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Lessons from Intel and Edison - How Innovators Envision the Future
In the last 6 weeks, management upheavals have rained down on corporate America. Steve Jobs stepped down as Apple CEO in mid-August. Yahoo's board of so-called "doofuses" ousted CEO Carol Bartz via a telephone call. In yet another board crisis at HP, CEO short-timer Leo Apotheker was swept out and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman was swept in.
 Financial services companies were not immune. UBS chief executive Oswald Grubel abruptly announced his resignation following a nightmare of rogue trades exceeding $2 billion. Bank of America is swooning.
If you were a fly on the wall in the board room of any of these firms, which one do you think has the best grasp on the future? Which one can "see" a path for itself years down the road?
Apple wins that one hands down.
Yahoo and HP were both once synonymous with the words "leading edge." But where would the C-suites of these two firms (or what's left of them) paint that "leading edge" today? Could they describe it? Could they draw it? Could they tell you a story about it?
It's highly doubtful. One reason Apotheker was forced out at HP was his inability to clearly articulate a future vision for this legendary Silicon Valley giant.
In contrast, Google is continually thinking about where it's headed and engaging its culture - even its customers - in these exercises. And Intel - one of today's top 20 most profitable companies in the Fortune 500 - is as well.
If your organization hasn't had a good chat about the future lately, now isn't the time for future-phobia. With product life-cycles shrinking from an average of 3 years to as little as 8 months in some sectors, the future becomes "today" in a heartbeat. Don't let the wild gyrations of markets and leaders deter you from creating a compelling future vision for your organization.
 Intel's "Tomorrow Project"
Intel stands as a shining example of what to do in face of gyrating markets. Adding to is many future-facing initiatives, last month Intel began a fascinating program called "The Tomorrow Project". The company is bringing in four best-selling science fiction writers and futurists to help it conceive of future applications for its prized microchips - and to aid in designing "lifestyle environments" around these applications.
After sharing current Intel research on photonics, robotics, telematics, and sensors with Douglas Rushkoff, Ray Hammond, Scarlett Thomas and Markus Heitz, Intel asked each one "to take a look at their research and come up with a vision for what technology will look like in the future." How cool...
The results? "The authors responded by creating four short stories that paint humorous, thought-provoking and hopeful pictures of our future, when these ‘futuristic technologies' have long since become familiar features of our daily lives." Intel is using facets of these stories to direct their new product development efforts.
You may think all this is bunk. But Intel's market-leading profitability is hard to ignore. They have created a powerful future-facing posture as part of their corporate culture.
In 2010, Intel also brought in "consumer experience architect," futurist, and author Brian David Johnson to spearhead several other future-facing projects. One of Johnson's recent moves included contracting with 7-time Grammy award winner Black-Eyed Peas superstar will.i.am to work with internal Intel product development groups on designing new laptop computers, tablets, and smartphones.
One surprising result has been growth in the Intel Developer Forum, which began in 1997. New momentum has been created by connecting superstar will.i.am with teens who want to learn computer science, build computers, or even write music using computers. Interactions have created crucial insights for Intel's developers, revealing new directions for next-generation technologies. Check out these two videos to hear how will.i.am and Intel CMO Deborah Conrad describe the positive impact the program is having.
Integrate Future Vision as Part of Organization's Culture
Although it hasn't integrated is future-facing efforts as effectively as Intel has, HP isn't totally ham-fisted in its futuristic venturing. A Wall Street Journal article last month describes how HP Looks to Kitchens and Cars as new markets for the software it purchased from Palm last year. Similarly, Whirlpool is envisioning appliances that connect to the Internet so customers can program them via their smartphones. Also mentioned in the article were future-facing initiatives by Ford - which has come alive under CEO Alan Mulally - as well as Toyota, Panasonic, and Virgin America.
So it's not a total desert out there.
However, the key to success in these endeavors lies in how corporate leaders integrate a future vision with the culture and lifeblood of the organization. To speed a company's ability to stay nimble in the hyper-fast environment, injecting creativity and flexibility that allows a diverse workforce to engage with this future vision is not optional.
If it's been awhile since you took a walk into the future, check out this mini-slide show from Mashable. The 8 slides below offer a view of how technologies we already know about today could morph and change by 2020. Have a look, and exercise your imagination! Hidden Question: Which of the 8 Mashable concepts would Edison like best?
Click the image above to visit the site and play the slide show
How Thomas Edison Invented The Future
Thomas Edison believed nothing could be created until it was first imagined. All of his inventions and innovative systems existed first in his imagination. Then he made his imaginings real step by step through notebook drawings, experiments, prototypes, and beta tests.
With the weekly gyrations in today's markets, it's more important than ever to actively envision the future. Rather than shying away from the volatility that surrounds us, we need to embrace it and respond proactively - as Edison would, using his Full-spectrum Engagement competency. Take a page from Edison's future-embracing playbook, and set your own imagination in motion. It's no time for future-phobia!
Over the past 5 weeks, I've been preparing a manuscript for a new 60-page ebook entitled Inventing the Future: What Would Thomas Edison Be Doing Today? Although it won't be released by Wiley publishing until November 2nd, here is an encapsulation of Chapter 4, offering steps on how to map a path to the future:
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Buy a notebook and make frequent entries the capture your insights and ideas.
- Become a trend monitor, clipping out articles with trend information or saving links to online articles with trends.
- After you've collected 15 - 20 trends connect 3 together where you see a pattern emerging.
- Write a brief story about a day in this fantastical future which you believe will flow from these 3 linked trends.
- Draw a picture of what this "world" would look like, either using colored markers or creating a collage of images.
- Identify the needs suggested by this future state clustering them in groups, or aligning them to themes from your story from Step 4.
- Use markers and a separate sheet of paper, draw a pathway from the needs or themes of your future vision back to the present, noting new technologies or new developments that would be required to make them a reality. List them out!
Many of these same concepts were mentioned in the November 2010 and December 2008 editions of Edison's Notebook. Edison's own science fiction stories foreshadowed the development of aerial navigation, photography in total darkness, developing electricity from coal, zero gravity, and high speed trains.
His ability to envision new never-before-seen lighting and energy systems enabled him to design the world's first incandescent electric light and the world's first centralized power distribution infrastructure. Many of Edison's imaginings became actual products and services...they didn't all remain in the realm of science fiction!
Whether you want to make a case for a futuristic new product or service, or propose a unique solution to a current problem, concretize it and "make it real" in as many ways as possible. Imagine it. Draw it. Collage it. Be sure it addresses real needs. Write a story about it. But don't shy away from it!
As Intel has demonstrated with its own successes in envisioning the future, using Edison's methods to bring the future closer pays off in real dollars.
In The Next Issue – Edison’s Top 10 Innovations: Part 1
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Creating momentum around innovation is one of the most daunting challenges executives face today. 
Congratulations to Alan Lowell, President of the International Hearing Society (IHS), on celebrating its 60th anniversary! I had an opportunity to offer a keynote and workshop on "reinvention" at the opening session of this year's annual IHS event in Boston. Thomas Edison lost the hearing in his left ear at age 16, so the powerful work that IHS does for thousands of customers every year is especially meaningful. 
A big "thank you!" to Julie Anixter, an editor for the leading innovation blog "
Thanks to journalist Alice Bumgarner for our interview on Edison's collaboration methods, appearing in this month's edition of 
My deepest appreciation to colleague Meta Brown for her Edison mention in this insightful blog piece entitled, "
