Locally grown innovation

I have the good fortune to have friends and colleagues throughout the world, many of them doing very interesting things to move the field of design forward. My friend Sonia, a Director of Idiom, pointed me to this article by Bruce Nussbaum describing an emerging network of innovation consultants in “emerging markets” countries.

As I touched on in a prior entry, the practice of innovation consulting is spreading, and changing as it is interpreted and reinterpreted into new business and cultural contexts. I’m happy to see that Bruce has raised this topic for conversation in the global venue of Fast Company’s new Co. Design channel.

What I find most intriguing in the article isn’t the simple notion that design thinking is happening outside the developed countries. It has been happening for a while, actually. The interesting bits to me are Carlos Teixeira‘s thoughts about:

1. how the global network of locally-owned innovation consultancies is actually networking, and working cooperatively, in ways that are nearly impossible in the hyper-competitive and somewhat adversarial US design space, and
2. the possibility of reversing flow… of changing the polarity of the conversation about innovation. This infusion of new ideas will help all of us to keep our own practice innovative.

We have a lot to learn from our emerging markets counterparts about how to do innovation, both for those markets and back here in the US. I personally welcome the conversation.

Nussbaum: China, India, Mexico, and Brazil Embrace “Design Thinking”

Some friends and colleagues Bruce mentions, I was lucky enough to spend time with at EPIC 2010, some I know from my time at Institute of Design:

• Luis Arnal and Roberto Holguin: In/situm (Mexico)
• Sonia Manchanda: Idiom Design and Consulting (India)
• Charles Bezerra: Gad’Innovation (Brazil)

A day worth blogging about

Yesterday I had the good fortune to be invited to “Made in India.” a lecture put on by Carlos Teixeira at Parsons School of Design. The reason I had that good fortune was by the grace of Sonia Manchanda of Idiom, my collaborator and co-curator for the workshop series at EPIC 2010.

The lecture was fascinating. It was the first in a series related to Carlos’ current project, to understand how Design is developing in emerging markets. Of particular interest is his observation that Design is developing differently in those markets. The lecture put facts to that observation. Much of their recent work at Idiom has been in the “design of business,” through a collaboration with The Future Group, a company dedicated to bringing to the masses what only the rich had before, through a fusion of modern retail business models with Indian culture.

Idiom and Future Group take a particularly aggressive approach to scenario and prototype testing, quickly turning out realistic concepts for introduction to real users in real situations. Some of their innovations include BigBazaar, a big box food retailer that incorporates the local seasonal vendors that Indian communities have come to rely on, and Home Town, a Home Depot / IKEA mashup that makes home design and construction available in a cultural context that does not do DIY.

But that’s not all, earlier in the day, I spoke briefly with a collection of the brightest minds working at the intersection of ethnography and business from Latin America, the US and Europe, some of whom are old friends and some I hope will be. That call was to begin the planning process for the EPIC 2010 program, for which I’m the workshop co-chair. Here’s a secret: the papers deadline is going to be extended. If you’re so inclined, submit something… There’s still time.

Working backwards, I spent the morning doing secondary research on the current state of the Healthcare IT arena here in the U.S. and identifying opportunities for innovation in software and services. I found some inspiring new work and personalities like Dr. Jay Parkinson, a physician entrepreneur whose own pediatric practice has been described as

“Geek Squad with doctors and a Netflix-priced monthly membership subscription fee — it is a branded healthcare “experience” that mixes “concierge service for all,” with house/office calls and web visits via email, IM, video chat, and text messaging.”

This is why I love what I do… It was a good day.