— Why China Lags on Innovation and Creativity is an interesting take from Richard Florida on why, despite its tremendous advances as a global economic power, it will take China at least 20 years before it becomes an innovation powerhouse. Well worth a read.
— When The Jobs Inspector Calls is a nuanced Economist piece looking at supply chain issues for large multinational companies making the bulk of their products in developing markets such as China or south-east Asia. Focused mainly on, surprise surprise, Apple, the piece also looks at practices by the likes of Nike, and does a good job of illustrating the complexity of the issue. The piece also cites the fascinating findings of MIT’s Richard Locke, author of the upcoming Promoting Labour Rights in a Global Economy.
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Eric Sprunk is the vice president of Merchandising and Product at Nike, and I was really taken with this comment, in a piece looking at the sportswear giant’s recent announcement of a bid to remove water from its apparel dying process. Color It Green: Nike To Adopt Waterless Textile Dying details a new partnership between Nike and the Dutch company, DyeCoo Textile Systems, and is clearly a huge deal for environmentalists. Water is already a focal point in our collective fight for survival, and any initiative that can either remove its use upstream (as it were) in the product development cycle, or prevent rampant pollution of it downstream is significant. As this article notes, up to 150 liters of water are needed to process just one kilogram of textile materials; 39 million tons of polyester will be dyed annually by 2015. That’s an awful lot of water, and the pollution levels in China are already horrible: this piece refers to the “countless billions of gallons of polluted discharges into waterways near manufacturing plants in Asia.”
But look at the quote again. The open admission of the internal resistance to change is really interesting, and an excellent reminder that innovation is never easy, even within those companies such as Nike that are constantly lauded for their innovation prowess. It’s important to remember that every single executive in every single firm meets the same forces, the ones that deliberately—and for the most rational reasons possible—attempt to prevent change. Acknowledging and dealing with these forces consciously and deliberately is the only way to have an impact—both within an organization, and in the world at large.
[Nike announcement via Andrew Zolli; Green Biz story via Adam Aston.]
![This photo shows progress underway to complete the second phase of General Motors’ Advanced Technical Center in Shanghai, on track to open in the second half of the year. It was prompted by this interview with GM China president and managing director, Kevin Wale, which is long but incredibly interesting, and filled with insights about how executives are thinking about innovation in that all important market. For instance:
What China does better than any place else in the world is to innovate by commercialization, as opposed to constant research and perfecting the theory, like the West. When the Chinese get an idea, they test it in the marketplace. They are happy to do three to four rounds of commercialization to get an idea right, whereas in the West, companies spend the same amount of time on research, testing, and validation before trying to take products to market. The Chinese have an innovative way of doing innovation, something that the rest of the world is struggling to understand.
Long, but well worth the read.
[Image c/o GM.]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lys56nOE6y1qikpxao1_1280.jpg)
This photo shows progress underway to complete the second phase of General Motors’ Advanced Technical Center in Shanghai, on track to open in the second half of the year. It was prompted by this interview with GM China president and managing director, Kevin Wale, which is long but incredibly interesting, and filled with insights about how executives are thinking about innovation in that all important market. For instance:
What China does better than any place else in the world is to innovate by commercialization, as opposed to constant research and perfecting the theory, like the West. When the Chinese get an idea, they test it in the marketplace. They are happy to do three to four rounds of commercialization to get an idea right, whereas in the West, companies spend the same amount of time on research, testing, and validation before trying to take products to market. The Chinese have an innovative way of doing innovation, something that the rest of the world is struggling to understand.
Long, but well worth the read.
[Image c/o GM.]
![Shown is an image of the Apple store in Pudong, Shanghai. Beautiful, right? Sleek, elegant, swooping, stunning. Everything you’d expect from Apple. Look and love. Then read this New York Times story, In China, Human Costs Are Built Into An iPad. The piece tells the story of the rather less stunning conditions at an Apple location in Chengdu, some 2,000 kilometers away from the glorious glass temple we see here.
****Do also listen to this wonderful episode of the radio program, This American Life, Mr Daisey and the Apple Factory, in which a tech geek tried to find out more about working conditions at an Apple factory. It’s a beautiful piece of journalism (from, note, a non-journalist) that should also make us all stop and think the next time we approach a shiny Fortress of Macness.***** (I say “should.” How likely this is given Apple’s blockbuster results announcement yesterday, in which it revealed its highest quarterly revenue and earnings figure ever — and that it sold nearly 15.5 million iPads during the last quarter — remains to be seen. But stories like these can surely only help to influence the company to be ever more mindful of its workers and the environments in which they work.)
[Article via my colleague, Erik van Crimmin and others. This American Life episode via Sam Potts. Image c/o Apple.]
******* I can’t figure out how to draw a line through text on Tumblr, but suffice it to say, this episode of This American Life has now been retracted as filled with untruths. I’m so sad; more to come on this.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyf27z4yi51qikpxao1_1280.jpg)
Shown is an image of the Apple store in Pudong, Shanghai. Beautiful, right? Sleek, elegant, swooping, stunning. Everything you’d expect from Apple. Look and love. Then read this New York Times story, In China, Human Costs Are Built Into An iPad. The piece tells the story of the rather less stunning conditions at an Apple location in Chengdu, some 2,000 kilometers away from the glorious glass temple we see here.
****Do also listen to this wonderful episode of the radio program, This American Life, Mr Daisey and the Apple Factory, in which a tech geek tried to find out more about working conditions at an Apple factory. It’s a beautiful piece of journalism (from, note, a non-journalist) that should also make us all stop and think the next time we approach a shiny Fortress of Macness.***** (I say “should.” How likely this is given Apple’s blockbuster results announcement yesterday, in which it revealed its highest quarterly revenue and earnings figure ever — and that it sold nearly 15.5 million iPads during the last quarter — remains to be seen. But stories like these can surely only help to influence the company to be ever more mindful of its workers and the environments in which they work.)
[Article via my colleague, Erik van Crimmin and others. This American Life episode via Sam Potts. Image c/o Apple.]
******* I can’t figure out how to draw a line through text on Tumblr, but suffice it to say, this episode of This American Life has now been retracted as filled with untruths. I’m so sad; more to come on this.
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So speaks Ricky Ng-Adam, partner and project generator of Xienchejian, a non-profit hackerspace in Shanghai that thrives on donations from community members. Hackerspaces in China details how the Shanghai Government Technology Committee has issued a call for 100 more community hackerspaces, offering government funding for equipment. I’m sure spare parts will still be welcome.
[Story via Noah Raford.]
Apparently I’m in a sci-fi state of mind today… First quantum levitation, now two robots playing ping pong. What can I say? I found this charming (and particularly loved the observer in the middle, who just looks so pleased with the clever robots.)
(via Catherine Rampell.)
— Tim O’Reilly flags this Bloomberg story, HP Turning to Chinese to Develop Products for Emerging Markets, which details how the world’s biggest computer maker is opening a new research center in Beijing, charging engineers there with developing global storage and networking products. Policy makers in the United States should be alert. As O’Reilly points out, this rather gives the lie to the idea that it’s only production and manufacturing that happens overseas. And as Hewlett-Packard CEO Leo Apotheker comments in the piece, the innovation strategy: “is in China, for China, but also for the world.”
Good NPR story by Rob Gifford as part of the station’s series on how China is looking to transform its reputation from maker of cheap knock-offs to creator of solid, homegrown brands. In particular, Gifford looks at the challenges of supporting or nurturing innovation, and the thorny topic of intellectual property. Not many answers here, but some thought-provoking questions.
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Journalist and pundit Fareed Zakaria has an update to his book, The Post-American World, due out at the end of the month. For it (and a CNN special report airing tonight), he delved into the world and meaning of innovation—and examined how the United States has a job on its hand to keep up the pace of innovation and stave off the challenges from emerging markets. He described the above quote as the “scariest statistic” he unearthed in the course of his research.
Also, check out the Global Innovation Showcase, just launched by CNN and the New America Foundation to go along with its special report. Featuring the likes of Steven Johnson’s brief history of innovation and political and economic analyst Zachary Karabell on the innovation challenge posed by China, it looks like it might shape up to be an interesting resource.
