Day3 at Stanford .. add1

The day 3 was much stronger than my notes will show. I just has too many interesting discussions and not enough time to write… but still, there are two comments and observations I want to share with you…
1. Dr. Douglas C. Engelbart (born January 30, 1925 in Oregon) the pioneer of human-computer interaction (HCI) and the computer mouse inventor is saying that Capability infrastructure (Sensory, Perceptual, Motor, Mental ) will be much more significant than HCI. He appealed to journalists to interact more with sociologists and anthropologists in order to play an important role in raising voices or the future society. When I looked at him, the legend, I wished I could talked to him the whole day…. More on Wikipedia..

2. Journalist need a broader education about the concepts of new technologies, science fiction, cybernetics, (technological) forecasting… about all the areas that have significant impact on the future… That makes me think that there might be a range of wisdom, knowledge, and tools that all majors would need to include in their high education programs… the topics that Noam Lemelstrich from Israel was talking about are part of essential general knowledge that we would all need in order to be able to actively participate, communicate and lead…

For more you can also check Jan's or David's blog... (klik links on your right)

Day2 at Stanford .. add2

“Solution is not the answer” seems to be accepted at the conference as a motto…. All speakers were directly or indirectly suggesting that we are all in a search of new models, customer driven content that…let me try to point out a few provocative thoughts:
- In media we will be seeing more and more opportunities in content aggregation and content channeling for selected market segments
- Due to the switching cost for customers being close to 0, media will need to look more like a sport club generating “fan club” and “gadgets stores” in order to keep the audience
- Audience wants to participate, be actively, yet, sporadically involved in news evolution; those providing such an environment will succeed
- Stories are even more aggressively coming in; the story that changes our mind is getting the attention
- Every industry needs a business plan for innovation. Media, too. The same applies to audience. People want to know that they are not left out
- Strong media is essential for democracy, is essential for growth
- Regionally focused innovation clusters – the concept of “regional”, needs to be re-thought. Global innovation networks replace global regions/clusters. The same logic but geographically independent.
- Focus is needed on competence rather on learning. The key is to learn by practice.

At the end… I am really tired today. So, no smart comments… just a question maybe: What is the future role of the West in this new world order?

Day2 at Stanford .. add1

The first speech was a good introduction to the day. David is right. New things need new words and those words have to be well defined. So, that what his speech was all about. Let me share some of those and more you can find on the web:
- Innovation is the process of creating and delivering new customer value to the marketplace
- Innovation Systems present the flow of technology, information and capital among people.
- Innovation Communication Systems is the flow of attention. Attention workers are Journalists, PR & Communicators, Lobbyists, and Marketers.
- Innovation Journalism is about new things. New things need new words, new ways of presenting them.
- Innovation – introduction of something new.
- Innovation Systems: Competition between ideas. Alliances, compromises, conflicts, fights for attention. Winners implement their ideas on a marketplace.
So, the conclusion could be that InJo introduces names for new things. InJo gives language for discussing how innovation happens in society, allows people to communicate among each other with a common language infrastructure. Gives a framework of structural approach… and is allow constant change based on experiences and market changes. That is a good start of a new concept. InJo itself proves the model.

Day1 at Stanford… add5 and

The afternoon sessions and workshops were talking about InJo challenges. Here are some that I would like to point out: university programs for journalists need more subjects on how businesses operate (innovation processes, product development, major science breakthroughs); a good example of such a studies is the Israeli an School of Communication (The Inter-Disciplinary College); secondly, Injo is not a commercial that could be spread on a piece of bread, it is a matter of attitude, a matter of values: do you want to be a better journalist, do you want to write better, more professionally; thirdly, we need a more educated and curious audience, so not only journalist need to learn more about innovation; in order for a society to move forward more and more people need to get aware about the need and the means of innovation; fourthly, we need to connect all that drive InJo concept closer together, probably at the beginning with RSS feeds and later with a more active international network… InJo is a movement and movements take time to evolve…. The last session was very “American”; it was interesting to learn how US press is in fact monopoly driven… the new media sector is stepping in, however, it will take time to shake it up and move it towards competitive markets… however, the view on how to solve the lack of interest in innovation was too narrow..... At the end I was ready to challenge the triple hex model (government, academia, business)… there is an important link missing – the manifestation layer (local communities, NGOs… media… ).. in the model itself.. only in that way we can actively address all of them….

Day1 at Stanford… add4

Will Rutten, director, European Journalism Center
Need for integrated news rooms (on-line, standard, and cross-industry approach, video)… something that traditional journalists were not used to… however, it is absolutely essential and needed… news are no longer vertical, the situation is calling for integrated news reporting, one workflow…very closely connected… this does not sit well with the traditional journalism and not with traditional education and training for journalists… so many changes are needed on all levels….
Are we in Slovenia ready for this… is our media thinking of this, acting upon? Well, I hope the InJo initiative will contribute a bit to bringing those issues on a table and we can only hope we will be able to initiate action, as well.

Day1 at Stanford… add3

Slovenia:
We presented a unique approach and, to this point, the broadest one in the world, bringing in local communities, elementary and high schools, entrepreneurs… Our case proved that triple hex can really work. Now it is time to come up with a good financial schema that can support a sustainable growth of the initial stage….

It is great to see that we are an important part of the proliferation of a global project and that world has something to learn from us… and is great to be here in person, since there is so much to learn from others, as well, and we can be productive and innovative immediately, here, today… on innovative business models and networks…

Day1 at Stanford… add2

Sweden: Jan, the program manager at Vinnova, brought up an really important issue regarding the need for policy changes in order to move forward as an innovative society… Sweden is doing it… here are some Vinnova’s policy changes:
- Competences rather than research
- Learning rather than teaching
- From maintenance to competitiveness – because the economy is global,
- Acknowledging media as a primary source of information; therefore, media should be treated as an industry… in order to be competitive, all industries, including media, need to have a research, need to do analysis, predations, future visions…. Therefore, InJo is needed…
Where are we, in Slovenia? What kind of changes in content our administration is doing? The message here is clear… the move needs to be mutual… all parts of the society needs to move forward… otherwise some might feel threatened and they automatically become non-constructive part of the progress… it is desirable to be different, critical, we are in trouble if we are just a demolisher ….

Finland:
- started introducing changes at the University level
- study shows that journalism in Finland dos not present future
- ICT is prevailing as a technology topic (“Nokia Effect”)
- they started with an association Finjo – community for covering the topic;
- they introduced the award for this year
Interesting approach…. We will exchange views and I already decide to follow their initiative on setting up associations… so we are start SinJo…. if you feel this is the path to follow you are invited to join..

Day 1 at Stanford …. add1

The first day, at 1000am (1700 Ljubljana time) local time, has started… a very powerful crowd from around the world…mostly journalists, professors of Journalism, research agencies, a few of us, entrepreneurs (over 250 attendees)… You can tell that the conference is maturing, becoming a powerful tool for raising the voice on innovation and media, governments, businesses, research space and community as a whole….The conference is opened by David, the father of the concept…. His main theme is “Journalism makes the innovation economy a part of democratic society”… and he made a special point on the need for innovation journalism that can be distinguished from journalism about politics (cynical), about business (hectic), …. InJo is more analytical, cross functional…It is offering a new business model (How to identify readership? What are the broader aspects and impacts of innovation? Where will the influences surface later on?)
It is becoming a very important tool for gathering valuable public information for administration bodies to see and hear what are the issues on innovation and hopefully follow up …. Slovenia is mentioned as one of the top contributors to the development of the concept…

Silicon Valley goes green.

Day 2. Silicon Valley is recovering. You can tell the difference between last year and this year and it is growing. Many new construction sites, remodeling, new shopping malls, car sales are going up… They are making a smart shift based on their core competence. They are moving towards the “green” industries bringing along all the knowledge and experiences about silicon; this time not for the computers but energy cells…. Cool, smart, encouraging…

An early morning at Sarah’s house

It is my first morning after arriving to Bay Area. I slept well. The flight was quite easy. I was nicely surprised with the United economy + program… business class sits with enough legroom and plenty of beverages, which is all that matters for me.. .I do not care much about food…

I woke up thinking about innovation… I usually do not dream about such stuff… my dreams are usually taking me too much more profound, personal dimensions… not this time… it was about “How do we make a real content shift from productivity and quality mentality (that were both really well explored in the past) towards innovation?” My thoughts were the following…

The vital forces of our economy in the past (productivity & quality) had to do with habits, patterns improvements, knowledge, learning.. I think that in the case of innovation we are dealing with much more. We need to wake up and acknowledge our talents, the true “I” that is imbedded deep within us, and nobody is really teaching us how to do that. We learn in schools, at wor how to observe the outside world, e.g., in business that would mean customers, suppliers, competition, new comers, technology progress…. but not who the company really is within itself… the inner strengths. Yet, that is where the true power of innovation is hidden, is waiting to be awakened.

So, building a powerful innovative space, environments, we need to wake up our inner world, the curious child within and allow it to play with the excitement that only inner powers can provide… and the flow of creativity will burst out…that is where an important role is played by managers, leaders – connecting this wonderful streams of creativity with the ever changing needs of the outside world and when they match we get this beautiful flow of rightness….

The sun is coming out and it is going to be a great day. I can just feel it…

An interview with Sonja Klopcic: “On the company’s path of success we need to follow the call for our personal development, as well”

A modern manager needs to know how to lead people but first of all needs to have a greater knowledge of his or her self, and in facing many new challenges is a crucial need for new leadership methods and models. It is becoming more and more important how well these new approaches are demonstrated by the manager in his/ her daily business behavior. How creative, innovative and flexible he/ she is. Does she/he know how to lead the personal development and the process of change?

It is becoming more and more essential to really understand our own core competences and values, and those of our team members and lead them to the optimal outcomes. It is becoming more and more important to understand ourselves and to hear our inner voice. Sonja Klopcic, M.Sc. has just done that. This is her story.

Sonja Klopcic, the formal director of Oria Computers, and one of the most prominent young managers in Slovenia, has made an important step in her business development. After the most successful business cycle in the company’s history and after 14 years of being a leader and so-creator of its sustainable growth, she stepped down to take time to quietly seek guidance from her inner self for the next carrier step. The move was recognized by Slovenian business community as a brave and rather unusual step. The public and media were trying to find “a real reason” for her decision, searching for a scandal or a failure. In Slovenia managers just do not leave good positions for no reason, especially not when the results are great. Or maybe they do. Maybe this is a sign of a new mindset. Maybe we’ll be seeing more of that in the future.

Q: How did the last few months, before the decision was announced, look?

A: As the question implies, the decision was not sudden. It was rather a result of a conscious and gradual process. First, I felt deep inside that it is time to close this chapter of my life. At first the thought surprised me too. But when it is continuously recurring you get used to it and you start considering it seriously. Then I suddenly and definitely recognized that the time with Oria was over, that it was time for both of us to make a new step forward.

Q: Have you had, at the turning point, a new story in mind?

A: Not at all. During this process of clarification of the relationship between company and me, I was not thinking about a new step at all. I first wanted to make sure I understand my transformations and needs. Independently. Clearly. To stop a career at the time of very good results and a full support of all business partners (employees, owners, customers, suppliers, local community) was not an easy step. Especially in my case. People were always very important to me. I believe in people and was investing a lot in business relationships. For a lot of people Sonja was Oria. I was aware that the move would be hard for other people too. Therefore, the move had to be well planed. After all, my husband works in the company, too. He is also one of the owners. (comment: Sonja sold her shares in the company right after she took the leading position). I was thinking a lot about this move before talked to anybody (even my husband) about that.



Q: How to pick the right moment?

A: It is hard to say what is the right moment. It is always a shock. First I thought about revealing the new at the end of 2006, but due to the market intensity at that time decided to postpone it until after the New Year.