Maloff's Musings

Unit 4 DB 3 Primary Posting   The demise of CompuServe and the future of medical nanotechnology   – Lessons to be Learned? Joel Maloff For this assignment, we research an organization that started with a great plan but saw that plan fail due to changing circumstances beyond their control. Perhaps the most significant example of a failure to “see the forest for the trees” is the demise of CompuServe. Prior to the emergence of the commercial Internet in 1990, online access was the domain of service providers like CompuServe, America Online (AOL), and Prodigy (a joint venture of IBM and Sears). Each of these was an island of connectivity. Users of one service were unable to connect with users of the other services, and each service charged an access fee for a dial-up connection using a landline phone and a modem. At the peak in 1994, CompuServe had revenues of $433 million and 2.2 million customers (Frees, 1997) . The executives at CompuServe failed to see the impac...

Unit 4 DB2 Primary Posting Innovation - Serendipity, Error, and Exaptation Joel Maloff As it pertains to innovation, how do we define serendipity, error, and exaptation? This post covers each from my perspective, with examples of how they have resulted in successful innovations. Serendipity is the discovery of new ideas, or even physical biological characteristics, in a random or unplanned fashion (Armano & Javaronne, 2017). The origin of the word is attributed to Horase Walpole in 1784 and was a contraction of serenity and stupidity, based on a Sri Lankan fairy tale (Yesudian, 2011)!   Innovation impacts various fields, including “economics, physics, sociology, biology, and linguistics (Armano & Javaronne, 2017).” A widely held theory posits that serendipitous innovation occurs in businesses because of physical proximity. The emergence of cities or industrial parks allows the face to face interaction in an unplanned manner (often referred to as the “water...

CS875 Unit 3 Discussion Board Primary Posting For this assignment, we address the similarities and differences between scenario planning and forecasting as used traditionally. As illustrated in the example presented by Frum (2013), scenario planning involved the assembly of recognized industry experts for their projections regarding the state of the newspaper publishing industry ten years into the future. This scenario planning approach was very closely aligned with the principles used in a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), and sought to determine the impacts of innovation on the newspaper publishing industry (Frum, 2013) . Krajanowski (2017) argues that a SWOT analysis is focused more on short-term implications rather than the longer-term - at least ten years in the future. Scenario planning forces organizations to consider the “what if” and “why” questions (Krajanowski, 2017) . It is reasonable to ask how many businesses of any type anticipate...

CS875 Unit 2 Individual Project Game-Changing Innovation Joel Maloff May 2, 2020 Innovation, including game-changing ideas that emerge from mistakes or by accident, often require researchers have the time and opportunity to fail without concern about repercussions or failure is imminent, and almost any alternative is worth consideration (Tidd & Bessant, 2018) . One hundred years ago, the Cincinnati-based soap manufacturer Kutol was bankrupt and liquidating its assets. The principle product was powdered hand soap (Hiskey, 2015) . When the Great Depression arrived, Kutol had managed to remain viable and found an alternative product in demand from the Kroger grocery store chain, also from Cincinnati, for wallpaper cleaner. It seems that coal-fired furnaces created a substantial amount of soot and that wallpaper required delicate and regular cleaning. Kutol had found a new, in-demand product, and the company was saved – for a time. Unfortunately, this ne...

CS875 Unit 2 Discussion Board 2 Primary Posting Joel Maloff April 24, 2020 Our assignment for the Week 2 Discussion Board 2 primary posting for CS875 is to research and evaluate methods employed by groups for decision making. The first method to be addressed is the Delphi technique. In ancient Greek mythology, the oracle at Delphi guided petitioners, although the advice was often cryptic and open to interpretation. The Delphi technique for planning, likelihood, and an indication of future technological requirements from consumers involves the use of external experts (Tidd & Bessant, 2018) . The Delphi approach is most effective when used for long-term planning. The experts selected to be part of the forecasting come from a variety of areas. They represent acknowledged experts in the field, existing customers, academicians, or even scholars in applicable fields (Tidd & Bessant, 2018) . The process begins with a survey of all participants regarding future possibilit...