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Caveman Design....Evolving your products and services
This weekend I was on a working vacation on the great island of Jamaica. I was on the island with a client who was testing a new version of his security product at an outdoor concert venue in Montego Bay. As I soaked up the beautiful rays of...
Leadership, Seed or Fruit?
Purpose: Learn immediately if you are fostering leadership or ignoring it. Discover the power of nurturing your people. It was an enormous redwood tree. And due to regulations the forest service had to go to incredible trouble and expense in...
Seeking Initiative and Innovation? Reward Failure!
Based on Proprietary Research
"If you want to increase initiative and innovation, you have to encourage and embrace failure. A culture that punishes less-than-ideal risk-related outcomes will stifle both initiative and innovation".
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Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley: a parable
We have all heard about the “Silicon Valley” miracle. Not long ago, Silicon Valley found itself at the centre of the world, a job- and money-making machine fueled by the popularity of the Internet and technological...
The Top 10 Questions for Socially Responsible Leaders
The assets of your business traditionally include property, plant, equipment, and your customer base. Progressive organizations understand that business assets also include their good reputation, responsiveness to change, the ability to conduct...
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Silicon Valley: a parable
We have all heard about the “Silicon Valley” miracle. Not long ago, Silicon Valley found itself at the centre of the world, a job- and money-making machine fueled by the popularity of the Internet and technological innovation. Those days are a distant memory now. Now, the Center of the World has become a technological Rust Belt.
The streets, once throbbing with energy, are empty and quiet. Empty new buildings stand like bleached mausoleums in the sun with big, indiscreet "AVAILABLE" signs slapped on them. A full 20% of the valley’s jobs have been lost since March 2001 and hi-tech jobs continued to be lost as companies downsize or outsource jobs to Asia. No one in the Valley can figure what to do to bring back the golden era.
However, most people not local to the area are unaware of the previous history of this area. The past 200 years have been tragic one of genocide, environmental destruction, greed, trickery, and exploitation. In 1776, at the time of their first contact with the Spanish explorers originally who were looking for gold, Santa Clara Valley was an untouched Eden with maybe 10,000 Ohlone Indians. By 1830, the peaceful, basket-weaving peoples who had been living there for over 10,000 years had completely disappeared, killed off by epidemics and the mission system. In 1848, the land, originally part of Mexico, became part of United States. Americans, many of whom were failed gold-seekers from the mother lode, started to pour in and acquired Mexican cattle ranches, often through force and trickery. The rich alluvial soil—some of the best in the world-- proved ideal for orchards. The Valley during the spring was a canopy of white blossoms—“The Valley of Heart’s Delight.” An orchard of another type grew around the seeds planted by William Hewlett, David Packard, Fred Terman, and other researchers at Stanford University. Today, Hewlett-Packard is one of the world's largest producers of computers and electronic measuring devices and equipment. The names of the branches of the tree are familiar: Stanford Industrial Park, Varian, Apple Computers, Intel, Yahoo, CISCO, Netscape, etc.
Creativity leads to innovation, and innovation leads to prosperity. Prosperity attracts restless, bright, often unscrupulous people, with often troubled and unhappy pasts, from all parts of the world. The old-time farmers sell their farms off for a king’s ransom and move. The orchards were bulldozed to make room for subdivisions and industrial parks.
Beneath the
high-tech sparkle laid a hidden underbelly of inequality, environmental devastation, and exploitation. A recent study of the Silicon Valley economy found that hourly wages of 75 percent of Silicon Valley workers were actually lower in 1996 than in 1989. Meanwhile, between 1992 and 1997, income for the top 20 percent has increased by 32 percent. The diverse workplace does not necessarily mean equality of opportunity. You see very few Hispanics or blacks in the hi-tech crystal palaces.
Silicon Valley has 29 Superfund sites--toxic sites slated for cleanup by the federal government. This is more than any other area in the country. High-tech manufacturing created 24 of the 29 sites; 18 are tied to the computer chip industry. At one time, the largest mercury mine in the U.S. was located in the New Alma den hills in the back of San Jose. Mercury, which is used to separate silver from base ore, seeps from this 100-year year old open sore and poisons the Guadalupe River and San Francisco Bay. The Hispanic hamlet of Alison lies partly on a landfill created by the dumping of asbestos-lined pipes in the 1950’s by the Certainteed Corporation.
Will Silicon Valley ever regain its prosperity? Alternatively, it is like some new Atlantis being destroyed by its greed while its inhabitant scatter to the four winds. No one knows. Maybe, a large no strings attached investment, such as Leland Stanford’s bequest that help found Stanford University, would help jump-start the economy. However, maybe, the problems faced by Silicon Valley are those, which cannot be solved by money alone. The entrepreneurial individualism, which has made the unnatural growth of the Valley possible, had, in the process, destroyed the social fabric that holds a society together. The issues facing Silicon Valley today are social ones—pollution, growing income inequality, ethnic tension, unemployment, high housing costs, and a limited state budget. These problems had always been there, but were ignored and have worsened during the most rapid increase in wealth in history. Maybe, one day, the people of Silicon Valley and California will wake up and have the political will to spend the money needed to fix these problems. However, no one really knows.
About the Author
Bio: Janet Ilacqua is a freelance writer living in Tracy. She specializes in spirituality, business, and prosperity issues. She can be reached at jilacqua@aol.com. Also, check out her website at http://www.writeupondemand.com
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| DTI - Welcome to the DTI's Innovation Home Page |
| The DTI is working to stimulate a significant increase in innovation throughout ... It covers Living Innovation, web streaming of a series of high profile ... |
| www.dti.gov.uk |
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| Innovation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| An innovation in this light occurs whether or not the act of innovating ... A convenient definition of innovation from an organizational perspective is ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| National Innovation Website |
| The Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources has developed this website to raise awareness of the importance and benefits of innovation and ... |
| www.innovation.gov.au |
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| Innovation, creativity and brainstorming resources from ... |
| A comprehensive site designed to provide busy entrepreneurs with a focused collection of the best resources on innovation, creativity, and brainstorming. |
| www.innovationtools.com |
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| Innovation Weblog - Trends, resources, viewpoints from Chuck Frey ... |
| The Innovation Weblog - Valuable trends, resources and viewpoints in innovation, creativity and brainstorming from Chuck Frey at InnovationTools. |
| www.innovationtools.com |
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| CORDIS: Innovation Portal: Home |
| This Innovation Portal is supported by DG ENTR of the European Commission, ... European Commission adopts new Communication on Innovation: on 13 September ... |
| cordis.europa.eu |
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| CORDIS: Promotion of Innovation: Home |
| This programme stands at the cross-roads of the Community's policies on Research, Innovation and SMEs. |
| cordis.europa.eu |
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| Innovation Network... leveraging innovation, creativity and ... |
| The Innovation Network is an association of companies and employees committed to innovation. The site features some interesting articles as well as some fun ... |
| www.thinksmart.com |
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| Business Innovation : Car Reviews, Online Gaming, and Product Branding |
| If your in need of great Online Gaming material, we carry up to the minute news and reviews for all of your favorite games and gaming systems. |
| www.businessweek.com |
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| Innovation - Life, Inspired | PBS |
| Learn about fascinating innovations, explore interactive features, submit questions to our experts, investigate resources and lesson plans, and more. |
| www.pbs.org |
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| Innovation.org - Welcome |
| Impact of Innovation Saving & Improving Lives Controlling Healthcare Costs Strengthening ... Future of Innovation New Medicines in Development Next Wave of ... |
| www.innovation.org |
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| Innovation: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
| See all blog posts tagged with innovation on Technorati. |
| www.technorati.com |
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| Innovation Relay Centres - The World Largest Network for ... |
| Innovation Relay Centres giving advice on Innovation, Technology Transfer and Exploitation. Major European source for innovative technologies or new ... |
| irc.cordis.lu |
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| The Tech Museum of Innovation | Welcome |
| The Tech Museum of Innovation - Welcome! The Tech Museum inspires and educates the innovators of the future. |
| www.thetech.org |
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| Pages tagged with "innovation" on del.icio.us |
| CoDev 2007 - Co-Development for Business Growth: Open Innovation and Alternatives ... PDMA & IIR's 5th Annual Front End of Innovation ... |
| del.icio.us |
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| innovation |
| Publication highlighting the research activities of NUS. The site provides snippets of selected articles online, and provides a subscription form online. |
| www.innovationmagazine.com |
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| Canadian Innovation Centre |
| Services includes invention evaluation, technology due diligence, market research, and education programs. |
| www.innovationcentre.ca |
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| London INNOVATION :: Home |
| Maximise your business potential through innovation. Learn the secrets of successful business innovation in London. |
| www.london-innovation.org.uk |
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| Eric Von Hippel's Homepage |
| Downloadable Books. Democratizing Innovation (2005) ... The Sources of Innovation (1988). Free download of the complete book. Permission granted by Oxford ... |
| web.mit.edu |
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| Intel Innovation in Education |
| www.intel.com/education/ - 3k - Cached - Similar pages |
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