An App that is Changing Behavior for Safe Sex

The Sex Profile from ESTER on Vimeo.

Amazing Idea........how can we change similar behaviors towards Smoking, Drinking, Wearing seatbelts, Using low beam at night.


Neeraj 

Standup comedians

Hey Everybody
Just rewatched Jaspal Bhatti's Flop Show (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flop_Show) ..........was watching Russel Peters the other day..........wow........comedians are amazing observers.....their great talent lies in picking up great insights of the society they are part of. Look at Russel Peters ..........how he picks up insights of different culture........after watching his show u think like wow man....we are like that.......
Too much to learn from these guys.........need to spend more time understanding how they notice behavior & pick up insights.
Was also wondering how can Comedy as a tool be used in organisations............ How can HR people in organisations use comedy to create an environment within organisation wherein an employee is Destressed, Feels Connected to each other & is more imaginative (enhanced creativity).


Too much to learn from these guys.







Tc
Neeraj

Hate Something...Think Different....Change something

http://ideas-innovation.blogspot.com/

Think Different- That's what all of them in the picture above did & were featured in the Apple's famous campaign. What difference does it make when you think different? I guess the only difference is that you will in your own way change the world by contributing something.

From Tata nano to the Supply chain model of Dabbawalla all of them have thought differently & thus are recognized globally.

But from where does the Inspiration to think differently comes from. I guess it comes from a Purpose & from where does the purpose comes from. Your purpose may come from when you Hate something so bad that it becomes your purpose to change something.

Have a look at the following ad of Honda talking about the same philosophy of Hating something & changing something.

Many companies are trying to make a change by thinking Different. D light is a solar powered lighting company that came out of Stanford D School. The company adopts design thinking philosophy & has the purpose of providing light for 100 million products by 2020. The company operates in India, China & East Africa.

Dr. Venkataswamy had a purpose to eliminate needless blindness & thus he set up Aravind which today is the largest & most productive eye care facility in the world. Have a look at his story. Also note how he drew example from Mc Donald's & wanted to set up franchisee based system for eye hospital (Cross Disciplinary learning- one of the key skills of a Design Thinker).

TV commercials by Idea Mobile (cellular service in India) also talks about thinking different & briniging a change. check out the following commercial highlighting the power of Mobile telephony to address the socially relevant theme of education in India & how we can teach more students with the same number of teachers available.

Recently Michael Pritchard gave a talk at TED GLOBAL about his Lifesaver filter which he created with a purpose of providing filthy water drinkable to everyone, anytime, anywhere. Have a look at his talk in which he highlight that by having a purpose & thinking different he was able to create lifesaver filter. Have a look.

So in short Hate something, have a Purpose, Think Different & Change something

Thanks

Neeraj

Sources: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bh3HP51rJs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cjnNPua7Ag

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pritchard_invents_a_water_filter.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwRCBHhyrAA

http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/commercials/2005/10/Apple-think-different.jpg

Indian Grassroot Innovations

http://ideas-innovation.blogspot.com/

A question just came to my mind.

Is 'Necessity the mother of all Innovations!!!'.

I mean we all have heard of Innovation processes of large blue chip companies which hire people from crème de la crème Institutes who work to solve problems with the objective to find the next growth path for company or solve economic & society issues.

But what exactly motivates a common man to come up with an Innovative Idea? What Motivates him/her to create something new with bare minimum resources? What makes them to persevere even after many failures?

Do they have the need to change things which makes them to carry on & Innovate.

Below are some of the many, many examples from India wherein common people have Innovated & changed things at the same time creating a possibility to set up new entrepreneurial Indian Ventures.

This is what I call GRASSROOT INNOVATIONS.

Check out the following Videos of INDIAN INNOVATORS. Also check out the National Innovation Foundation providing institutional support in scouting, spawning, sustaining and scaling up grassroots innovations and helping their transition to self supporting activities.

What can we do to make these unique Ideas into a profitable & sustaining businesses & unlock their massive values?

Some of the colleges like Welingkar Institute of Management have already started this process (of which I was part of, while I was in Welingkar) of providing marketing & business knowledge assistance & are developing business concepts/models.

Here are the Videos

More Videos on Youtube. Type Indian Innovators

Thanks

Neeraj

Source: http://www.youtube.com/ http://www.nif.org.in/

Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/frame_us/3140950401/ by Primus D'Mello

TED GLOBAL: Looking forward for these talks

http://ideas-innovation.blogspot.com/

Hi Everyone

TedGlobal is over. Following are three main talks that I am eagerly waiting to see:

1) DAN Pink: Looking forward for the talk by Dan pink wherein he demonstrates that giving incentives may not necessarily lead to better & quick performance as the nature of problems been faced by employees have changed over the years. Presently people work on problems which are abstract, ambiguous & which have never been solved before. In these kind of problems there can be a possibility of multiple results so it his hard to focus on one particular goal. Can we use Design tools & methods & combine it with Business logic to create something new & beneficial.

Waiting for his talk .

2) The second talk that I am looking forward is from Janine Benyus. Janine Benyus works in the field of bio-mimicry & by looking at the natural world she designs things elegantly. One of the key takeaway from her talk will be to infuse cross-disciplinary learning. For eg: She mentions JR West, makers of high-speed bullet trains, found that when they entered tunnels the train built up pressure and created the equivalent of a sonic boom. Engineers looked at how the kingfisher entered the water and redesigned the train. It solved the problem of the tunnel noise, made the train 10% faster and 15% more efficient.

How we can solve present problems using this cross disciplinary learning. What we can Observe, learn & implement from our surroundings to solve our problems like developing 100% eco friendly plastic, etc. Looking forward for her talk.

3) The third talk that I am waiting for is by Tim Brown where he asks "What happens if you move from design to design-making?". He talks about how the field of design has changed over the years with designers shifted from broader view to narrower view & focused on aesthetics. He mentions that the field of design is once again changing by focusing on human centricity. Designers are now shifting from their sole focus on ergonomics to focusing on human needs & designing products/services/businesses around them. He also points out the importance of prototyping.

Looking forward for this talk.

Incidentally, before going to his talk, Tim had asked people via twitter (#CBDQ) the kinds of questions design thinking might be used to tackle.

I also participated, Here are my list of questions that I sent which I think design thinking might be used to tackle.

1. To measure the carbon footprint

2. To develop solutions that instead of depleting resources, actually create them

3. How to ensure that everyone votes in elections (100% voter turnout) anywhere specially countries like India.

4. Providing MENTAL Insurance to people with depression.

5. When will we get rid of wires & be wireless (remove TV, radio, electrical appliances electric cords)...have power trans wirelessly

6. How can design thinking used to replace plastic (bottles, bags, etc) with viable & sustainable material.

7. How can DT be used so that everyone wants to be fit resulting to healthy nation.

8. Can one be given fitness points for working out & can they redeem it similar to carbon credit in fitness centers, etc.

9. Can DT be used to know what Infants want ?

10. How can we enable people from different disciplines understand each others perspective clearly.

11. How to assess/measure one's skills

12. Ensuring everybody(who is req to pay) pays taxes

13. How to connect B2B together to create a network & helping each other

14. How to help executives multitask

15. How to make school more fun- in a way that students enjoy being there

16. How to make a paint so that no bills/spray paint can stick on them & damage city walls

17. How one can learn foreign language without much effort/ how people from diff countries communicate quickly & efficiently.

18. How to induce people to use eco friendly bags at the same time make business sense

19. Helping traffic police reduce traffic congestions & streamline traffic

20. Helping anyone to understand how to operate a product/service very easily

21. Providing a simulated & interactive experience of travel, food, language & culture to travelers before visiting a place

22. Helping companies, individuals, etc to reframe their problems & provide multiple possibilities

23. Helping neighbors to start interaction with each other

24. How to engaging people who have retired to create value

25. Helping youngsters find & create their unique identity

26. In what way experience can be STORED shared

27. How can other employees rate their peers Anonymously

28. How can we change the mindset of people in companies

29. For developing solutions so that I dont have to shave for weeks

30. For generating conversations among strangers

31. To connect seekers with offerers of service, products, education. Etc

32. To keep a track of our nutrition intake.

Looking forward for these talks

Thanks

Neeraj

Sources: http://blog.ted.com/2009/07/tim_brown_at_te.php

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/jul/23/nature-technology-energy-buildingmaterials

http://blog.ted.com/2009/07/dan_pink_at_ted.php

Tim Brown- IDEO speaking at TED Global in Oxford

Tim Brown (CEO IDEO) is speaking at TED Global in Oxford next week on the topic of what happens when we move from design to design thinking. One of the things he his trying to do, is to get the audience to suggest the kinds of questions design thinking might be used to tackle. To facilitate this he is using a Twitter hash tag #CBDQ to allow people to post their suggestions. The latest ones can be seen at IDEO.com or by searching the #CBDQ tag. It would be great to get that underway in advance of his talk. If you have any briefs or problems you think would be interesting then please go ahead and post them.

Thanks

Neeraj

Article Source: http://designthinking.ideo.com/?p=347#content

Self reliance is the key for brighter future

Neeraj has been doing really good work on this blog by posting lot of useful information and path breaking ideas.
So, thought to contribute to his efforts. I came across one great example of a simple design and its effectiveness. Working Villages International (WVI) is a non-profit organization dedicated to building self-sufficient, environmentally sustainable villages all over the world. Based on Gandhian principles it works on strengthening rural people by making them self reliant by developing a sustainable local infrastructure utilizing on local resources.
Most amazing thing is that in current economic conditions when trillion of dollars are required to fill the development gap between Sub-Saharan Africa and rest of the world, WVI’s founder Alexander Petroff has provided a successful alternative to such an impossible scenario. This idea is based on concept of Swadeshi given by Mahatma Gandhi.

Their idea of Self Sufficiency takes actionable shape with 3 important things vis-à-vis: Selecting Appropriate Technology, Developing Local resources (Swadeshi) and Rotational planting and Composting.

The plan works in 5 stages:-

Stage one focuses on growing crops and building the infrastructure to support crop production and storage.




In stage two, build up the manufacturing capacity to build the village itself.



Stage three is the production of all non-agricultural commodity infrastructures, such as looms, pottery kilns, paper pulpers, bakeries or any other necessary function of daily life.


During stage four, people are trained in different trades. As they gain competence and expertise, WVI turns over ownership to the village and its inhabitants.



In stage five, WVI remain in whatever advisory capacity the local villagers want, but without any ownership or employment function. The village will at this point be a fully functioning and independent eco-community, housing and employing thousands of people without ever requiring another dollar of foreign aid. (Source: www.workingvillages.org)



I personally feel that just to design or innovate something we are running after technological advancements but going ‘Back to roots’ is very essential in prevailing environmental conditions. The pace at which we are running nature is unbelievable and we need to go back to Vedic life style to preserve nature.
For more details you can visit www.workingvillages.org

Foster's Experience

Hi everybody

Every brand seeks to create Experiences that go beyond the mere functionality to connect at a deeper level with customer infusing all the necessary elements of Brand. The role of an Experience Architect(Ten Faces of Innovation)is important & crucial for designing for designing a well designed experience.

Recently I was invited for a Pool party organized by Foster's in Pune.

Now Foster's denote Australian & the communication features beaches & women. So with the Experience Architects at the job of infusing these elements, how was this pool party.

I decided to judge this experience using Doblin's Compelling Experience model. The model helps to envision & decide the experiences that the customer/participant must have. I have customized the model's elements according to Foster's party. Its element include:

1. Attraction: What experience we should have at the time inviting them for the party that will induce them to come.

2. Entry: What sort of experience we should have at the entry of the event.

3. Immersion: what are the experiences we can design using Brand elements to insure fully immersement of people at the party & ensuring its success

4. Exit: What should be leaving experience for the invites.

5. Extension: What happens after one has left the party- what can the invite pass on to others?

Entry : I'll start with the Entry phase. The experience for me started at the entry phase. Even before one could enter the party, Fosters had placed small surfboards along the way to the entry creating an impression of beach. At the entry the staff was also dressed in cool beach shirts.

Immersion: Being a pool party of Foster's the entire experience had to be designed integrating Foster's Brand. The people serving guests were wearing Foster's hat very similar to Cork hats highlighting Foster's been Australian. Australian Models dressed in beach wear highlighted the beach experience . With Barbeque serving entirely Non-Veg been grilled in front of guests creating an expression of been in the Outback of Australia. Blue been the Brand prominent color was to be seen entirely. Considering the hot weather & it being a pool party the Dj played mostly reggae & trance music (which I m not sure was Australian) And yes Fosters was been served throughout.

Exit: The Experience Architect could have paid a little more attention at the exit phase in terms of thinking how the exit experience of guests would be. As a chance to remember, guests could have been given a small souvenir (may be Their Polaroid snap of party, Foster's hat) which would have reminded them of this party even after considerable time.

Extension: One possible method of extending this experience could have been taking pictures of people at the party an uploading it on their site & with the possibility of people connecting with each other. For eg: People can chat/message each other those who came to party, connect with them , share opinions & memories of party, in the future may come together & organize their own get togethers. Through this the organizers get instant feedback on how their party was at the same time a chance to connect & expand their brand recognition & sales.

Overall its was a great experience. Cheers to the organizers for putting up this event.

Here are some of the Snaps of the party.

Thanks

Neeraj

Ideas for Change 2

http://ideas-innovation.blogspot.com/

Hi everyone

This is my second post in the series of Ideas for change. I am collecting Ideas that are solving environmental Issues, ideas aimed at helping people to be more efficient, more productive, solving their problems, etc.

Let's have a look at some of the Ideas

1. Better Place: Why Can't we have environmentally friendly at the same time efficient Transportation solution. Well Shai Agassi seems to be asking that question for a while & the answer is BETTER PLACE. Better Place is the world’s leading electric vehicle (EV) services provider, catalyzing the transition to sustainable transportation. Better Place aims to reduce global dependency on petroleum through the creation of a market-based transportation infrastructure that supports electric vehicles. Better Place is building first electric vehicle network & has operations in Israel, Denmark, Australia, U.S, Canada & Japan.

Shai Agassi spoke at TED this year about his grand vision. Have a look.

2. Velib : The widely reported Paris' famous bicycle renting scheme is one unique business model started by Jean francois & Jean-Charles Decaux. Launched in July 2007, today the bicycles have become a mainstream & green form of public transportation in Paris. More than 2,00,000 Parisians have taken one year subscription ($40) and in a poll in May, 94% of Velib users said they were satisfied with the service.

3. Ecover(Eco friendly washing powder) : Belgian Company Ecover is manufacturing environment friendly washing powder made of natural plant & minerals ingredients. The product also comes in a recyclable bags. Last year the company generated $15 mn in pre tax profit.

4. Haath mein Sehat (Health In Hands) Project: Moving on to Ideas which aim to improve lives of people. One Such Initiative is Haath mein Sehat (Health In Hands) Project (to which I was also a part of ) which aims to improve livelihoods of people living in slums of Mumbai through health education and developing efficient low-cost water treatment methods. HMS is an interdisciplinary, international collaboration between local organizations and institutions in Mumbai and students at the University of California, Berkeley. Have a look at the Project Video.

5. Aravind project : India’s Aravind Eye Care System is probably the world’s largest provider of eye care. From April 2006 to March 2007 Aravind served more than 2.3 million patients and performed more than 270,000 surgeries. Founded in 1976 by Dr. G. Venkataswamy, Aravind has as its mission nothing less than the eradication of needless blindness among India’s population, including the rural poor, through the effective delivery of superior ophthalmic care.

I’ll be posting some more ideas & projects in the coming period.

Thanks

Neeraj

Sources: http://hmsindia.org/ http://www.ted.com/talks/shai_agassi_on_electric_cars.html http://www.betterplace.com http://trendwatching.com/ http://www.youtube.com/ http://www.ideo.com/images/uploads/news/pdfs/IDEO_HBR_Design_Thinking.pdf

Ideas for Change

Hi everyone

With Population levels continuously rising in our Cities, there is sense of worry & urgency shown by world leaders to reduce its harmful effects on the planet.

Bill Clinton & Al Gore have already initiated projects & are also making people aware of these effects.

Have a look at Bill Clinton’s Climate Initiative Video 

Here is Al Gore’s Presentation from TED 2009.

 So, apart from these, which Ideas/initiatives are being thought which will help generate awareness & avoid these effects. I think the problem here is not only to care about environment but to show care about humans & society at large which will bring a social mindset to create a change. So apart from collecting ideas that are aimed at solving environmental issues, I decided to collect ideas aimed at helping people. Be it helping them to be more efficient, more productive, solving their problems, etc. 

My next post will comprise some of the ideas so collected. I’ll call it Ideas for change.

Also, this is the 100th post of our blog & as they say it all started with An Idea

Thanks

Neeraj

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1X93xqYOgE&eurl=http://www.clintonfoundation.org/news/news-media/video-cities-go-climate-positive&feature=player_embedded

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/al_gore_warns_on_latest_climate_trends.html

How to kill an Idea : Focus Group

http://ideas-innovation.blogspot.com/

Hi all

Have a look at the following Videos showcasing How Ideas get killed during Focus groups. 

I remember reading somewhere about Henry Ford saying that if I had asked people they would have said that we need faster horse. Similar would have been the case with Walkman, Ipod and other products. Thats where Design Reserach (to capture insights on what customer wants) & Validation tools come in handy and the overall notion of distinctive value (whether the new idea/product/service will be able to provide differentiated value to customers which is not being met by any other product/service as of now)

Have a look at the Videos.

Thanks 

Neeraj 

Source: www.Youtube.com

Seth Godin at TED

http://ideas-innovation.blogspot.com/

Challenge the Status Quo, Stand/be a part for something, Bring a change, Become a part of Tribe. 

Have a look at the following talk by Seth Godin at Ted discussing next big thing in marketing as customers constantly looking for meaning by being part of a group. 

Thanks 

Neeraj 

Video Source:www.TED.com