Design & Innovation

I love Google. I can’t get enough of Facebook. They both have really cool, free stuff. They come from old single ideas and have transformed the way we communicate with the real world. They are innovative companies that have made our lives more convenient. Companies like this have their merits. But why do we pay so much attention to them and leave companies like GE outside conversations about innovation and things they do to make our lives better. When we happen to grow old it is not going to matter how many friends you have on Facebook  or how many times you get poked a day, what it is going to matter to us is how underrated innovative companies like GE will have a prosthetic knee, talking about making our lives better.

To learn more about GE and the innovations that have been around since the 1800’s visit:

http://www.ge.com/innovation/timeline/index.html

I also wanted to respond to the IDEO video that we watched in class on Friday. The unique office environment immediately made me think of Google’s work environment. We went to visit Google’s site in NYC this spring during career week. They gave us a tour and later on a small presentation about the company. Google’s offices, as well as the hallways and meeting rooms, are colorful and playful. They have whiteboards all around the hallways and meeting rooms for people to write anything that comes to their minds. People are dressed in casual clothes and can ride scooters down the hallway. It’s all part of the innovative and collaborative culture Google has mastered over the past few years.

In this week’s business week there is an article about Google and its innovation: “How Google fuels its idea factory”. One of the things that stood out for me was the part when it talks about the obstacles Google faces right now. Since it has about 50 locations right now, the biggest problem it is facing is the difficulty of having face-to-face contact. As we saw in the IDEO video, teams are formed for a particular project for a specific amount of time, after which the team splits, and new teams are formed. The success of the project seems to be dependent on the team work and collaboration being done in the same room. It will be interesting to see how Google can manage this issue while it continues to expand rapidly.