March 3rd, 2010
Hydrogen Convergence via Innovation-Infrastructure
Earlier this week, we at the ebTDesign Forum proposed a timeline for massive carbon reduction using hydrogen convergence. At the top of that list was the goal of establishing a national innovation-infrastructure for hydrogen convergence by 2012. Many of you may not be familiar with the concept of an innovation-infrastructure and why it is so important to post-Globalization adoption.
An innovation-infrastructure provides a community with peripheral vision or the means of identifying and utilizing bright new ideas from the fringes of the organizational space. Peripheral vision provides human beings with the capability of detecting motion that is outside our general field of view. It is our number one means of triggering flight or fight mechanisms.
Post-Globalization, an innovation-infrastructure provides hydrogen convergence colonies with the necessary feedback loop for navigating the changing investment landscape. An example of why this is so important can be seen in the decision by the DOE to cancel hydrogen projects last year. If the DOE had had a functioning innovation-infrastructure, it would have detected the extremely high level of creative activity and known that its goals were being met.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: hydrogen, Innovation-Infrastructure, periphery vision, post-GlobalizationMarch 1st, 2010
Proposal: Carbon Reduction Timeline via Hydrogen Convergence
After reading yesterday’s blog segment on meeting the world’s carbon reduction targets, many of you will ask what the hydrogen convergence timeline looks like. This is important because it is difficult to agree on an investment roadmap without a consensus on when the necessary components must be available. We at the ebTDesign Forum propose the following:
- Hydrogen Convergence Innovation-Infrastructure available by 2012
- Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles rollout in 2015
- Peak Carbon achieved because of hydrogen convergence by 2020
- 80% Carbon Reduction via hydrogen convergence by 2050
We at the ebTDesign Forum look forward to hearing your comments on this proposed hydrogen convergence timeline. Does it meet your expectations? Should it be adjusted based the fact that some of the research has shown that climate change is accelerating. You can leave a message on twitter at @zalexander and on Facebook at “Let’s Talk Hydrogen Convergence.”
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: hydrogen, Innovation-Infrastructure, roadmap, timelineJanuary 4th, 2010
Made any New Year’s Resolutions for Hydrogen Convergence?
Last year was a watershed year for the emerging GreenTech industry. Secretary Chu forced the entire world to take look at our collective prospects for avoiding climate change and ensuring sustainable job growth. From this crucible of change, the hydrogen convergence movement was born.
As with every New Year, goals must be made and priorities must be set. We at the ebTDesign Forum would like to know what your resolutions are for promoting hydrogen convergence. As you know, hydrogen convergence is the only pro-growth alternative to “cap-and-trade.”
If you are willing to share, we would like to know how we at the ebTDesign Forum can better support your information needs so you may thrive on the post-Globalization frontier. We are planning to promote GreenTech campus entrepreneurship as means of building innovation-infrastructure. We encourage you to let us know if you think that this makes since and invite you to make suggestions.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: GreenTech, hydrogen, Innovation-Infrastructure, post-GlobalizationJuly 20th, 2009
Industry Cluster Empowerment is Alive and Well in New Orleans
The Times Picayune is reporting that entrepreneurial hubs are springing up all over New Orleans. These hubs appear to be structured more like business federations than business incubators or accelerators. Business federations allow small and micro businesses to leverage a common innovation-infrastructure to achieve economies of scale.
Local communities benefit from industry cluster empowerment efforts like entrepreneurial hubs because they help change the business climate. They make it acceptable to enter the post-Globalization Marketplace without the overhead or cost structures associated with most large companies. The resolve for putting America on a more entrepreneurial footing starts locally. We at the ebTDesign Forum are happy to see New Orleans take the lead.
Zachary Alexander
The IT Investment Architect®
April 6th, 2009
Why the US Dollar needs Industry Cluster Empowerment.
Last week there was a huge outcry from some Asian countries to leave the dollar behind. Lawmakers in the United States Congress would do well to pay close attention to the tone and tenor of these discussions because the same chorus was heard a year before the banking crisis. Also, a similar uproar effectively ended the Doha Round of International Trade Talks and brought to a close the last economic age.
The post-Globalization Marketplace will be a very different place for everyone. As countries reduce their reliance on fossil fuel, their need for a single hard currency will also be diminished. Research has shown that individuals are rapidly moving away from using cash for personal business transactions. Even more significantly, this trend will manifest as an increase in the importance of influence investments which are the basis for industry cluster empowerment.
A case could be made that international business is currently driven by a fundamental need to obtain US Dollars for oil and other petroleum resources. Industry cluster empowerment could replace fossil fuel dependence as the rationale for market interconnectedness and US Dollar value. Local communities that want to retain their position in the post-Globalization Marketplace will develop satellite programs which extend the reach of their innovation-infrastructures and provide access to additional tacit knowledge.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: Doha-Round, industry cluster, Innovation-Infrastructure, post-GlobalizationJanuary 27th, 2009
How Renewables Exploration Led to Industry Cluster Empowerment
A while back, the principals at ebTDesign were involved in pulling together an event called “E-Business in the Hydrogen Economy.” This program was designed to explore the potential of using local e-business resources to create competitive advantage in the production and utilization of hydrogen as a fuel source.
It became apparent during the promotion of this event that there were enough local resources to justify starting a renewable industry cluster. However, this initiative ended when industry experts (tourists) from adjacent industries voiced their skepticism about the viability of environmental business policy.
Soon after this education in American populism, we started developing the components that would lead to industry cluster empowerment. We created the concept of innovation-infrastructure design and fleshed out the implications of a P2P Economy based on distributed ownership. Now we encourage our readers to field test industry cluster empowerment as they create their own renewable industry clusters.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: design, industry cluster, Innovation-Infrastructure, touristNovember 6th, 2008
Congratulations President-Elect Obama and Welcome to the P2P Economy
On Tuesday night, Senator Barack Obama was elected to be the first post-Globalization President of the United States. While most in the mainstream media have chosen to focus on the color of his skin, we at the ebTDesign Forum think that he will be judged more by his administration’s ability to lead America into the P2P Economy. We hope that he will be successful in changing the conversation from politics in Washington, DC to the need for innovation-infrastructure investment and economic empowerment. However, we are often reminded that vestiges of the last economic age are still potent and capable of derailing promising agendas.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: globalization, Innovation-Infrastructure, Invest in America, Obama, P2P Economy, post-GlobalizationOctober 28th, 2008
Implications of Netbook Adoption for P2P Economy Transition
The Silicon Alley Insider has an interesting article called, “Microsoft Windows: The Beginning of the End.” The author makes the case that emerging netbook technology may bring an end to the near monopoly that Windows has on the personal computing platform. Netbooks are inexpensive lightweight computers that don’t run a full featured operating system like Windows.
We, at the ebTDesign Forum, see the adoption of this kind of minimalist computing system as indicative of the P2P Economy viewpoint. People are redefining what it takes to get the job done. They are cutting away the fat and choosing lifestyle changes that will make them more nimble. We anticipate that working and middle-class Americans will start to actively seek out business federations because they own their own skills and innovation-infrastructure (netbook).
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: business-federations, Innovation-Infrastructure, P2P EconomyJuly 21st, 2008
Innovation-Infrastructure Design: Addressing the Challenges of Green Initiatives
It seems like everyday another article comes out about the negative economic impact of global warming and/or climate change. Readers have been asking, “How can we enable P2P Economy success in green initiatives?” We, at ebTDesign, suggest being prepared to develop comprehensive solutions. Next, reinforce innovation-infrastructure designs as quickly as possible. Lastly, we advise them to be very careful of tourists (industry experts) carrying silver bullets.
Comprehensive solutions will require that architects work with at least three international standards organizations: ASTM International, IEEE, and OASIS. ASTM International is important because they deal with material standards like recycling of post-consumer plastics. The IEEE provides access to knowledge communities which concentrate on renewable power generation and smart power grid technologies. Readers would also be well-advised to look to OASIS for guidance on development of electronic marketplaces and power management.
Nothing is worse for green initiatives than not having enough innovation-infrastructure resources available to handle an increase in bright ideas. IT Investment Vehicles or contingency plans should be in place to acquire or lease more innovation-infrastructure assets. Most organizations cannot afford the kind of influence loss that occurs if the management team doesn’t appear to care about the suggestions made by rank and file employees. Everyone must be heard.
Tourists are industry experts who move from industry to industry spreading commodity thinking or best practices. These gurus are often brought in because they claim to have the silver bullet for easily solving every complex challenge. They tend to look for problems in the most popular spots because they are more interested in generating case studies than fixing problems. These people can be very destructive because they refuse to reexamine their assumptions.
Architects have to be prepared to go beyond the obvious tourist traps and seek out unique solutions. They must push for resources to do P2P Economy transition planning because centralized budgeting processes may be too difficult to navigate when only goodwill and influence are at stake. A large amount of economic value is lost because organizations are quick to make decisions to change and slow to commit to an innovation-infrastructure design to monitor the effects.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: architect, assets, design, Innovation-Infrastructure, P2P Economy, touristApril 2nd, 2008
Innovation-Infrastructure Design: Portfolio Spacing
Readers have been asking what architects should do during times of recession. We, at ebTDesign Forum, suggest that they be extremely vigilant in maintaining spacing in their trust portfolios. Spacing has to do with the time horizons that serve as the foundation for strategic planning (i.e., short term, near term, long term).
During times of economic distress, stakeholders are encouraged by the mainstream media to be fearful. Architecture discipline can start to wane. The sense of impending doom can cause individuals to think only of short term profits. They start to suffer from focalism which is a psychological phenomenon which limits their ability to see the big picture.
It can be very difficult for architects to convince passionate stakeholders that there is risk in not planning for mass commoditization. As competitors shift into survival mode, they start to cannibalize their profit centers. They turn once premium services into either low-cost or no-cost features. Once this happens, architects have to be ready with plans that will shift near term projects into short term profit centers.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: architect, architecture-discipline, design, Innovation-Infrastructure, mass-commoditization, trustMarch 12th, 2008
Innovation-Infrastructure Design: Influence Models
As architects adapt their innovation-infrastructure designs to the P2P Economy, they are developing new tools. One of the first is the influence model. This instrument describes strategies for attracting additional capacity. Currently there are at least three influence models in use.
The oldest influence model is the mass market model. This model emerged at the end of World War II. It is constructed on a belief in centralized ownership and corporate imperialism. In many respects, the P2P Economy emerged as a result of the excesses of this influence model.
Currently, the most popular influence model on the Internet is the open source model. This model is built on radical collaboration and intellectual commons. Commerce is frowned upon. Architects have to be very careful when dealing with stakeholders who espouse the open source doctrine. Otherwise they will offend them. They treat any consideration of other models as a form of heresy.
The newest influence model can be described as the new media model. This model is designed to work with distributed ownership and business federations. It embraces the desire by entrepreneurs to make influence investments which yield only influence currency and the eventual need to convert those investments to real currency. It also has the added benefit of being able to handle the presence of unions.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: capacity, design, influence-investment, influence-model, Innovation-Infrastructure, New Media, P2P Economy, radical-collaborationMarch 11th, 2008
Innovation-Infrastructure Design: Disruptive Nonprofit Leadership
The Philanthropy News Digest has an interesting article called, “The Sustainable Nonprofit.” In this column, the author talks at great length about the need for better training and enhanced personnel standards. Frequent readers will recognize these comments as examples of fixes that incumbents use when sustaining innovation fails.
Nonprofit leaders, at some point, will have to approach capacity building as an exercise in disruptive innovation. When they do, they will learn to leverage their innovation-infrastructure designs in developing influence models which layout strategies for attracting additional capacity. For those who aren’t familiar with influence models, they are like business models for the P2P Economy.
We advise clients that the reason that capacity building projects fail is generally not because of a lack of competent management or leadership training. They fail because change is not approached as though it is a new business opportunity. If they would only ask the simple question, “Where is this new capacity coming from?” When they do, they will see the need for more disruptive nonprofit leadership.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: capacity, design, disruptive-innovation, Innovation-Infrastructure, nonprofitMarch 5th, 2008
New Media and the William Morris Agency
As we wrote back in February, the new media power shift continues. The latest move involves the William Morris Agency partnering with two venture capitalists. Frequent readers of ebTDesign Forum will recognize this effort as an attempt to reinforce the William Morris Agency’s innovation-infrastructure design.
Venture Capitalists often act as innovation intermediaries for organizations that want to take advantage of more bright ideas. We were concerned that talent agencies wouldn’t spend the resources necessary to keep up in the world of new media. This move shows that the talent agencies understand the use of portfolio management in strategic planning and triple time horizons.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: assets, design, Innovation-Infrastructure, New Media, William-Morris-AgencyFebruary 12th, 2008
Innovation-Infrastructure Design: The Control Myth
One of the biggest obstacles to the acceptance of innovation-infrastructure design in small companies is the Control Myth. Architects are taught that they are responsible for insuring that the concerns of all major stakeholders are addressed. The Control Myth implies that the desires of owners and founders matter more than even the customers.
Entrepreneurs have to learn very early how to lead through influence not by coercion. This skill is generally learned after many years in management and at the latter stages of career development in the corporate world. This may be the reason that it is very hard to shift from being a mid-level manager to being an entrepreneur.
Owners and founders don’t have any more control of their business environments than anyone else. They just have less overhead to contend with so they can respond faster. Owners and founders still have an obligation to their stakeholders to stay in business. Most entrepreneurs are told if they start their own business they will have control. So most of the decisions they make in the beginning relate to their desire to take control.
Well-advised entrepreneurs can combat the Control Myth by developing innovation-infrastructure designs early in their business planning process. This will ensure that they will receive access to tacit knowledge from even the most junior members of the team which can help identify new market opportunities. It will also aid with corporate agility and crisis management as the organization grows.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: design, entrepreneurs, influence, Innovation-InfrastructureFebruary 4th, 2008
Innovation-Infrastructure Design: Why not Extensibility?
Some architects requested information on the difference between extensible corporate infrastructure versus reconfigurable. Extensibility assumes that you are heading in the right direction. It implies more of the same with only slight tweaks which can result in sometimes major changes. Subject matter experts use commodity thinking to heap quick-fixes on top of best practices on top of workarounds. This leads to the negative effects of brittle company syndrome.
Reconfigurable corporate assets are designed to be easily moved around within the process flow. They are concerned with bringing a system into a stable state not with simply adjusting the quality of the output. A corporate system that is in a stable state will produce a predictable output with input within a particular variance. No more can be legitimately asked of a process.
The most practical way of reducing output problems is to change the inputs or be more creative. This is where innovation-infrastructure design comes in. Architects can engineer innovation-infrastructure assets so that they increase an organization’s capacity to handle more bright ideas. This in effect changes the inputs without leading to brittle company syndrome.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: assets, capacity, design, Innovation-InfrastructureJanuary 31st, 2008
Global Entrepreneurship Week and Year One Skeptics
In many ways Global Entrepreneurship Week is like a new venture. Supporters are members of an international ad hoc team tasked with illuminating the benefits of career options for young people. They all share a vision of entrepreneurship which encourages everyone to contribute without regard to age or physical challenges.
Global Entrepreneurship Week, like all new ventures, will have to withstand the onslaught of professional skeptics. Without a functioning innovation-infrastructure, supporters will have to learn to discern the concerns of valid stakeholders from professional skeptics. Like all newly formed ad hoc teams, they will have to ferret out the machinations of those whose opinions have been bought from those who are truly interested in the success of the initiative.
Jason Calacanis wrote an interesting segment about how to navigate year one obstacles. We encourage our readers to take a look at it. But he didn’t make a distinction between stakeholders with legitimate concerns and professional skeptics out to trash any unauthorized innovation. The differences between the two groups are significant.
Professional skeptics are hired guns brought in to defend departmental or industry self-interests. These experts peddle commodity thinking and sell it as ground-breaking insights. They ignore the legitimate concerns of valid stakeholders while pushing solutions which only benefit those who pay their salaries. If there is any threat to the success of Global Entrepreneurship Week or any mentoring program, it comes from this segment. Supporters are encouraged to be vigilant.
P.S. Please don’t forget to add your insights to the “How would you measure successful entrepreneurship policy” LinkedIn Answer.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: ad-hoc-team, entrepreneurship, Innovation-Infrastructure, LinkedInJanuary 23rd, 2008
Innovation-Infrastructure Design: Brittle Company Syndrome
Increasingly, economists are encouraging decision makers to adopt a recession-focused mentality. Architects will increasingly be faced with improving innovation-infrastructure designs that will not hold up under the stresses of a rapidly changing business environment. Most organizations cannot handle even a slight increase in creative output.
Once a strategic decision has been made, innovation-infrastructure assets must be engaged to facilitate execution. Unfortunately, the governance systems of most organizations are too brittle to stand up to the stresses of real-time business cycles. Generally, this is because there hasn’t been enough architecture discipline to fully implement the agreed-upon plans.
Other forms of corporate infrastructures are designed for normal business cycles. They are targeted at maintaining the status quo and limiting variance. Innovation-Infrastructure designs are re-configurable so that they can enable the unbridled creativity that crisis management requires. It is never too late to shore-up governance systems and make them less brittle. The challenge is to finding enough architecture discipline to limit the destructive oscillations that recession-focused thinking brings.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: architecture-discipline, design, governance-system, Innovation-InfrastructureJanuary 22nd, 2008
Following the Collapse of Broadcast Networks
In our first blog segment of the New Year, we wrote that the broadcast networks would not survive the Writer’s Guild Strike of 2007-2008. Once the independent producers accepted the WGA terms, then the game was over for the multinationals. The unfortunate thing is that mainstream media doesn’t know that they have lost the negotiation. If the broadcast networks don’t negotiate better terms than their new media competitors, then they will be at an extreme disadvantage in future business dealings.
Our readers are asking, where were the architects of reason and why didn’t the managers at the broadcast networks use their innovation-infrastructure to avoid this mess. It appears that there was no attempt to use integral knowledge to get all the stakeholders on the same side of the issue. Were the multinationals too heavily weighted in innovation-infrastructure cones which caused them to under-estimate their visibility risk?
The media heads were ill served by the cadre of lawyers and PR experts who waged war on their behalf. The gurus at these so-called public relations firms have unraveled partnerships that have taken decades to build. They opened the doors of the Hollywood deal factories to more congenial players and then gave them the keys to the future. The only way for multinationals to forestall the total collapse of broadcast networks is to agree to the same contract that the WGA has with the new media competitors.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: broadcast-network, Innovation-Infrastructure, New Media, visibility-riskJanuary 16th, 2008
Global Entrepreneurship Week is about Illuminating Options
A colleague of mine recently wrote, “If I have to explain why someone should be an entrepreneur then they shouldn’t.” Entrepreneurship is not a calling, it’s a career option. Becoming an entrepreneur is not like joining the priesthood or entering a convent.
If young people don’t belong to entrepreneurial families, they may not know the benefits of entrepreneurship. Often, well meaning people paint to negative a picture of entrepreneurship. The idea is not to get young adults to do something they don’t want to do. It’s to show them a lifestyle that may better fit their personalities. The goal is to expand their frame of reference which is what education process is suppose to do.
Entrepreneurship has become a much more viable option to young people everywhere because of the availability of innovation-infrastructure. Throughout their careers, today’s young adults will have to make decisions about how they will invest their time and energy. Increasingly, those decisions will require them to either go it alone or join their peers in starting new businesses.
There is an obvious link between entrepreneurship and innovation-infrastructure design. There are always more bright ideas than there are people who can implement them. America needs to increase its capacity for innovation to maintain its standing in the global marketplace. This is the reason why we support Global Entrepreneurship Week and we want to help young entrepreneurs.
P.S. Please don’t forget to add your insights to Why Help Young Entrepreneurs LinkedIn Answer.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: capacity, career, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Innovation-InfrastructureJanuary 10th, 2008
Innovation-Infrastructure Design: Integrated Thinking
Readers have sent a lot of mail recently about the difference between integrated thinking and integral knowledge. Integrated thinking implies piecing together company strategy from an assortment of commodity thoughts. Integral knowledge is about developing a solution that represents the best of the organization’s core values.
The proponents of integrated thinking are espousing a new version of the superman theory. They talk about leaders who can use two separate and opposing arguments to arrive at a solution. However, this may seem simplistic to architects who are responsible for satisfying the concerns of all the major stakeholders. Architects are encouraged to use integral knowledge to break down the barriers between opposing factions.
Architects should be very careful of integrated thinking because it can undermine the potential impact of ad hoc teams. The true benefit of having team members with a diverse background is that they can challenge outdated industry assumptions. Innovation-Infrastructure designs work best when they are aligned with the tacit knowledge being generated by the organization as a whole.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: ad-hoc-team, design, Innovation-Infrastructure, integral-knowledge