Gils

From Innovationclass

Revision as of 01:36, 3 March 2008

IDEO: IDEO is a design consultancy based in Palo Alto, California,[1] with other offices in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Boston, London, Munich and Shanghai. The company helps design products, services, environments, and digital experiences.[1] Additionally, the company has become increasingly involved in management consulting.[2] IDEO was formed in 1991 by a merger of three established design firms: David Kelley Design (founded by David Kelley, who is also a professor at Stanford University), ID Two (founded by Britain's Bill Moggridge), and Matrix Product Design (founded by Britain's Mike Nuttall).[3] Office-furniture maker Steelcase owns a majority stake in the firm, which operates as an independent unit.[2] The founders of the predecessor companies are still involved in the firm. The current CEO is Tim Brown. The firm employs approximately 500 people in the disciplines of Human factors, Mechanical, Electrical and Software Engineering, Industrial Design, and Interaction Design.[4] IDEO has worked on thousands of projects for a large number of clients in the consumer, computer, medical, furniture, toy, office and automotive industries. Notable examples are Apple's first mouse, Microsoft's second mouse, the Palm V PDA, and Steelcase's Leap chair. Major clients (as of 2004) included Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Microsoft, Eli Lilly, and Steelcase. In 2000, the firm was the subject of the "Deep Dive" episode of ABC's Nightline; they redesigned a shopping cart in five days.[5] In 2001, IDEO's general manager Tom Kelley wrote 'The Art of Innovation,' and more recently, 'The Ten Faces of Innovation.' IDEO has won more of the BusinessWeek/IDSA Industrial Design Excellence Awards than any other firm. [6]

IDEO, Inc. provides design, engineering, social science, and business strategy services. It offers strategic services, including exploration, service design, and transformation; and design services, such as environments, digital experiences, and product development. The company guides in the creation of products, services, environments, and digital interactions that support and extend the brand experience. It serves clients in healthcare, consumer goods, business, government, education, entertainment, technology, and services industries. IDEO, Inc. was founded in 1991 as IDEO Product Development, Inc. and changed its name to IDEO, Inc. in 1998. The company is based in Palo Alto, California. IDEO, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Steelcase, Inc.

When you're the chief executive officer of one of the planet's most influential design firms, you can't help but notice compelling design-such as the object in which IDEO's Tim Brown and a visitor are sitting this summer morning. Right inside the front door of the two-story lobby at IDEO's Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters is a 5-foot-high, open-roofed, Corian-shelled, cylindrical micro-conference room. It's sort of a 21st-century version of a yurt, the sturdy, all-weather tent of the Mongolian nomads. The yurt is not an IDEO design, though. Brown spotted the Steelcase-created prototype at a design show last year and just had to have it. Yet the technoyurt represents a core IDEO design principle: creating something tangible as a launching pad for further exploration and innovation. "It's not talking about what may be; it's actually creating and building it," Brown says. "Something you can walk into. It's that ability to make new ideas tangible that makes design useful." IDEO is all about experiential approaches. Its designers try to see and sense the world by getting inside the heads of their fellow human consumers. The firm-a dream come true for the concerned parents of liberal arts majors everywhere-employs anthropologists, cognitive psychologists, and sociologists, among other right-brain thinkers, to create, improve, or reimagine all manner of products, services, work spaces, and business systems. "It's a very human-centered process," says Tom Kelley, the firm's general manager and brother of founder David Kelley. "Others approach a problem from the point of view that says, 'We have the smartest people in the world; therefore, we can think this through.' We approach it from the point of view that the answer is out there, hidden in plain sight, so let's go observe human behavior and see where the opportunities are."

Response to Top 100: wow that list was crazy...really interesting but loooong. i was especially intrigued by the two sections about avatars. it actually kind of bugged me that people envision the future as being even more impersonal than talking through email and actually replacing phone and face to face communications with online avatar communication. this was kind of in conflcit with the notion of the person to person community, but i guess we'll just have to see how life plays out.

I am choosing Pixar as my innovative company to study. Aside from absolutely loving every Pixar movie I have seen, they have completely changed the way the world views animation. Additionally, their business model is intriguing, as is their decisions, and overall company environment.

http://www.pixar.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar http://money.cnn.com/2004/01/29/news/companies/pixar_disney http://www.business.com/directory/media_and_entertainment/visual_ http://pixaranimation.blogspot.com

Innovation Blogs: http://imaginatikresearch.blogspot.com/ -this blog is about corporate innovation, or how to make your business as innovative as possible. - it's relevant because it relates to our study of innovative businesses -I chose it because it was very different from most innovation blogs, focusing less on the creative and more on the financial aspects

http://advertising-age.blogspot.com/ -this blog is about innovation in advertising -it is relevant because it relates directly to the course material -I choose it because it interests me and because it is from a very reliable source— advertising age

http://outsideinnovation.blogs.com/ -it's about customers' role in innovating and reconfiguring a company -it is relevant because is important to realize the significance of customers views and opinions and how they shape a brand or company -I choose it because it was an interesting and different perspective

http://willvideoforfood.com/ -this blog is about advertising, viral marketing, online video, and other forms of consumer generated media used for promotion -it is relevant as a guerilla, self-supporting method of innovation -I choose it because it seemed funny and smart

http://www.guerrilla-innovation.com/ -it's about self-promotion through viral and guerilla methods -it is relevant because it is important to see innovation from an individual standpoint - I choose because it was very different from any other blogs I've seen about innovation

http://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/ -it's about innovation within companies about environment, customers, products, etc -it's relevant because it relates to innovation within an organization -I choose it because it is extremely professional and has input from national brands

http://www.ryananderson.ca/ -it is about innovation with advertising and public relations -it is relevant because it covers the necessary topics to know in our line of business -I choose it because the writer is renown professional with insightful ideas

http://www.otoinsights.com/ -this blog is about innovation and commentary about national companies -it is relevant because it relates to the companies we will be researching, as well as similar companies - I choose it because it was a great blend of professionalism and personality

http://darmano.typepad.com/ -this blog is about design innovation -it is relevant because the execution of innovation and how it is presented is just as important as the idea -I chose it because I liked the set-up of the blog

http://www.strumpette.com/ - it is about innovation strictly in public relations - it is relevant because public relations is very closely related to advertising - I chose it because I thought this was an interesting sector to learn about innovation

My organization is a small, 25 person-advertising agency. It is structured in 4 small teams that work together on every project. The teams are strategic, media and creative (the art directors and copywriters are intermixed and make-up two teams). This will create close working relationships and also make each person much more involved in the processes and decisions made by the other members. There will also be a team of graphics people to do all the photoshopping and computer stuff so the creatives could focus on the work and not the hassles of execution. The office will be set up very informally and comfortably. Each team has their own large room with their own space to work in. comfortable chairs and games will be set up in the center for group discussion, inspiration, etc. all contact will be done face-to-face to make the organization as personal as possible. Team members will also be required to take a weekend trip together once a month—camping, biking, fishing, rock climbing, golfing, to a spa, etc. Although a 25 person organization probably would not have the resources to have many amenities for the employees to enjoy, there will be a gym and plenty of spaces outside for people to sit, work, think, etc. there would also be a "fun" room filled with a TV, tons of board games, movies, a pool table, darts, foosball, music, etc for people to take some time and think in a d\\different kind of environment. The agency would be based on the overall notion of creativity and a fun rather than corporate environment. People would be free to move, work and think as they pleased rather than being structured by specific rules. Whatever it took to get the job done would be permitted. There would be no set amount of time required to be in the office every day. The only stipulation would be that everyone's daily progress would have to be reported to the director. Fridays would start at 10pm and begin with an hour breakfast in which everyone would just mingle and relax. The core values would be based on creative work, friendship and camaraderie and belief in the product at hand. No one would feel like they were working with people they didn't respect or working on projects they weren't inspired by and didn't love and believe in them. Whatever measures were necessary to get employees to connect with the

products, they would be taken. the main innovation of the company would be to remain relaxed, close and

informal.