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Innovation Software

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space height="22px"][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text] Innovative Ideas to Reclaim Our Natural Environment [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="22px"][vc_column_text]You alone can not save the world.  Neither will our governments. How about industry?  Will they have the Earth’s best interests in mind when they create their next product for market? We ask, who are the real trail blazers along this confusing and winding path of necessary environmental change? It is not until the powerful, the inventive, and the noisiest change makers collaborate across industries, governments, universities and environmental NGOs with new green technology research, design, and significant strategies that will we see the greatest environmental challenges solved.  [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="22px"][vc_column_text] New Green Technology for Recycling [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="22px"][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width="2/3"][vc_column_text]Where does all the trash go and how can we dramatically reduce what’s headed to the landfills? Recycling is a not a new effort, but it is losing efficacy and studies show even the most mindful consumers recycle incorrectly. Luckily efforts are underway to bring new technology to an inconsistent,...

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height="20px"][vc_column_text] New Industries' Solutions for Moving to a Zero Carbon Footprint [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="10px"][vc_column_text]Is zero carbon possible? The bright ideas coming from creative innovators prove we are developing and harnessing new technologies to eliminate the burning of fossil fuels to off set carbon emissions. The world emits about 43 billion tons of CO2 a year and 87% comes from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, and oil. As the Earth's need for power grows, so does the necessity for innovative clean power solutions. University researchers, startup incubators, and power industry collaboration show promising disruptive technology to reach carbon zero goals. The commercialization and the opportunity for partnerships across these innovating platforms will bring positive and lasting change to the carbon emission reduction goals of countries worldwide.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="10px"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Carbon Neutral Start-up Technology [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="10px"][vc_column_text]Industries worldwide are focusing on how to achieve carbon neutrality. Innovative ideas and clean power solutions are appearing across university research labs...

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] When velocity is constant - acceleration equals zero [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="10"][vc_column_text]Acceleration is one of those terms that is often taken for granted in today’s business environment. As a gentle reminder, the definition of acceleration is a change in velocity over time. A major disconnect in corporate external innovation groups (that is, groups responsible for identifying innovations to solve their unmet needs that lie outside their corporate walls) is that they typically - and mistakenly - expect to accelerate innovation while maintaining constant internal organizational velocity in the form of resources, infrastructure, organizational support, budget, etc. Groups seeking to rapidly change their external innovation velocities can do so through honest self-assessment of their internal capabilities, and subsequent selection of the proper resources, information management tools and collaboration models to build the sustainable external innovation organization that works best for them.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="30"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] External innovation groups seldom receive adequate internal resourcing to effectively drive enough innovation initiatives...

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Technology and trends tend to move and change at alarming rates.  No industry is impervious to evolution. The only way to stay relevant is to make sure you are looking toward the future landscape and anticipating changes within your business before they happen. If you don't have a functioning crystal ball, research and analysis are the best way to predict the future.  A strong indicator of how technology and trends are changing in real-time is to pay attention to how you currently consume television and video content at home. Gone are the days of spending a Friday night at Blockbuster buying or renting physical copies of movies to bring home. It also seems the days of cable and satellite solutions are quickly on their way out. Streaming services are the future of in-home entertainment consumption, but that leaves broadcast TV searching for a new way to create revenue or else risk...

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Understanding your company's "technical right-to-succeed" is critical to the success of your business: it's what sets you apart from your competition. It allows you to provide the best products and services your clients and users have come to expect. It's essential to understand the entire landscape of your company's current technology and how it compares to the technology of your competitors and the future of technological innovation. This is where technology scouting and technology landscaping research reports come in to play an integral part in building your company's technology portfolio. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height="30px"][vc_column_text] Technology Scouting [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="10px"][vc_column_text]Technology scouting is an element of technology management in which emerging technologies are identified, technology-related information is channeled into an organization, and supports the acquisition of technologies.  The focus of technology scouting is on identifying solutions to an unmet technical or business need. When technology scouting, it's essential to precisely define your unmet need and create a roust...

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The concept of an innovation portfolio is still new to some organizations; however, it's been a topic of conversation among innovation professionals for years.  In 2014 Harvard Business Review (HBR) published the article, Managing Your Innovation Portfolio. They found on average high-performing organizations focus 70% of their innovation resources on core or incremental offerings, 20% on adjacent offerings, and 10% on transformational initiatives.  Even though the average was a 70:20:10 spread, they still reference other successful models depending on your industry and your level of ambition and allocations.  The biggest take-away from the HBR report and subsequent reports is that for an innovation program to be successful, the focus should be a mix of incremental (core), adjacent and transformational initiatives.  This mix will enable a program to deliver results both in the near term and long term.  In addition to finding the right balance, organizations need to have the right resources to deliver. ...

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A critical aspect of any innovation management program is thoroughly understanding your own technology portfolio and how it fits within the technology ecosystem of both known competitors and potential collaborators alike. Innovation doesn’t occur in a vacuum – groups need to continually rationalize their internal technologies versus external technologies in their business verticals. Regular internal technical SWOT analysis (identifying where companies are strong / weak technically, where the technical opportunities and threats exist both long-term and near-term) better enable companies to define and own their particular technical space; as well as recognize the potential to expand their technical space over time. Technology Scouting and Technology Landscaping are powerful tools in the innovation management toolkit to achieve better technology portfolio understanding; but while these terms are often used interchangeably, these are not equivalent activities and often require different skill sets for mastery. Here’s how we at Ezassi think about these innovation management tools.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space...

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]It's times of stress that really test the strength or weakness of an organization. During stressful times, leaders learn what the people in their organizations are made of – but also whether the systems, functions, and processes they have put in place are resilient to withstand the crises that inevitably come up. Industry shifts, market downturns, unexpected competitors: when stress comes, it shouldn't make an organization or process fall to pieces. Instead, stressful times should be when positive discourse, growth, and resiliency thrive.[1] "What do you do when you face a surprise?" David Woods, Faculty Emeritus of Integrated Systems Engineering at The Ohio State University, asked at the 2014 Velocity NY conference; referring to unexpected situations like when chunks of foam fell off the Space Shuttle Columbia's fuel tank in an unexpected way. "Do you gracefully extend performance, stretch your capabilities, and add adaptive capacity in order to continue to perform...

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[vc_row content_width="grid"][vc_column][vc_column_text]Dr. Robert Blizek, a former senior technologist with NAVAIR, shares the lessons learned that drove his decision to use Ezassi’s Knowledge Scouting application.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="30px"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row content_width="grid" content_aligment="center"][vc_column][qodef_elements_holder][qodef_elements_holder_item horizontal_aligment="left" vertical_alignment="middle" hover_animation="default"][vc_column_text] The Challenge [/vc_column_text][qodef_separator position="center" color="#6b6b6b" border_style="solid" width="70%" thickness="20px"][vc_empty_space height="30px"][vc_column_text] Growth of World Population and the History of Technology [/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image="11326" img_size="full" alignment="center"][vc_empty_space height="10px"][vc_column_text] Figure 1.  Globalization and the Internet have dramatically accelerated technology development. [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="30px"][/qodef_elements_holder_item][/qodef_elements_holder][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]There are three challenges to address if one is to keep abreast of technology development for investments, optimal partnership selection, or roadmap planning.  First, critical technological advances can come from anywhere. A recent study by the government accounting office (GAO) noted that, only two decades ago, 70% of science and technology development for the DoD was developed exclusively within DoD- industry partnerships.   Today, that 70/30 split is reversed with the private sector eclipsing the DoD’s pace of breakthrough technologies in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum engineering, and cyber security. The second...

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A new study from the labs of Durham University's Dr. Andrew Smallbone lays out a pathway to making plastic bottles from organic waste material and CO2 captured from power plants. A thorough analysis of the economics shows this process could even be cost competitive for making things like plastic bottles. The process could start with something like the leftover plant material from sugarcane pressing. After a few reaction steps, which include the addition of some captured CO2 and some ethylene glycol produced from corn plants, you'd end up with a plastic polymer called polyethylene furandicarboxylate—otherwise known as PEF. Functionally, it's similar to the PET plastic used for water and soda bottles, denoted by the number 1 recycling symbol. Every step in the process has been at least demonstrated before, and some are quite common, so the paper doesn't spend much space on the chemistry. Instead, the researchers engage in life cycle analysis...

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