have no need for physical inventory or really even a building in which to operate. Swap.com’s most valuable asset is the information it contains, and its ability to efficiently maintain and redistribute that information.

Although the founders of the site have come up with a unique way to address a broad need both financial and environmental, they must strive to continue learning. This technology can be fairly easily mimicked and will probably have competition in the market very soon if not already. Swap.com will need to continue to improve its processes and foster a research and learning environment to remain on the forefront of this industry. Swap.com is providing a great value to our society, by allowing consumers that have been struck down by our economy to again consume while at the same time cutting down on the over-consumption for which American’s have become so well known.