Ed's Blog: July 2005

Sunday, July 24, 2005

System Thinking and 2 Spheres

Innovation, Creativity, Design

Today, July 24th, 2005, in the Entertainment section of the Buffalo News, Jeff Simon reports on the terrible lack of innovation in Hollywood movieland. Since the MBAs got in there, man, it's just profit seeking, with business people correlating trends and demographics and using a formula approach to recycle old concepts/trash through our brains for entertainment. Simon laments that there's very little risk taking, very little innovation and creativity, and we're stuck with what I think of as very predictable (you will now laugh at this point in the movie) recycled movies.

Well, it's the same way in the business world. You often need to look for the little companies and the out of the mainstream products to find new, creative and innovative products and solutions. My August 1st, 2005 Business Week magazine has a special report - "Get Creative: How to Build Innovative Companies." In addition to identifying the most innovative firms (e.g., GE, Dell, Google), they also have an article on how MBA programs are becoming more innovative by both linking MBA students with elective courses on innovation and product design, and also making the MBA program more tightly coupled with Design Schools.

I won't repeat everything in the Business Week articles, but, I will mention that I will try to integrate some postings that discuss design, art, and systems. For example, business people have discussed brainstorming sessions where the CEO says - "we need to think outside the box." What does this mean? How can design and art impact business and business thinking? What are systems?

How do you feel about Hollywood movies, recycled concepts - "Bewitched," "Batman," etc?

How do you feel about different ways to make companies more innovative?

How can you make business schools more innovative and get students to integrate product design, development and business management?

Are these notions, Hollywood movies and business innovation, related?

Saturday, July 16, 2005

London terror, rock n roll, and peace

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

The Moody Blues

The Moody Blues

Last week, July 6th, Mary and I drove to Canandaigua, NY, checked into the Canandaigua Inn on the Lake, and walked to the Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center. When we first heard the advertisement that they were coming, Mary didn’t know her work schedule, so we couldn’t make definite plans. But, the week before, we both had listened to the radio advertisements, and with her new schedule in place, we said – “Let’s do it!”

Checking into the Inn was a necessary ingredient to the trip since I don’t believe in drinking and driving. In order to relax appropriately, I find it necessary to enjoy a pleasant beverage before and during the concert. After checking into the Inn, the front desk attendant said that it was just a 5 or 10 minute walk to the concert. Well, 20 minutes into the walk, I started to get nervous, when you’re driving and you don’t know where you are going, you can make up time, but when you’re walking! Oh, man. . Mary wore sandals, and she was quickly developing blisters. Well, about 55 minutes later we arrived at the gates to the Performing Arts Center. Since we were in the Finger Lakes wine region, I decided to check the beverages. When I found they had Brickstone Cellars Chardonnay for $19 bottle, I gave the girl a $20 and we were off and running to our seats.

Twenty years ago, I wondered what all of these rock n’ roll guys would be doing years later. Now I know. They’re doing the same thing (although they don’t run around stage like they used to). The Moody Blues voices are still excellent. They put on a wonderful concert … even though I never cared too much for “Nights in White Satin” … as a live performance it was outstanding.

We were both extremely impressed with the Canandaigua Inn on the Lake. Pleasant service (except the kid at the front door has no clue how far the FLPAC is from the hotel), located right on the shores of the lake, a beautiful restaurant, excellent breakfast and the hotel is nicely decorated with original art work. We’ll definitely be back (in fact I already gave them a nice write-up on the Internet travel site, and I’ve booked them for a group wine tour in September). The town of Canandaigua is also pleasant, inviting, charming, and quaint. I can’t wait to go back.

Meanwhile, in London, terrorists strike. The happenings in London are in such stark contrast to my Moody Blues vacation getaway, but, I thought I would mention it, sketch a quick representation, and think about the events for another days’ blogging. Like 60’s rock n’ roll – “Peace man.”

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Books

Books, People, Relationships, Learning and Teaching

As you can tell from the title of this post, sometimes I get a little carried away in my quest to write about things. But, I really do like to relate things together, to draw analogies and to get philosophical about life.

First, in case you haven't read this, I highly recommend Mitch Albom's "Tuesdays with Morrie." I read it 2 years ago while on vacation. The book is about spending the last days of life with Morrie, Mitch's old college professor. Morrie has a terminal illness, and Mitch Albom spends time with Morrie and gathers the dying man's thoughts, philosophies and insights about life. Although the book is about death, it is definitely an "up-lifting book." Despite this terrible illness, Morrie provides more lessons on life as he shares his thoughts ... and, basically, if you want to get to the theme of the book, or the moral of the story, it's that life is about - people. Relationships.

Basically, no one is ever on their deathbed wishing they had spent more time working. No. People always want to see their loved ones one last time. Basically, people are all about people and relationships, sharing, caring and being with one another.

Naturally, we all need to work, and the lesson is not that you should spend more time golfing or goofing off, but, quite often we end up "putting the cart before the horse," and we get sidetracked away from people and relationships. Family and friends are vitally important. We need to share, and care, and basically ... we're like the wolves, meaning that we're social creatures and that we really can't cut ourselves off from others.

As I said, this does not mean we should spend our time goofing off and avoiding work. Far from it. In fact, "an idle mind is the devil's playground." If we truly care about people, we'll spend a great deal of time working. Working for our jobs and livelihoods, and working to help others that are less fortunate or working for the common good - preventing poverty, environmental protection, and peace, for example.

As many great people before us have discovered, in order to be truly productive and to get things done, we can't do it alone. Once again, people and relationships are key. Management and organization involve getting people on the same team, cooperating, collaborating, and coordinating activites toward a common goal - helping out people - both in the short-term (helping the poor, making products, providing services, etc.) and for the long-term (helping the next generation or generations). A terrific book to read about someone who worked very hard, organized activities, got people to cooperate, worked for the common good, and did a great variety of things ... is .... "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life," by Walter Isaacson.

As I blogged about before, I had a small family reunion of sorts a few weeks back. As you can read from the previous blogs about this, it was my Aunt Martha who said - "Well, maybe this all happened for a reason," - meaning my Mom's illness. It was, in fact, the impetus that started my Aunt Martha to organize a little get-together. (I also want to add, and give credit, to my sister Diane, who suggested calling Aunt Martha to begin with. Unfortunately, due to several travelling restrictions, she could not attend). Why bring this up again? There's another NY Times bestseller (like the books mentioned above) called "The Celestine Prophesy," by James Redfield. It's a fun story, fiction. The basic idea behind this book - "there are no coincidences." Things happen for a reason. The chance encounter you had with a friend last week - not a coincidence.

Although Redfield's book is written from a spiritual perspective, and although it does not promote any religious doctrine directly, "The Purpose Driven Life," by Rick Warren is written from a Christian perspective and also discusses the above topics: there are no coincidences and people are key - in fact, we are spiritual creatures who have been created for a purpose.

My coincidences? Well, from a people perspective I've gotten reunited with my cousins and their families. I'm hoping we can keep the relationships going. While in Syracuse I also ran into an old friend - Rob and his wife Cindy. In addition, I got a phone call from my old college buddy - Nando. I'm hoping to stay in touch with him and hopefully reconnect with my other old college buddy - Victor .

A big purpose to my blogging is to reconnect and stay connected with family and friends. Also, since I have my blog connected to my professional website, I'll also write things that may be of interest to my Information Systems students. They can get to know me from a different perspective, if they want to, and I can share some insights and teach some non-IS related knowledge.

Future blogs: Down the road ... I will write something on Systems Theory and how things tie together ... all kinds of things.

- Ed

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