Kristin Robinson

Maybe it is the accountant in me talking, but I think that using return on investment is a metric to measure the success of an innovation project is appropriate assuming that the goals and deliverable items of the project have been made clear. Because the silo culture at Siemens is so strong, it is important that they maintain Technoweb and…[Read more]

Both abundance and scarcity are disruptive to society in different ways. Scarcity obviously disrupts because there is a demand for something that is not readily available. Abundance disrupts society by flooding the market and lower the value of the item. I don’t think that one disrupts more than the other because the consequence of each is…[Read more]

I agree Duke! Your post made me laugh, thanks.

While I don’t think that the age of publishers and agents is dead, I do think publishers and agents are becoming less necessary for authors. This is yet another industry that has been heavily influenced by technology. If an author has the time to self publish and promote, they have a chance at succeeding. Though, as Jon Wise stated, the…[Read more]

For the record companies, I see a much larger downside than upside with regard to digital technology. The technology has enabled them to streamline manufacturing and distribution of music, but that same technology has also enabled those, other than huge record companies, to do the same thing. I was staggered by the percentage of sales the…[Read more]

Thanks for getting that back up information Kevin! I was wondering how I could find out how successful Radiohead was with In Rainbows. Wow, the article really illustrated how the record companies are all about the record companies and not so much about the artists.

Thanks for the encouragement Joel! I am coming around to embracing IT. Excel and online shopping are wonderful things.

I really need to get with the program. Seems like everyone is using systems like Google Docs. It absolutely makes sense for people on the go. I am still getting used to the idea for small offices.

I am glad we were assigned to use it. I don’t know that I would have gone into fusion tables on my own.

IT globalized Wyeth by centralizing the data and implementing one clear system of data management (SAP ERP). Prior to the IT changes, multiple countries operated within multiple systems with little interest in sharing data. The IT changes forced the company to operate as a whole. I cannot think of anything other than IT that would promote such…[Read more]

Globalization of IT for an international company is very involved and requires the full buy in from upper management for a successful and timely implementation. Wyeth’s goal of implementing the SAP ERP transaction processing was key to providing the company with centralized information from which to work from going forward. Development and…[Read more]

I am old school when it comes to the issue of supplying your own electronic devices for work. I think a lot would depend on the type of work your company does due to data security issues. It seems like there would be many companies that need to safe guard their information. I completely understand why companies don’t want employees downloading…[Read more]

I am with you Stephen, but I think the cloud is the wave of the future. Hackers will continue to have a filed day with it! The Google Docs project that we just completed is currently the only thing I have on the cloud that I know of. Is this Temple stuff on the cloud? How can you even tell?

Thanks Saqib — The convenience factor would only make it so that I could work from anywhere without having to dial into the Foundation’s server. I do understand why people are on the cloud. The Foundation is not going to have much of a choice soon if it wants to continue to use industry software. It kills me because we are just talking…[Read more]

What a wonderfully timely topic for me as I have had salesforce aggressively selling their grant software, foundation connect, to me at work. Part of the problem I have with it is the cloud. I would describe the cloud as a way for people to share resources and have access to their data remotely. While these things appeal to my personal…[Read more]

I think the VW’s new process is a large improvement because the it is much more clearly defined and is strongly supported by upper management. Management support helps to create a clear and solid path for employees to follow. While the new system is not perfect it is movement in a positive direction.

I spent way more time that expected reading this article and thinking about how it applies to my work. To me systems are like maps or paradigms. They involve teams and relationships as well as guidelines and consequences for decisions. A general example of where systems thinking can be applied is in connection with your personal time…[Read more]

As so many have pointed out, the under funding at VW is primarily due to inadequate project prioritization. Unfortunately this is an example where the company was focused on pieces and not the whole. Transparency and disclosure between departments and divisions in various countries would improve communication and help encourage the company to…[Read more]

I agree Saqib. VW simply did not make globalization a high enough priority if it was truly important to them.

I agree. The company dramatically improved their US market share. This success was in part because they made IT a priority and aligned it with the strategic business objectives of the company. They established and created defined channels for the flow of communication which made the company work better as a whole as opposed to parts.