Author Archives: Jeff Rubingh

About Jeff Rubingh

Jeff Rubingh is a technology innovation expert, consultant and analyst. Focused on the intersection between technology and business, Jeff helps clients identify ground-breaking solutions that maximize ROI across existing and emerging technology disciplines.

Hire The Future

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Hire The Future

GUEST POST from Jeff Rubingh

You’re about to hire someone in a key role. Your first question? “Tell me about your previous experience in this field.” OK, I get it, you want experience, a veteran, someone who knows their way around the space, who’s been there, done that. Fair enough. But is that always the right question, the most important question? The answer is, it depends. Are you satisfied with the general results that the field produces? Do you want more of the same, just better? Awesome. Fire away. “Tell me about a time…” Maybe you’ll hire competitively. Maybe your results will be better than the competition. Maybe. If you’re fortunate. Or they’ll be incrementally worse.

But, perhaps you’re in a highly competitive landscape. Everyone’s kind of doing much the same thing, in the same way. It’s marketing, it’s technology, it’s strategy, it’s accounting. There are different flavors and versions of course but for the most part you differentiate your firm on price or experience or reputation or approach. “We’re less expensive. We’re more agile. We’re the experts in [machine learning].” How do you get attention, interest, engagement? How do you compete? How do you win? There’s a slide in your pitch deck that says “Why [MyFirm]?” What does it say? Does it make you stand out? Are you believed? Will your new hire really move the needle? How can you feel confident in betting on this person?

“This is the question I hear all the time.”

A company leader will ask me, “There’s dozens of firms like ours in the city. We’re challenged with [pick your poison] / lead gen / recruiting / retention / closing deals / delivering / innovating. We’re good. We’re competitive. But it’s a tough “league.” How do we stand out? How do we differentiate ourselves?” Probably the answer is not, do what all your competitors do. Maybe the answer is not, hire the person who’s done it the same way, who will just do more of the same, only better.

Maybe the answer is… #innovate. What’s the essence of innovation? It’s the ability to discover the future and act on it before it happens, to get there before your competition. All behaviors, all business models, all patterns and processes are grounded in paradigms. But change is constant and those paradigms are always in flux. The ability to innovate requires real knowledge of the past, clear awareness of the present and a sense of the current forces in play that shape the future. Changing the paradigm is the key.

Maybe your hiring question shouldn’t be, “How well have you executed the existing paradigm?” Maybe it’s “What have you done that broke a paradigm, that took courage, that went against the grain. Tell me about a time that you took actions that you believed in, that were based on reason and not tradition and experience, that was a calculated risk, that moved the needle in a different way?”

Like Walt Disney. In the late 1920’s, he’d made his name making funny little cartoons about a mouse. Walt was told that it was a bad idea to “popularize” a mouse. But Walt Disney was an expert at creating new paradigms. So, Mickey Mouse was born and became a bonafide movie star.

A few years later, Walt had an idea to make a feature length cartoon. Again, everyone thought it was a terrible idea. No one could imagine an audience sitting through a cartoon that long. In Hollywood, his project was called “Disney’s Folly.” He was expected to lose his shirt. The film turned out to be “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, and it was a smash hit and started an entire genre of cinema. [1]

How will your firm compete? Talent. Not because of what they’ve done. But because of what they will do. You need to hire the future!

[1] https://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/snow-white/241629/disneys-snow-white-the-risk-that-changed-filmmaking-forever

Image Credit: Pixabay

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Reigniting Innovation and Creativity

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Reigniting Innovation and Creativity

GUEST POST from Jeff Rubingh

“If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” — Vincent Van Gogh

Here’s an interesting question. Why is it that, while artistic tools have become so advanced and provide artists with the opportunity to become so much more productive, the amount of art and the quality of art produced by artists has dropped so dramatically? What am I talking about?

Here are some fascinating statistics from the world of classical music*:

  • Johann Sebastian Bach, 300+ years ago, over 1100 known works, 4200+ albums, 71,000+ tracks
  • Ludwig Van Beethoven, 200+ years ago, over 650 known works, 3400+ albums, 34,000+ tracks
  • Sergei Rachmaninoff, 100+ years ago, over 200 known works, 1000+ albums, 7,000+ tracks
  • Aaron Copland, less than 100 years ago, over 100 known works, 300+ albums, 1,700+ tracks

How about from popular music: (approximated)

  • The Beatles, from the 60’s, 300+ songs recorded, ~109 albums
  • U2, from the 80’s, 250+ songs recorded, ~26 albums
  • REM, from the 90’s, 63 singles, 15 studio albums
  • Death Cab for Cutie, from the 2000’s, 15 singles, 9 studio albums

How about from the craft of writing:

  • Charles Hamilton (1876-1961); > 1200 books
  • Isaac Asimov (1920-1992); > 500 books
  • Nora Roberts (1950-present) > 200 books
  • Stephen King (1947-present); 58 books
  • Nicholas Sparks (1965-present); 22 books

On the flip side, it’s not that as creators we’re actually producing less content. We’re not. Twenty five years ago there were about 600 web pages. Today, 1.5 billion. There are over 500 million blogs. Social media including Instagram, SnapChat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube is alive with millions of contributors.

So my question is this. Where’s the next Beethoven? Have you seen the next Monet? Who would you identify as the next Jane Austen? With all the tools we have, shouldn’t we be encountering these people in spades? Or do better tools actually make for worse creativity and less productivity? After all, while our tools keep improving, does it seem like we produce lower quality and less recognized excellence? Shouldn’t better tools improve our output? Instead, the opposite has occurred.

Are we too distracted? With the advent of social media, with the flood of entertainment options, are we simply just too distracted? Does the small and the simple pull us away from developing skills, ideas and creative flow?

Are our educational institutions simply inept? Do they merely teach us a broad range of perfunctory, homogenized, generic knowledge? As Peter Thiel mentions [1], schools are patterned in one way with uniform periods and class sizes and durations, as if the world’s knowledge could be parceled out piecemeal for everyone to master.

Have we forgotten what excellence really is? As they say, garbage in, garbage out. What do we spend our time observing? Facebook, Twitter? Is “Game of Thrones” a major source of what we see, the landscape of creativity that we view?

Are we addicted to the immediate? Do we not recognize that a daily commitment to a discipline over years leads to mastery and a skillset that produces excellence? Or are we simply pulled into that immediate, bite-size tidbit of cuteness on YouTube?

Has amusement replaced discipline? Is our cultural foundation on life support? As Neil Postman put it (in 1987 no less), “When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility.” [2]

The answers to these questions seem fleeting but with the amazing toolset we now have, we should be more creative, not less. With the access we have to the great works of the past, we should have a much more intimate connection to what it means to produce great works ourselves. Perhaps the key doesn’t lie in the tools or in the access; perhaps it lies in our heads and in our hearts. After all, access to greatness is worthless unless we use it. Appreciation and understanding of beauty and art won’t happen in our children unless we show them the way.

But, perhaps you say, look, appreciation for art is good, but it’s optional really. We all know the real value, the real future for our children, indeed for us, lies in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). That’s where the money lies, that’s where the job security is. Well and good. Not! Not good enough! That’s only half of the pie and if that’s our focus, if we’re stuck completely or almost completely in that realm, we won’t produce the stunning value each of us has access to.

Don’t believe that? Let’s take the example of perhaps the greatest STEM influence of our time, Albert Einstein. He said “The greatest scientists are artists as well.” And that wasn’t just a pithy quote either. Whenever he felt he had reached a dead-end, whenever he got stuck, he would head to the piano. Inevitably, after a period of time he would get up saying, “There, now I’ve got it.” [3] And how exactly did he come up with perhaps the most stunning scientific discovery of our age? As he explained to Shinichi Suzuki, “The theory of relativity occurred to me by intuition, and music is the driving force behind this intuition.”

So, what’s the answer? How do we tap into this luxurious and rich source of scientific inspiration as well as reignite the world’s passion for beauty? Let’s equally push for CALM (Creativity, Art, Literature, Music). Let’s inspire our children, let’s inspire each other to delve into the overflowing wells of creative beauty available to us all. How? Here are some suggestions:

Make creativity a daily habit: Playing music, writing, drawing, singing. Find something that you like and give it a slice of time every day. It doesn’t have to be a big slice but over days, weeks and years, you’ll see your talent become substantive, you’ll see yourself become a qualified artist.

Find sources with substance: You have access to greatness, the entire oeuvre of the creative geniuses of past generations. Immerse yourself in these sources so that you can in some small way reflect their expressions with your own unique talents.

Listen, observe, discuss, write: This one is simple really. Allow yourself, allow your brain, the room to hear, to see, to comprehend. Then spend time with like-minded peers talking about the beauty, the passion, the excellence you’ve observed. How did it happen, what was special about it, how can you do the same? Finally, (don’t skip this step), write down your thoughts. As Thackeray said “There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write.”

Explore: For example, do you love classical music? Not really you say? Actually, you really do but perhaps, just perhaps, you’ve never really tapped into its transformative power. Explore sources of creativity so that your brain can’t help but overflow with ideas that inspire you and inspire others.

Change your mind: I run into people all the time that say, “I’m not the creative type.” Not true. Your entire day is an act of creativity. When you have passion for what you do, you’re a “creative.” The next step is to accept this, embrace it, make it part of your daily life, channel it, and let time work its magic.

We live during one of the most exciting times in the history of civilization. There’s absolutely no reason, none, why our generation doesn’t produce a raft of geniuses, why our generation can’t be remembered as one of the most prolific in history when it comes to artistry, invention, creativity and innovation.

Will you be one of them?

__________________________________________________________________
* (http://www.classicalarchives.com/)

[1] Thiel, Peter A., and Blake G. Masters. “Follow the Money.” Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 91. Print.

[2] Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. N.p.: Methuen, 1987. Print.

[3] “Einstein On Creative Thinking: Music and the Intuitive Art of Scientific Imagination.” Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.

Image Credit: Pixabay

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Becoming Real Innovators

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Becoming Real Innovators

GUEST POST from Jeff Rubingh

“They are ill discoverers that think there is no land when they can see nothing but sea.” ― Francis Bacon

Companies today are eagerly seeking the answer to one essential question. How do we innovate?

It’s been observed that 75% of companies say they’re committed to innovation as one of their top priorities [1]. But most struggle to innovate. To many corporations, it’s like grabbing the wind in their hands. There must be a trick to it! Perhaps they just have to hire people that are born that way. Perhaps they have to commit a larger budget to the effort. So they keep trying. Some are successful. But mostly, they’re not. Why is this true? Is innovation truly that difficult? Is there a secret science that’s elusive and only accessible by a few individuals that some companies are fortunate to have? What’s the secret?

What’s the difference between Apple, which goes from being a computer company to a company that’s in the music business, the phone business, the watch business, the TV business and the wearables business, and Kodak, a company that once dominated its category and is now bankrupt? Why is it that companies know they should innovate, that they’re committed to innovation, that they can see many examples of companies that successfully innovate, yet they fail miserably at the task? This begs the question: what’s the difference between “knowing that” and “knowing how?” What’s the difference between knowledge and skill? How do we differentiate between knowing the skills that are required to innovate and actually being successful at innovation?

Take the example of riding a bike. As a father, I can tell my daughter many facts about riding a bike: put your foot on the forward pedal to start, look straight ahead, lean into the turn, steer to keep your balance. But just knowing these facts does not a bike rider make! In fact, if she pays too much attention to each of these skills, leaning “just the right amount”, or finding the “perfect” way to push the pedals, she will actually lose her balance. Instead, those facts, that knowledge, must be integrated into the skill. They need to become second nature. Only then will she become a bike rider.

Ahh, but, once she gets it about riding a bike, two incredible things happen. First, amazingly, she can’t unlearn this skill. She absolutely can’t forget how to do this. Once a bike rider, never a non-bike rider! Second, and this is very transformative, once she’s a bike rider, the whole world opens up to her in “bikish” ways that she never ever conceived of before. To quote Dr. Seuss, “Oh the places you’ll go!” [2] You recognize an entire universe of things that you never really understood before. You can show off (“Look Mom!”). You can explore your world. You can exercise. You can get to places of convenience. You can compete! So it is with innovation.

Keys To Innovation

So what in effect then are some of the keys to innovation? What is the essence of innovation that leads companies to become perennial innovators that in fact can’t “not innovate?” Most companies have a well-rehearsed list of the attributes of successful innovation: brainstorm, think outside the box, fail fast, design thinking, be agile, follow a lean startup approach, build a minimum viable product, ready fire aim, pivot, etc. What can get companies over the hump from knowing that they should innovate and from knowing the constituent skills that comprise innovation to being companies where innovation happens as a matter of course?

If you search Amazon Books for “innovation” [3] you’ll find 50,000+ results. Clearly, answering this question is an area of differing opinion and knowing “the answer” of course is a fool’s errand. That said, two principles stand out that can help companies go from “making innovation a priority” to actually innovating.

Principle #1: Demanding Certainty Kills Innovation

“If you want to have good ideas, you must have many ideas.” — Linus Pauling

Understand that certainty is the mortal enemy of innovation. In those 75% of companies that are committed to innovation, it’s all too common to hear about the launching of an innovation “initiative” with the accompanying hoopla and ceremony. Implied in this launching though is a demand for X results within a Y timeframe. Executives want to report measurable results with certainty, otherwise the entire effort is deemed a failure. Unfortunately, a demand of certainty in the innovation contract can be the kiss of death. Why is this? Because it conveniently opens the back door to irresponsibility. Starting an innovation “initiative” after all means executives can point to something tangible that demonstrates the company’s commitment to innovation. Now, they can sit back and let the “innovation team” manage the results.

Here’s the question however. If the firm is so committed to innovation, which they should be, then why is it an initiative at all? Why isn’t it deeply bred into the company’s culture where innovation would happen as a matter of course? Of course you’ll need discipline and accountability. But companies that innovate, can’t “not innovate.” They don’t have “innovation initiatives.” They don’t demand certainty in “innovations”, either in number or quality or fit or ROI. In fact, demanding certainty and imposing predetermined structure in innovation crowds out ideas and creativity. In innovative organizations, innovation is de rigueur because it’s deeply embedded in the culture and not doing so wouldn’t actually make any sense.

Principle #2: Innovation is Discovery, Not Creation

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” — Michelangelo

Like balance in bike-riding, the key to innovation is discovery, the sense that you’re uncovering something, vs. creation, the idea that you’re dreaming up something entirely new. The symbol so often used for innovation is a light bulb. The picture is, that for a long period of time, there’s darkness. Then suddenly, as if a light bulb turns on, there’s an idea that just pops into your head, and all goes from darkness to light. It’s as if you were blind, searching around, stumbling perhaps, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, a light bulb appears, in fact illuminating something brand new that you had no concept of before. Of course, it almost never happens that way. As complexity scholar Brian Arthur notes, “Invention is not an event signaled by some striking breakthrough. It is process – usually a lengthy and untidy one – of linking a purpose with a principle (some generic use of an effect) that will satisfy it.” [4].

As an innovator, you see much uncertainty, surrounded by waves of possibility, possibilities that you can’t really articulate, but you sense them. You know that you’re headed towards a destination. You see that you’re actually getting to know that possibility. You get confirmation that you’re actually on to something. And then that possibility becomes clearer and clearer as you get closer and closer. It in fact becomes so obvious you wonder how you didn’t know it all the time. Like riding a bike, you wonder, “what was so hard about that?” And the process actually doesn’t seem like magic. It doesn’t seem like grabbing the wind. It is, in fact, a process, that when mastered, becomes part and parcel of how you do business, of how your company functions.

Of course companies want to innovate. They recognize without a doubt the importance, in fact, the absolute urgency of the need to innovate for their very survival. But knowing and doing are two different things. Innovation is especially challenging in the chasm between knowing and doing. It is in fact, counter-intuitive, like riding a bike.

“Lean into the turn? I’ll certainly crash!” No, you’ll find a whole new world opens up for you!

“Allow freedom and uncertainty in my organization so that ideas flow and innovators can travel the path to the discovery of new and compelling products and services?” Yes! You’ll find that your company will shift dramatically into one that can’t not innovate. That in fact your people will be inspired and that ideas will flow freely and people will recognize new discoveries on the horizon. That they’ll know there’s freedom, in fact responsibility, to uncover those ideas, to develop them, to deliver them. You will, in fact, almost without knowing it, have joined the ranks of the real innovators!

________________________________________________________

[1] “Innovation in 2014.” http://www.bcgperspectives.com. BCG Perspectives, 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
[2] Seuss. Oh, the Places You’ll Go! New York: Random House, 1990. Print.
[3] https://www.amazon.com/s?k=innovation&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss
[4] Arthur, W. Brian. “The Structure of Invention.” Research Policy 36 (2007) 274–287 The Structure of Invention (n.d.): n. pag. 19 Dec. 2005. Web.

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Transcendent Computing Emerges

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Transcendent Computing Emerges

GUEST POST from Jeff Rubingh

“The Web as I envisaged it, we have not seen it yet. The future is still so much bigger than the past.” — Tim Berners-Lee

The late 70’s must have been a crazy time. Beyond just Jobs and Woz and Gates and Allen, there was Osborne and Bricklin and Peddle and Bushnell. They must have known they were at a tipping point but just couldn’t quite sense the enormity of change that was about to take place. What emerged of course was the era of personal computing.

The late 90’s had a similar feel with Berners-Lee and Andreesen and Metcalfe and Clark. Again, there was this sense of wonder, of a confluence of forces, of a gathering storm of technology and thought leaders who were putting the world together in new ways. There was no perfect prognostication of what was going to happen of course but there were clues and some wild speculation (remember Pets.com?). What developed was the era of connected computing.

Since the 90’s, technology has added so much and changed so much about how we live and work. Most significantly, our computers have become small and mobile. So today we’re in a similar position with Zuckerberg and Cook and Bezos and Musk. Where are we headed? What will be the meme, the core paradigm of this next era? What’s ahead is the era of transcendent computing.

The roots of computing can be traced back to Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician and philosopher. His father was a tax supervisor, and in an attempt to help him speed up the laborious work of calculation, he built a mechanical calculator [1]. This was the first device that automated calculation and was really the first “computer.” The year was 1645, almost 500 years ago. Since then we’ve gone from mechanical contraptions that were massive, isolated, and cumbersome to electronic devices that are small, connected and delightful.

The history goes kind of like this:

  • Mechanical; Pascal (mechanical calculator), Babbage (difference engine, analytical engine)
  • Electronic/Massive; Harvard Mark 1, ENIAC, UNIVAC
  • Big; mainframes (IBM 7000 series, IBM System/360), minicomputers (DEC PDP-1, DEC VAX/VMS)
  • Cumbersome; cables, punch cards, command line, DOS
  • Small; Commodore, Apple II, TRS80, Atari, IBM, Osborne, Mac, Amiga
  • Delightful; Xerox PARC, Lisa, Mac, NeXT, Windows, OSX, iOS, Android
  • Portable; URL, browser, Mosaic, HTML, WWW, Netscape, IE, web services, responsive web
  • Mobile; Newton, feature phone, Tablet PC, Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, iPhone, Android

In essence we’ve gone from massive to small (size), isolated to connected (networked) and cumbersome to delightful (experience). Today these trends are converging to make computing transcend our location and our devices and simply be about us, about our experience, about the dynamic flow of our life. Before the era of the personal computer, our lives were much less mechanized, automated or streamlined by devices. The network, computing, your “extended brain” if you will, really didn’t exist. You were who you were without this connected out of body Internet identity being carried around. You didn’t have a Facebook page, a Twitter handle, a LinkedIn profile. You were simply you.

The interesting and wonderful (perhaps) result of these present emerging forces is that they’re pushing us full circle back to a time when our experiences were really personal, were really about us. The primary difference is that our computing experience is becoming “always on.” It’s becoming transcendent. Computing is becoming less of an extension of our life, less something that we do task by task and more something that we are, less something popping in and out of our lives and more something that’s ubiquitous, that’s always there, that transcends our location or our immediate task.

How will this era form, how will it play out? Speculation abounds of course but there are many hints already visible. Currently we’re each building our own personal presence on the Internet whether it’s our identity (Facebook, LinkedIn), our ideas (Twitter, Pinterest) or just moments in time (SnapChat, Instagram). At different rates and in different ways, we’re each accumulating data about our work, health, travel, relationships, careers, automobiles and homes.

In essence, we’re each developing a “personal cloud” which is essentially a set of computing platforms constantly aware of our presence, always at the ready to host whatever personal APIs we give them permission for from innovating ourselves. These range from the deeply personal like our home, our car, our robot, our smartphone and our smartwatch to career-oriented platforms like our office or our work computer or retail platforms like stores and restaurants and banks.

With our identity traveling with us and being broadcast from us, many parts of our life will be automated simply by our presence. In other words, computation, automation will transcend location and computing platform. As we move through life, through our day, our computing experience will be woven across and through the “things” in our life.

  • Retail; Your coffee shop, your grocery store, where you buy clothes, any retailers you choose will have a seamless personally designed connection to you knowing your preferences.
  • Financial; Your bank, your brokerage, your financial advisory, will dynamically keep you up to date, advising you, monitoring you, adjusting in real time to events in your life.
  • Health; Your health conditions will be dynamically monitored allowing you automated and seamless guidance on behaviors and healthy habits as well as detection of harmful events ahead.
  • Career; Your meetings, alerts, email, important issues, will flow in and out of your schedule and your presence in ways that you determine making it easier to react to important issues.
  • Social; People will move in and out of your day seamlessly whether it’s that friend close by you gave permission to keep connected or that relative on another continent.
  • Presence; Your environment will adjust to your presence so as you approach your home, the temperature, music, lights, shades, and media will adjust to settings you’ve taught it.
  • Travel; Your self-driving car will understand your schedule, your preferred routes, your insurance profile and your neighborhood and will make good decisions to get you places safely and on time.
  • Family; You will have constant access and insight into where your children are and what they’re up to allowing you the chance to give them the guidance and security to turn into smart adult humans.
  • Insights; A constant flow of data to approved guardians will give you dynamic insights into what’s a good or bad next action including diet, exercise, friendship, career, knowledge, children.
  • Security; Your car will know who you are and unlock your door as you approach it and the same will go for your house, your office and your place of business.
  • Reputation; Finally, if you like, a new “reputation score” will be developed; like a credit score, it serves as an indicator about your future behavior, your insurability, your hirability, allowing employers, insurers or other institutions a basis for the true cost of a relationship with you.

This amazing computing journey that started in 1645 and brought us to and through personal computing and connected computing, now stands poised to blow the doors off those two eras with the era of transcendent computing. Who can predict where this perfect storm of technology and innovation will lead? Wherever it leads, we can surely say it will transform our lives in ways we can barely imagine!

[1] Isaacson, Walter. The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 19. Print.

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Innovating YOU

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Innovating YOU

GUEST POST from Jeff Rubingh

“I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle!” — Lewis Carroll

The Internet. It’s an amazing “place”. An amazing tool. An amazing platform. When you think of the changes its brought into our lives, it really does give one pause. Think about it.

It’s an amazing “place.” Twenty years ago there were about 600 web pages, now there’s over 600 million. Curious about something? Jump on the web. Where to eat? The definition of “oeuvre”? Symptoms of meningitis? Henry Ford’s birthplace? Jump on the web.

It’s also an amazing tool. Publish your own thoughts to a worldwide audience? Raise money for a startup product? Write code and see its effect immediately? Create beautiful designs? The web is a first class citizen in your toolbox to do these and many more amazing things.

But perhaps the aspect of the Internet that holds the most promise is that it’s an amazing platform. It’s the international public channel for publishing access (APIs) to the data and functionality of your choice.

How did Facebook make the leap past MySpace? They published an API and opened their functionality and reach and capabilities to outside developers. And you can say the same of Twitter, LinkedIn and a myriad of other prominent companies.

The best example of using the Internet as a platform is a mobile app. It depends on APIs to function and it transforms the way we live. Literally. Not having apps available is like not having a car or a television. It’s a very unlikely scenario and most people depend on them for their routine and daily rhythm. Trade stocks, check into your flight, connect with social media, use as a GPS; we all love apps.

But you know all that. Here’s one thing that’s missing: YOU. There’s no API for you. Think of the data that you emit every day:

  • Health: heart, respiration, weight, sleep patterns, steps
  • Location: routes, speed, safety, outdoor, indoor
  • Shopping: purchases, views, returns
  • Social: FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest
  • Entertainment: media, television, radio, blogs, reading, web
  • Photos: who, what, where
  • Position: just exactly what route did you take through that store?
  • Home: temperature, lights, appliances, water, electricity
  • Automobiles: acceleration, braking, routes, systems, oil, fuel
  • Communication: phone, texts, email
  • Attention: what are you looking at, are you being effective, efficient

And who owns all of that data? You do. It’s as much yours as your fingerprints are, as your thoughts are. It is in many ways simply a reflection of your identity. It’s who you are. But what is happening to this most valuable of assets? We treat most of this data like exhaust. We just emit it and it escapes into thin air, not collected, not seen, not valued, not utilized.

Truth be told, some of it is collected and used by the various firms we interact with on the Internet. But our consent to use it is in many ways granted implicitly and we’re really not aware of what’s being collected, how it’s being utilized and really what its fair value is.

How would the world be different if you controlled your own data? Wouldn’t it be great if there was an API of You, of all of your own data? What if there was a way that anyone who wanted your data would have to ask you, would have to connect to your API?

Right now it’s a mass of hundreds of companies in a free for all, grabbing all of your stuff. What if your personal data was brokered through an API? What if that data was currency that you could use in trade with firms for their services?

Some of this makes obvious sense. You could grant your doctor (and his staff/systems) access to your bodily stats so that real-time monitoring of your health data was always occurring. Systems like this could over time understand your behavior patterns and anticipate health incidents that might arise ahead of time giving you warning to change your behavior and avoid those problems.

You could grant specific retailers access to various bits of information about you so that they could push a variety of offers to you that anticipate what you might appreciate. Chances are, if that retailer uses this information well you’ll be a happy customer and appreciate the partnership. And if not, you’ll shut off your API to them.

The possibilities seem endless:

  • Your auto insurance could recognize safe driving behaviors and price premiums accordingly as well as coach you on better practices
  • Your GPS provider could learn your driving patterns and help you with route management and safer, faster trips
  • Your home automation provider could help you manage utilities and indoor amenities
  • Parents could have access to children’s behaviors keeping them safe and caring for them
  • Grocers could keep the house stocked, perhaps providing suggested lists of items to be delivered
  • Your fitness club could track your progress providing you with updated stats to motivate you
  • And the list goes on…

Think of a massive switchboard with feeds of your data entering into the switchboard and outputs of your data coming out of the switchboard. You provide the feeds going into the switchboard. You control the outputs coming out of the switchboard. Your feeds are the results of your actions including the data from all of your devices, your mobile phone, your car, your bodily implants, your home, your appliances, your Internet trail, your tweets, your posts, whatever you choose. Your outputs are the APIs, the sets, categories, and packages of data that you choose to publish.

What’s missing is the company that manages this switchboard. Think of this company as your agent (in fact, let’s call it Agent).

Agent has access to all of the data that you choose to provide it; health, location, attention, etc. Agent then allows you to organize your data in whatever ways make sense to you and make that data available as an API. There could be standardized sets of APIs around health or attention or finances. Additionally there would be custom APIs where you pick and choose the data you care to make public. But the key is, all of this would be completely in your control.

Of course there would be concerns around the wisdom of providing this level of information to any one firm. Once that data is stored, could it be stolen (yes) or could it be used for nefarious purposes (yes)? That said, your information is already online. Would the existence of Agent provide you with greater security and control over this data? And would the benefits outweigh the risks? Perhaps.

Maybe the biggest benefit of all would be the integration of this data across multiple facets of your life. Would your health monitor be able to alert your GPS or your vehicle on an emerging condition relevant to your ability to drive? Would you be able to use your data as currency to reduce costs with firms? Instead of your data being harvested unbeknownst to you and being used injudiciously, would control of that data distribution provide improved security and comfort and reward?

The questions are many and the possibilities incredible. Maybe the next Google will be Agent, the company that brokers your data for you, the company that transforms the Internet into “The Internet of You.”

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Innovation Debt

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Innovation Debt

GUEST POST from Jeff Rubingh

“Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” – William Pollard

Do you ever get the sense that things are getting a little stale? That, while you’re personally doing great work, it’s just not as compelling, as rewarding, as forward-thinking as you wished? It’s not that you’re not delivering quality, it’s not that you’re not being effective in the solutions you’re building, it’s just that you’ve been doing it that way for a long while and there’s this nagging idea that you’re missing out. It’s not that you just want to jump on the latest fad so you’ll feel “cool.” It’s just that you’re getting the sense that your organization is missing the boat, that there’s something coming in the future that really needs the groundwork laid now. You and your organization may be suffering from Innovation Debt.

In the software development world, there is an important concept called “technical debt.” As I mentioned earlier in this post, there’s a similar concept at a company level I’ve termed “innovation debt.” It’s far more than just a technical issue and it’s certainly not just about software development. It’s about your organization as a whole and where they stand on the innovation continuum. If you’re not innovating, you will be incurring innovation debt. Essentially, Innovation Debt is the cost you’ll be accumulating if you’re not investing in creating and building compelling and distinct solutions and competencies that don’t just tap into existing best practices but that are constantly looking ahead for what’s next, for the emerging technologies, techniques and practices that will have your company on the front edge of growth and innovation.

Companies are sometimes fearful of “innovation” because the tangible benefits can be hard to quantify. Too often they ask the question, “What’s the cost of investing in new and distinctive (innovation) practices and competencies?” But they should be asking, “What’s the cost of not investing in new and distinctive (innovation) practices and competencies?” If you’re not innovating, the cost is the innovation debt you’ll be accumulating. And like any debt, you’ll have to start making interest payments. Rather than paying that interest and then paying that debt, you can make an investment in innovation and start reaping the rewards in the following fifteen ways:

  • People; innovation is all about your people; it says to all your employees, “we’re engaged and ahead of the curve, this is a company you want to invest your time and talents in, we provide the tools and the technology that make you effective in your job and turns us into a market leader.”
  • Mindset; transforming the culture of the company to an innovation mindset builds automatic behaviors into every initiative, every strategy, every program, making it an assumption that all activities of the company prepare for future markets, impact the existing market and improve the position of the company relative to its competitors
  • Compete; competitive companies are serial innovators that get ahead and stay ahead of the competition; to compete in the global marketplace, it’s vital to use tools and practices that are fueled by innovation; your competitors are aggressively targeting your piece of the pie and they undoubtedly will be creative and innovative to gain an advantage
  • Keeping Pace; if markets were static, if competitors didn’t come up with new products and services, if customers were predictable, and if technology never changed, there would be no need for innovation; the business landscape is constantly changing, and with it, the methods, processes, tools and common business practices; innovative tools ensure emerging business processes can be effectively practiced
  • Productivity; effective organizations are primarily based on the productivity of the people which is primarily based on the tools they have; great people with great tools = great productivity
  • Execution; results matter, innovative use of technology delivers results faster and with more effectiveness, innovative organizations foster a culture of execution, of delivering, of discipline
  • Enthusiasm; innovation drives enthusiasm, enthusiasm drives participation and engagement, engagement drives customer service and profit
  • ROI; innovative technology pays for itself through increased efficiency, improved accuracy and radically effective process improvement
  • Process; innovative approaches to the use of technology provide process improvement where people and systems are seamlessly integrated to deliver results far more effectively
  • Growth; innovation fuels growth, the business becomes more productive, responsive, even fun; new and effective methods and tools provide an edge in entering new markets; people want to be part of growth, not cost-cutting
  • Proactive; the choices are, “make change” or “be changed”; you can either affect change and shape the future of your company and your industry which is hugely positive OR be changed by and respond to trends and events which is hugely negative
  • Vision; innovative tools, when properly applied, enable you to see markets and opportunities through a different lens, allowing you to position yourself effectively before your competition and lead with vision.
  • Creativity; building a culture of innovation fosters creativity which leads to solving problems in new and exponentially more effective ways that goes far beyond building new tools but also leads to innovating your functions, logistics, business models and processes
  • Position; Market leaders are always market innovators; Apple, Google, Coca Cola, Cisco, Amazon, Starbucks, Disney, BMW, UPS, Intel, GE, Nike, PG&E, Samsung, eBay. Add your company to that list!
  • Skills; innovative companies and leaders develop unique skills

Look at the companies that are devoted to innovation. It’s a pretty impressive list; Apple, Google, Coca Cola, Cisco, Amazon, Starbucks, Disney, BMW, UPS, Intel, GE, Nike, PG&E, Samsung, eBay. Read the histories of these companies. You can’t help but be overwhelmed by the breadth of their research, their innovation, the wide range of their explorations, the kinds of things that naturally recur from these efforts; conversations, ideas, excitement, growth, passion, success. It’s overwhelming. They deliberately nurture their corporate intellect through true education and innovation; a constant commitment to experimentation, and not just light and peripheral experiments but substantive experiments, purposefully setting their course on a culture of innovation. Compromising on Innovation may compromise everything your organization hopes to build for your owners, your employees and your customers.

Are you investing in innovation or incurring innovation debt?

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If You Want to Innovate – Read!

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Reading, Actually: The Lost Art of Reading in 21st Century Culture

If You Want to Innovate – Read!

GUEST POST from Jeff Rubingh

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” – Mark Twain

Whoever said, “if you want to read, lead”, I agree wholeheartedly. But, I would submit, “if you want to innovate, read.” Innovation is all about new ideas but where do you go to learn about what’s worked in the past and what might work in the future? Read. How do you develop the intellect and the library of ideas on which to draw for innovation? Read. How do you cultivate your credibility and compete for the attention of venture capitalists or those who will sponsor your innovations? Read.

We live in the most amazing time in history for knowledge availability. With the advent of the Internet, opportunities for learning have skyrocketed. Many of the most respected universities have made courses available free online. [1] Amazon offers tens of thousands of books for free online just by downloading them to your Kindle or to a Kindle application that runs on almost any platform. The Internet Archive (archive.org) has 2.5 million free books.

You would think that as a society we would be advancing now more than ever in terms of knowledge, creativity and educational excellence. In fact, the opposite is true. We live in perhaps the least educated time in recent history. While many people seem to know high school Math, English, and Science, a basic level knowledge of facts that would have once been considered essential is now scarce. For example, in a recent survey by Newsweek magazine, 29 percent of respondents couldn’t even name the vice president. [2]

The secret is that the solution lies right at our fingertips. It’s not about improving the public school system. While a laudable goal and certainly worth continuing to attempt, it’s been tried repeatedly for generations with marginal results. The decline of people’s intellect is often blamed on the rise of cable television and the Internet, but it began long before that. While as a society we have learned the skill of reading, we have no longer acquired the practice. Sure, people read, but usually as a last resort — on the plane, when you’re sick, “to fall asleep.” Most people abandon all attempts at reading as soon as some alternative media is even remotely available.

Have you met people that seem larger than life? There is something different about them that you can’t put your finger on. Perhaps, just perhaps, it has to do with something that we all have access to. It’s been posited all over the Internet (but I can’t find a source) that the average CEO reads 4-5 books a month. People like Richard Anderson, the CEO of Delta Airlines who always asks people in interviews, “what are the last three or four books you’ve read, and what did you enjoy about those?” [3] Consider this then: boosting your career path and changing your own world (and our world) may be as simple as making a commitment to lead a literary life.

The thing about literary people is, their life and perspective is far expanded beyond the small reach of their immediate borders. They see things through others eyes and in other times and places. If you want to go beyond a limited view of the world, your own immediate experiences, your own restrictive cognitive reality, the experiences of your very own last year or two, reading will do this for you. Here are some suggestions:

Read across a wide spectrum: Don’t stick to one subject area, one author, one time period or one genre. Of course you have limited time. But don’t just read tech books or business books. Human endeavor and the practice of it has been recorded faithfully for generations and you have ready access to the real words of these very real people. Have you ever wondered how Benjamin Franklin could be so productive and how he balanced his time between politics, religion, science, writing, diplomacy and music? You can read about it in his own words – the book is free on the Amazon Kindle. [4]

Dig deep: Consider picking a subject area you want to excel in and go for it. Don’t expect instant results. Developing respectable expertise may well take several months. The great thing is there are so many ways to do it. Download, buy, go to book sales, use the library, browse the Internet, follow the “1-3-5” method (below), read articles, listen to podcasts, dig deeply in one focus area and allow your brain, your experience and your unique perspective to be combined into your own special zone of competence.

Write: As Thackeray said “There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write.” As you read, write. This could be your own reflections or simply repeating what you’re reading. If you want your thoughts to coalesce into something more than just repeating trivial tidbits that everyone already says or knows, you will allow your brain to come up with something unique that only you can contribute through writing.

Have a plan: Don’t expect to become literate without effort. Make a plan. Decide When. Choose a place and time to devote to reading. Make it regular. It could mean getting up a half hour earlier before the house wakes up, setting aside your lunch, or staying late at work. Stay devoted to it. Consider it just as critical as your other endeavors. If you’re interrupted, don’t write it off: “well, I was only reading.” Make it a priority. Decide What. If you have a goal for educating yourself on a topic, make a plan and stick to it but be willing to adjust your plan as you discover new sources of knowledge.

The “1-3-5” method: Do these three at the same time and you will get maximum exposure to a subject area. Your cognitive integration of the subject matter will surprise you.

  • Pick 1 respected tome about the subject and absorb every word digging very deeply, write down your thoughts as you go through it, perhaps even rewrite parts of it, write chapter summaries, blog and tweet about it.
  • Pick 3 related shorter books about the same topic and read them cover to cover but as quickly as possible while you’re reading the first book. Don’t pause to reflect, just fire-hose them down.
  • Find 5 other books that are related tangentially and skim them, reading some parts in detail but simply skimming other parts. Your brain’s ability to integrate all of the subject matter in new, fresh and interesting ways will surprise you. Your ability to discuss the subject at hand at close to an expert level will position you as that expert in your colleague’s minds.

Follow the path: If the author you’re reading makes you jump out of your seat in excitement, find out what else that author has written and find out who were the big influences on that author. Don’t blow off footnotes or bibliographies, especially now that much of your reading can be done while online. They are there to help you develop a unique and integrated view of what you’re reading, connecting different subjects and explaining cross-cultural references. If you love Tom Clancy, don’t stop there. With a little digging you will find that Freddie Forsyth was a major influence on him and now you’ll have a whole new world to enjoy.

Use all the tools: Don’t miss out on the tools available to you. For example, you don’t need a Kindle to read Kindle books. There are apps to let you read Kindle books on any PC or device or using a browser. This means you can read anywhere. On the bus, at the dentist, waiting in line, at Starbucks, waiting for the wife to try on seventeen outfits, at the symphony, in a boring meeting, at the company quarterly. Skimming through books works especially well during these times.

As innovators, we live in exciting times. And, we also live in an age of vast accessibility to knowledge and history that even our parents and grandparents could only dream of. Take advantage of it. Read. Now more than ever you can expand your borders beyond the prison of a non-literary life.

[1] “400 Free Online Courses from Top Universities,” Open Culture OpenCulture.org (November 26, 2011), http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

[2] Andrew Romano, “How Dumb Are We?” Newsweek (March 20, 2011), http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/03/20/how-dumb-are-we.html

[3] Adam Bryant, “He Wants Subjects, Verbs and Objects”, The New York Times (April 25, 2009), http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/business/26corner.html

[4] Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. [Lexington, Ky.]: SoHo, 2010. Digital.

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How NOT to Innovate

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How NOT to Innovate

GUEST POST from Jeff Rubingh

“The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get the old ones out.” — Dee Hock

Liberal vs. conservative, PC vs. Mac, Chevy vs. Ford. Seems there’s always two points of view, two approaches, two views. Or there’s a continuum. What about “innovation”? What are the opposing approaches to innovation?

For companies, it’s all about competing. It’s all about competing. Just starting out? How do you get a foothold? In the middle of the pack? How can you get to the front? Are you the leader? How do you stay there? The answer is and will always be — innovate!

Of course, maintain and grow your current business. Of course, serve your customers better. But does this just involve doing things smarter, better, faster? Or do you need to adapt and change? Do you need to constantly rethink products, services and perhaps most of all, processes? How do you get the new, innovative thoughts into your mind and the old ones out?

It does seem that many companies talk about “innovation.” It does seem that many companies even give it a go. It also seems that most companies are fundamentally bad at it. From the outside in, it seems that there is an upside down understanding of “innovation.” When you really look at some companies’ efforts, it’s almost as if they went about trying to ensure innovation doesn’t happen. It’s almost as if they’re following in lockstep my tongue-in-cheek guide below.

So, if you want a guide on “How NOT To Innovate”, try this four step approach:

1. Don’t Rock the Boat

  • Have a detailed plan that maps out all the steps over the next year or two; realize that — creating new products, developing new processes — innovation — your thoughtful smart people can figure much of this out beforehand, then it’s just a matter of following the recipe
  • Make sure your company knows precisely how it has always made money and that everyone just tries to do that faster, better and smarter
  • If you’re an industry leader, innovation is risky so do it “safely”, sit on your lead a bit
  • If you’re in the middle of the pack, keep plugging away; soon, with incremental gains you’ll have made headway
  • Put in place a deliberate, public, “innovation” process, stepped and managed; that way, no one will submit foolish ideas or waste people’s time with frivolous and fruitless investment

2. Manage Creativity

  • Manage by committee, make slow deliberate decisions, make sure everyone knows to get approval for each stage of invention
  • Ensure all new ideas are very “smart”; when someone creates a “far out” idea, scrutinize it publicly so everyone knows what’s creatively de rigueur
  • Ensure politics are in place around who the “idea” people are, know your place
  • Discourage desires for new, cool things by subtly labeling them “a bit out there”
  • Make sure people who roll out new ideas feel most comfortable when they’re sure it will have support from everyone
  • Don’t tolerate ambiguity, make sure you’ve got it pretty much figured out before you proceed

3. Make Safe Bets

  • Create a culture of “Be careful, try things yes, but have a plan, don’t let it interfere with the business, get approval so no one can say you were wasting time or money”
  • Ensure that risk minimization is top of mind
  • Keep your tries to a minimum, don’t “blow” time and expense on trying too many things; again, we’re here to make money, not to feed the creative (but expensive) itch
  • Only reward the successes, and remember, determining “success” takes a while
  • Create a culture of discouraging “mistakes” or “wasted effort”
  • Don’t invest in efforts where the ROI isn’t clear from the get-go
  • Reinforce cultural mores that reward conventional success and discourage risk taking

4. Engineer Talent Carefully

  • Hire from a recipe, here’s the list of skills and the personality profile, go find them
  • Make sure there’s a need and position that matches each new hire
  • Avoid “opportunity” hires (see ‘Make Safe Bets’)
  • Promote those who follow the convention, who get along, who don’t create waves
  • Address employee attrition by rewarding those who maintain the status quo the best
  • Ensure political correctness is a criteria for suggesting innovation

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Building Something Other Than a Faster Horse

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Building Something Other Than a Faster Horse

GUEST POST from Jeff Rubingh

“If I had simply asked people what they wanted, they would have asked me for faster horses!” – Henry Ford

Eighty six years ago the intrepid and amazing Henry Ford and his Ford Motor Company introduced the Model A to the world. We have been amazed and enamored over the past few years at the long lines when a new Apple product has been introduced. But we have only to look back 86 years to witness a product rollout far more impressive in scale and magnitude. [1]

Henry Ford was well known for his devotion to the Model T. It was his baby. It had made him a fortune, established him as a paragon of industry and, with his commitment to a pricing model people could afford, endeared him to the people unlike any other public figure of the day. He was keenly aware of this role and the fundamental part his invention had played in shaping American culture and providing a new level of joy for the American people. An incident from 1912 illustrates the magnitude of his devotion to his product.

Ford had been away on an extended trip to Europe and during that time his leading engineers and managers cooked up a little surprise for him. As engineers are wont, they had a deep desire to “advance” the design and thought Mr. Ford, when he saw their work, would be excited to broaden the product line. So they designed a prototype, a proposed successor to the Model T. It had four doors, was longer with more stylish lines, and was painted red. When Mr. Ford returned from his trip, one company manager described what transpired as Henry inspected the new vehicle.

He kept looking at it. He’d tip his head this way and that and look at it…. I said, “Is there anything more I can …?” “No,” he said. “I’m going over and look at the new car.” He kind of smiled…. He had his hands in his pockets and he walked around that car three or four times, looking at it very closely. It was a four-door job and the top was down. Finally, he got to the left-hand side of the car that was facing me, and he takes his hands out, gets hold of the door, and bang! One jerk, and he had it right off the hinges! He ripped the door right off! God, how the man done it, I don’t know! He jumped in there, and, bang, goes the other door. Bang, goes the windshield. He jumps over the back seat and starts pounding on the top. He rips the top with the heel of his shoe. He wrecked the car as much as he could. [2]

And so, company executives knew exactly where not to stray. The Model T would define the Ford Motor Company forevermore. Well, not exactly. By the mid-1920s the Model T’s appeal to the American public was waning and everyone in the industry knew it. Everyone that is, except the titular head of said industry. Company executives began a concerted campaign to win over Mr. Ford and finally, in the late summer of 1926, after literally years of tension and debate, Henry Ford gave in. A new model could be built.

The following year was filled with endless debates; Henry staunchly advocating for traditional features, and Edsel, his son, and president of the company, lobbying for modern innovations and contemporary styling. Many of the debates, when viewed in modern terms, seem comical today. For example, the new model could hit sixty five miles per hour and during one test run, the driver lost control and the car ended in a ditch prompting Henry to proclaim, “We can’t put that car out on the public! We’ll kill them all!” [3] Nevertheless, Mr. Ford relented on many innovations proposed by his son including the more powerful engine.

Finally, on May 26, 1927, the new car was announced. In Apple-esque style, few details were given other than that the new model would have “speed, style, flexibility, and control in traffic.” [4] While the Ford Company re-tooled their factories to build the new model, Henry began a carefully crafted and masterful public relations campaign previously unmatched in American history. He withheld almost every detail of the new vehicle, occasionally releasing tiny teasing tidbits but never announcing anything substantive. He also positioned himself as the public’s benefactor, a heroic and wise man of the people, defender of their interests.

By Thanksgiving the anticipation for the new car had reached fever pitch. For five straight days after the holiday, Ford ran full page ads in every English language newspaper in the country, two thousand in all. On December 2, 1927, the day had arrived and Model-A-mania gripped the nation. This was the event that everyone had been anticipating, like a Super Bowl of epic proportions or a new iPad rollout. But nothing has or possibly will ever compare to this event. The first day numbers were staggering considering the US population of 119 million. In Detroit, 100,000 people viewed the car on the first day. In Cincinnati there were 296,745, in Chicago, 514,096 and in the Kansas City area, an amazing 651,000. [5] This, despite the fact that many people had to be turned away. C.W. Doss, the Kansas City branch manager related the staggering event.

“It’s history – what a tremendous reception the Model A had. In Kansas City they literally broke the doors down to get in before it was time to open to the public. They pushed them right through. You couldn’t control that mob. There will never be another introduction like that; never was before. That was the story all over the country. It was tremendous, fabulous. The advance orders on that car were tremendous. They just ran over you to get one.” [5]

Estimates were that 10 million Americans went to a dealer to see the new vehicle in the first thirty six hours and 25 million in the first week. In other words, over 20% of the American population, 1 out of every 5 men, women and children in every city, town, village, and borough made it a point to see the new vehicle in the first week alone. And the new car did not disappoint. New innovations were everywhere; hydraulic shock absorbers, windshield wipers, new color schemes, theft-proof locks and safety glass. Perhaps more surprisingly, the new model continued the Ford tradition of affordability, costing no more than the Model T, with prices ranging from $385 to $570.

The introduction of the Model A was a signature event in American history. In many ways it was a high point of the decade with an industry magnate building a product of high quality at a reasonable price. And it was likely the most remarkable product rollout in history.

[1] This entire post borrows greatly from Watts, Steven. The People’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century. New York: A.A. Knopf, 2005. Kindle Edition.

[2] Brown, “Reminiscences,” pp. 110– 11. Allan Nevins noted that this story was corroborated by C. H. Wills, Jr. (See Nevins, Ford: Times, Man, Company, p. 581.)

[3] Sheldrick, “Reminiscences,” pp. 30– 31; Ernest G. Liebold, “Reminiscences,” p. 846; Nevins and Hill, Ford: Expansion and Challenge, p. 450.

[4] Watts, Steven. The People’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century. New York: A.A. Knopf, 2005. 372. Kindle Edition.

[5] Spawn, Jim. “The Introduction of the New Ford Car.” The Restorer. N.p., July/August 2010 Web. http://www.mafca.com/downloads/Restorer/Introduction_of_the_New_Ford.pdf

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