The Innovators Studio with Phil McKinney

A video game competition between siblings is one of those simple joys of childhood. But it is no simple thing when one of those children has physical limitations that have kept him from that joy. His smile when at last he can play a virtual soccer match against his sister speaks volumes. Xogo is an accessible innovation that makes things possible for the physically challenged.

Motivation and Inspiration

People with disabilities are a largely underrepresented group in the U.S. Bansen Labs, the company behind Xogo, focuses on the needs of these people. One of their goals is to make technologies accessible at a reasonable price. Their merging of business and social good is inspiring.

Ray Abel, CEO of Bansen Labs, tells us about this remarkable product. He shares what brought the company from class project to the Cable Labs Fiterator. One of the things that sets Bansen Labs apart is its unique perspective. Dalton Banks, Bansen's Chief of Product, grew up with a person who was physically disabled. This was his inspiration behind the class project.

When it comes to accessible innovation, Ray feels that those who have a personal connection have the advantage. The result is a product that looks better, works better, has a broader range, and a lower price.

From Classroom to Living Room

When you think of gaming, you may not think life changing innovation. From its beginnings as a class project, Xogo has emerged as an innovation with a broad range of uses. This technology interface product enables people easier access to and control of home electronics.

As the Xogo technology matures, its potential uses have expanded. If you know someone who gets frustrated with technology in the home, consider Xogo. It simplifies and streamlines home electronics. Bansen Labs has created an accessible innovation that opens new worlds to people.

To learn more about Bansen Labs and Xogo, visit myxogo.com and www.facebook.com/myxogo.

Innovation can spring out of ideating beyond your own needs. Look to others' challenges to shine a light on prime areas for innovation. Innovation can also come from dire need. Both cases push innovators to ask questions. What can I do to make this better? Can innovation through collaboration improve or accelerate the process?

Overdue Innovation

John Chang, co-founder of Willow, discusses his solution to an overlooked problem. A mechanical engineer, John had the technical background. But the conversation with his wife about the challenges moms face launched Willow Pumps.

As part of a business incubator, John searched for areas of innovation. The spark of an idea began with his wife's input. It became an innovation through collaboration with mothers – relatives, friends, business associates. He asked these women "what are the unmet needs of mothers with babies."

[shareable cite="John Chang, Co-Founder of Willow"]The most gratifying result: knowing this product has helped women and babies. [/shareable]

The recurring theme: the breastfeeding pump is overdue for innovation. The products on the market were bulky and noisy. The basic design had not changed much since the pump's development. In designing the product, John focused on the target customer.

Now available, the Willow pump is discrete, quiet, handsfree, and mobile. The most gratifying result: this product has helped women and babies.

Learn more about Willow at www.willowpump.com.

Timing is Everything

On the battlefield getting the right product could be a matter of life or death. The problem – long lead times for innovations. As a soldier, Jay Rogers felt open sourcing and crowdsourcing could accelerate military vehicle innovations. The faster turnaround would benefit the military.

Jay founded Local Motors to build upon this idea of innovation through collaboration. His first success was the Rally Fighter, the world's first crowdsourced vehicle. It reached market within one year.

Justin Fishkin is Chief Strategy Officer for Local Motors. He is committed to impact investing and the environment. The company mirrors these values. At the core of Local Motors' business are co-creation and microfactories. A microfactory is small volume production in local markets. This sustainable way of doing business has future impact. Justin believes it "could solve the issues globalization may have caused in the early days of outsourcing."

Local Motors' innovations are a fusion of ideas from contributors in all walks of life. The company exemplifies innovation through collaboration. In a sense, Local Motors is bridging the local and the global communities. Drawing innovative ideas from the far reaches of the world and bringing production down home to local communities.

• Check out Local Motors' Olli, a self-driving vehicle. Watch it in action at CableLabs on Youtube.
• Track the latest with Local Motors at Localmotors.com.
• Join the Local Motors innovators at the crowdsource platform Launchforth.io.

Innovation can spring out of ideating beyond your own needs.  Look to others’ challenges to shine a light on prime areas for innovation.  Innovation can also come from dire need.  Both cases push innovators to ask questions.  What can I do to make this better?  Can innovation through collaboration improve or accelerate the process?

Overdue Innovation

John Chang, co-founder of Willow, discusses his solution to an overlooked problem.  A mechanical engineer, John had the technical background.  But the conversation with his wife about the challenges moms face launched Willow Pumps.

As part of a business incubator, John searched for areas of innovation.  The spark of an idea began with his wife’s input.  It became an innovation through collaboration with mothers – relatives, friends, business associates.  He asked these women “what are the unmet needs of mothers with babies.” 

The recurring theme: the breastfeeding pump is overdue for innovation.  The products on the market were bulky and noisy.  The basic design had not changed much since the pump’s development.  In designing the product, John focused on the target customer.   

Now available, the Willow pump is discrete, quiet, handsfree, and mobile.  The most gratifying result: this product has helped women and babies.

Learn more about Willow at www.willowpump.com.

Timing is Everything

On the battlefield getting the right product could be a matter of life or death.  The problem – long lead times for innovations.  As a soldier, Jay Rogers felt open sourcing and crowdsourcing could accelerate military vehicle innovations.  The faster turnaround would benefit the military.

Jay founded Local Motors to build upon this idea of innovation through collaboration.  His first success was the Rally Fighter, the world’s first crowdsourced vehicle.  It reached market within one year.  

Justin Fishkin is Chief Strategy Officer for Local Motors.  He is committed to impact investing and the environment.  The company mirrors these values.  At the core of Local Motors’ business are co-creation and microfactories.  A microfactory is small volume production in local markets.  This sustainable way of doing business has future impact.  Justin believes it “could solve the issues globalization may have caused in the early days of outsourcing.”

Local Motors’ innovations are a fusion of ideas from contributors in all walks of life.  The company exemplifies innovation through collaboration.  In a sense, Local Motors is bridging the local and the global communities.  Drawing innovative ideas from the far reaches of the world and bringing production down home to local communities.

* Check out Local Motors’ Olli, a self-driving vehicle.  Watch it in action at CableLabs on Youtube.

* Track the latest with Local Motors at Localmotors.com.  

* Join the Local Motors innovators at the crowdsource platform Launchforth.io.

 

UPDATE: The original audio for this post was from an old show. This has been corrected. We apologize for the mistake.

Among the emerging technologies, gadgets and hype, what innovation standouts were at CES 2018? What trends have staying power?

With almost every startup claiming AI, I'm having flashbacks to the dot com era when every business changed its name to get in on the buzzword bandwagon. Is there something behind the AI buzzword that substantiates the fervor? Interestingly enough, while the competition intensifies in areas of innovation, I notice a new level of cooperation among industry leaders in other areas.

I welcomed three guests-Tim Bajarin, Steve Guggenheimer, and Teresa Hsu- to the mobile studio to discuss the innovation standouts we'll see in 2018.

Tim Bajarin

Tim Bajarin is President of Creative Strategies, Inc, and a renowned technology trends analyst. During the interview, he shared his view of some innovation standouts in Augmented Reality (AR), 8K TV and Voice User Interface.

[shareable cite="Tim Bajarin"]Don't create what you think the customer wants – address the pain points to create the solution.[/shareable]

Tim's eyes weren't on AI so much as AR. He anticipates AR becoming more sophisticated in its capabilities and uses. He envisions an evolution of AR technology that eventually delivers real time information and overlays of data through a pair of voice command AR glasses.

Tim considers the leap in TV resolution to 8K remarkable. Sometimes the drivers that propel innovation come from unusual places.

Voice User Interface technology is a neck and neck competition in an ecosystem battle. In Tim's opinion, Amazon has emerged as an unexpected leader because they asked the right questions. He advises clients: don't create what you think the customer wants – address the pain points to create the solution.

Interested in hearing more from Tim? Follow him on Twitter @bajarin or visit his website Creative Strategies

Steve Guggenheimer

Steve Guggenheimer has been a long time executive at Microsoft having most recently been Microsoft Chief Evangelist. In his new role as Microsoft Corporate Vice President of AI Business, Steve has shared what he sees as the real benefits of AI solutions. In summary -- he sees AI as a phenomenal area for innovation.

[shareable cite="Steve Guggenheimer"]Take time to experiment and apply AI to focused areas for innovative solutions.[/shareable]

Three types of industries Steve believes AI can be applied to are:

1. Businesses with voice driven and agent based front ends.

• Explore cognitive services, agent technology or bot framework and know how to use them.

1. Businesses with a significant amount of data.

• Apply machine learning tools to data to drive real insight.

1. Businesses with a horizontal problem.

• Build a solution from the ground up using AI.

His advice: take time to experiment and apply AI to focused areas for innovative solutions.

You can follow Steve on Twitter @stevenguggs and discover more about AI and what it can do for your business at www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai.

Teresa Hsu

The technologies on display cover a broad spectrum across all avenues of our lives. Teresa Hsu, Senior Manager with Consumer Technology Association (host of CES), shared that the trend is not just gadgets, but the technology inside and behind products that make them smarter.

What technologies are on the innovation horizon for this year? I had a chance to sit down with acclaimed Silicon Valley tech analyst, Bob O'Donnell, at the The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), to discuss the highlights of the show and where tech innovation is headed.

Bob shared that many of the products on view at CES were technologies debuted in past years, but with tweaks, improvements and continuing development. In his opinion, we are now coming in to the necessary, but less thrilling, phase of making things work together – a gradual progression, migration and integration - steps that need to happen to make these innovations a viable reality.

Fully Autonomous Vehicle

One of the biggest features at CES that Bob was most excited about was the fully autonomous vehicle. The timeline for final market release of these vehicles is a good example of how public expectation and actuality are not synchronized. Bob shared that this is a great example of where the public may expect an innovation to become accessible within six months, but in reality it will be three to five years before we are closer to these vehicles hitting the road.

Voice-based Computing

Voice-based computing was everywhere and the competition is stiff in the area of voice-assisted tech. Bob proclaimed that this is the new OS war with a lot of contenders. The advances and possibilities in smart home technology were impressive although smart home and voice assisted technologies are not without their problems.

[shareable cite="Bob O'Donnell"]Voice-based computing is the new OS war[/shareable]

2018 Technologies On The Innovation Horizon

Some of Bob's predictions for 2018 (You can see his predictions in more detail at Tech.pinions, Techspot and Seeking Alpha):

1. Empathetic AI: You will see AI drive empathetic computing. Our devices are still not smart, there's no sense of context, but you will start to see that at end of 2018.
2. The Year of the Accelerator: Development of neural network accelerators using chip technologies that operate more efficiently and are extremely power sensitive, allowing you to put more intelligence on the Edge.
3. Growth of Edge computing: Now everything connects to the Cloud. Companies are innovating in the realm of Edge computing as an alternative to Cloud based computing.
4. Voice computing: This year we will see refinements and enhancements in voice computing.
5. Streaming services: As such services multiply – in media and beyond, the integration of these services will be a focus.

Want to keep up to date with what Bob is tracking? Check out www.Technalysisresearch.com

[callout]Click below to listen to Bob O'Donnell's discussing the technology and innovations at CES 2018[/callout]

Have you ever circled around a busy city block searching for parking? You know how frustrating it can be. If you run a business that depends on drivers finding a parking space, parking becomes mission critical. Is there an innovative parking solution that addresses this problem?

This weeks guest, Jeremy Leval, discusses the parking challenge and how Parknav addresses it. He shares his journey from entrepreneurial youth to becoming a part of an innovative solution to a very common problem.

[shareable cite="Jeremy Level"]Don't overlook the benefit of accelerators and incubators to grow your business[/shareable]

As a child with the lemonade stand, Jeremy had the idea of offering free pretzels to keep the customers coming back for more. His desire to challenge himself and stand out compelled him to try new things, learn new skills and use these skills to establish start-ups. Jeremy continued to move into new avenues of entrepreneurship, seeking ways to solve everyday problems in creative ways.

Innovative Parking Solution: Parknav

While enrolled in an MBA program, Leval kept the entrepreneurial flame burning by teaming up with a colleague, now Parknav CEO, to establish a forum for engaging a community of entrepreneurial-minded people. Jeremy found that listening to and learning from others' mistakes was especially useful in side-stepping potential pitfalls in his own venture. He emphasizes the value of having input from people who are disconnected from your particular venture and are willing to provide a critical, independent and qualified viewpoint.

After college, he met a University of Illinois professor who had a simple problem: finding street parking in the city. Such was the beginnings of Parknav, a navigation system that finds that elusive street parking space for you.

As Parknav began to come together as a business entity, Jeremy and his business partners had to determine where to focus their product offering – who was their best target audience. They came to a decision to pivot from their original consumer focus to focus more on a business-to-business solution.

[shareable cite="Jeremy Leval"] Don't give up on the first no. Persevere.[/shareable]

Innovators Advice:

During the interview, Jeremy shares his advice to innovators:

• Have a community and advisers,
• Knowing when to pivot
• Take advantage of business accelerators to help launch your business that will bring the right partnersto the table.

Show Links:

• Parknav
• Parknav on Facebook
• Parknav on LinkedIn

[callout]Click below to listen to this weeks show on innovating solutions to very common problems[/callout]

Innovation is not something restricted to Silicon Valley or other Silicon Valley like location (e.g. Austin, Boston, etc). Innovation can happen anywhere. If you are willing to invest some time and little effort, you can find non-obvious innovation happening in some very unusual locations.

This week, we take the new mobile studio to Paducah, Kentucky to interview the founders of Fin Gourmet Foods. The business challenges some basic assumptions of innovation including:

• Turn other peoples trash into a product: Fin takes the Asian Carp, which is an invasive species that is taking over the Mississippi and Ohio river systems., and innovate a way to turn it into a great food source.
• Give opportunities to people overlooked: In addition to locating in a rural part of the country, Fin works with local halfway houses to offer jobs to former prison inmates and others down on their luck.
• Breathe life back into a industry overlooked by others: Fin pays a premium price for what many considered "trash" to help local independent fishing families to transition to this new species of fish and the economy it can support.

What is the non-obvious innovation at Fin?

Fin has two patented processing techniques:

1. To debone Asian Carp fillets and
2. To make all-natural surimi (Japanese fish paste) from the Carp without using water or chemicals.

More on Fin Gourmet Foods:

Started in 2010, Fin's mission and vision are that the Asian Carp provide economic opportunities for our communities, fostering jobs creation and revitalizing the inland fishing industry. Together with fisherman like Ronny Hopkins, we will better manage the Asian Carp so that our rivers/lakes/estuaries are better protected while employing people who need second chances from incarceration, drug court, domestic violence, or just to have a better life path.

[callout]Click below to listen to this weeks show on non-obvious innovation from unexpected places.[/callout]

Lets face it. Innovation is hard word and requires leadership support if an organization is going to be successful at it. Thus every CEO needs an innovation coach who can come alongside and help the CEO achieve innovation success.

Why does an organization success with innovation fall in the lap of the CEO? Because the CEO needs to own the innovation agenda. This is not something that can easily be passed on to the others. While an organization may hire an CINO (chief innovation officer), the innovation success of an organization is not something that can be handed off.

4 Reasons Every CEO Needs An Innovation Coach

1. Innovation Coach Can Help A CEO Find Their Blind Spot: We all have blind spots and we need an outsiders perspective to see them. This is especially true when it comes innovation blind spots.
2. Innovation Coach Takes A Dispassionate View: Innovation can become very political inside an organization. A CEO needs a dispassionate independent adviser who doesn't have a dog in the hunt.
3. Innovation Coach Can Ask The CEO Questions No One Else Can: CEO needs to be able to talk and work through issues with someone who has the role and permission to challenge and advise. The CEO cannot have this same level of conversation with their Board or team. The coach must ask the questions no one else will.
4. Great Performers Have A Coach: People and team who want to outperform their peers have coaches. These include business, leadership and personal coaches. If innovation is import to your organization, then you need an innovation coach.

As a CEO myself, I can attest to the challenges and loneliness of the role. Having a team of advisers and coaches are invaluable to achieving personal and leadership success. Innovation should be the next area of coaching every CEO should take advantage of.

[callout]Click below to listen to this weeks show on the 4 reasons every CEO needs an innovation coach. [/callout]

Show Links:

For peer-to-peer coaching, check out TheInnovators.Community. A private Slack community of people who are passionate about innovation.

Additional Resources:

• Innovation Coach: 4 Questions You Should Ask Before Selecting One
• Finding and Benefiting From A Coach and Mentor
• Innovation Mentoring vs. Innovation Coaching: Which Do You Need?

[callout]Click below to listen to this weeks show on the 4 reasons every CEO needs an innovation coach. [/callout]

To some organizations, starting an innovation effort seems easy. Just hire some consultants, host a few all-hands meetings and then decree that the organization is embracing innovation. Sustaining innovation over time is incredibly hard. Without a long term commitment, most organizations experience innovation collapse.

Are there weak signals that an organization is heading towards innovation collapse?

4 Signs Of Coming Innovation Collapse

Here are four signs that organizations should keep a look out for.

1. Innovation Out Of Fear: For sustained innovation, an organization needs to have a bedrock reason why innovation is important. For some, it's out of fear. Fear that share price is suffering because of a lack of innovation. Fear that everyone else is doing it and the organization is being left behind. While fear is a catalyst for innovation, its not a sustainable motivator.
2. Competitive Urgency: For many organizations, their idea of innovation is responding to their competitors actions. When a competitor launches a new product or service, the organization responds by catching-up. Its innovation effort is reactionary which is not a sustainable approach to innovation.
3. Innovation Silos/Innovation Fragmentation: Some organizations will attempt to catch-up by starting a large amount of innovation projects. The innovation version of throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. Projects will make everyone feel like they are doing something but without coordination and prioritization, the odds of success are slim.
4. Lack of Will Power: For an organization to create a sustainable innovation program, their leadership will need to make some changes. Do they have the will power to do whatever it takes for innovation success?

During this weeks show, we discuss in more detail each of the 4 signs of pending innovation collapse.

We also share what you can do to avoid it.

[callout]Click below to listen to this weeks show on innovation collapse.[/callout]

To some organizations, starting an innovation effort seems easy. Just hire some consultants, host a few all-hands meetings and then decree that the organization is embracing innovation. Sustaining innovation over time is incredibly hard. Without a long term commitment, most organizations experience innovation collapse.

Are there weak signals that an organization is heading towards innovation collapse?

4 Signs Of Coming Innovation Collapse

Here are four signs that organizations should keep a look out for.

* Innovation Out Of Fear: For sustained innovation, an organization needs to have a bedrock reason why innovation is important.  For some, it's out of fear. Fear that share price is suffering  because of a lack of innovation. Fear that everyone else is doing it and the organization is being left behind. While fear is a catalyst for innovation, its not a sustainable motivator.

* Competitive Urgency: For many organizations, their idea of innovation is responding to their competitors actions. When a competitor launches a new product or service, the organization responds by catching-up. Its innovation effort is reactionary which is not a sustainable approach to innovation.

* Innovation Silos/Innovation Fragmentation: Some organizations will attempt to catch-up by starting a large amount of innovation projects. The innovation version of throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. Projects will make everyone feel like they are doing something but without coordination and prioritization, the odds of success are slim.

* Lack of Will Power: For an organization to create a sustainable innovation program, their leadership will need to make some changes. Do they have the will power to do whatever it takes for innovation success?

During this weeks show, we discuss in more detail each of the 4 signs of pending innovation collapse.

We also share what you can do to avoid it.