TR's 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2012

Technology Review is a magazine published by MIT. Every year, the editors reviewed and selected 50 companies they think are the most innovative. Go to the original link - you'll be able to click each box to read why it has been chosen together with a link to a full article on the company.

Here's a couple example:

First Solar
Why: It is reducing the cost of utility-­scale photovoltaic installations.
Key innovation: First Solar constrains costs with vertical integration of everything from plant construction to the manufacture of high-efficiency cadmium telluride cells.

PatientsLikeMe
Why: Online social connections and shared data offer a new way to improve the understanding and treatment of disease.
Key innovation: Published a peer-reviewed study, based on data volunteered by site users, that countered the results of a clinical trial assessing the effects of lithium on ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

There's also other names which will be familiar to you like Apple, Google, IBM, Intel, Facebook, Twitter, Shell, Samsung, Zynga and many more.

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Agensi Inovasi Malaysia

I had the opportunity to listen to someone who was in Agensi Inovasi Malaysia talk during lunchtime just now ('was', because he is now in HDC).

Agensi Inovasi Malaysia is, in the words from their website here: a statutory body set up by the Government via AIM Act 2010, with the primary purpose of being the driving force behind Malaysia’s push towards establishing an “innovation economy” and the country’s aspirations of achieving a high-income nation status.

Vision: Wealth creation through Knowledge, Technology & Innovation

Mission: To stimulate and develop the innovation eco-system in Malaysia towards achieving the vision 2020

The National Innovation Strategy, or “Innovating Malaysia” is the official government framework for driving innovation. This holistic strategy recognises the challenges of creating a highly innovative “eco-system” and understands the need to engage with every element of society.



Under the first thrust, the point Build Futureskills today garners a lot of interest in the hall just now. The invited speaker spoke about a study done by the agency that shows children in the agre bracket 4-6 years old shows a lot of creativity but this declines when the same measure is used for primary school students. Audience is keen to know about what changes are being done in the education system in Malaysia to reduce the focus on rote learning and incorporate innovative thinking, but it seems that the agency is still at its study and engage stage.

Quadruple Helix sounds bombastic, no? But it simply means four segments working closely together: government, industry, university/academia, and society/rakyat.

Ok, here are the focused areas for inno-accelerator:
- Agri-bio
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Clean & Green
- Green Technology
- Nanotechnology
- Automtive
- Biotechnology
- Economics
- Medicinal & Aromatic Plant
- Telecommunication

Check-out a few success stories shared in the website on Manufacturing Water Bottles, Testing Aircraft Wings, and Mobile Office Apps.

There's also quite a few research papers being shared here.

Coincidently, AIM is in the news today, because the PM just launched the Proton Green Mobility Challenge yesterday.

From here:

The Proton Green Mobility Challenge brings together teams from 10 local universities, who will compete to build the best performing electric vehicle based on a standard Proton Saga.

Teams are each given one car, a battery set, a motor and controller unit, a telematic unit and RM20,000 seed fund to build their machine.

They have until October to complete a working model, which will then be tested at the Sepang International Circuit in four categories farthest distance, quarter-mile acceleration, fastest time for two laps and maximum velocity (V-max).

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Steve Jobs: Inspirational quotes and 7 principles of innovation

I don’t use any of Apple products, not the Macbook, iPad or even iPhone, but I do recognize that Steve Jobs was a very influential figure in the digital technology industry, an inspiring visionary.

Here are some of his quotes that I really like, all of which comes from a Stanford University commencement speech in 2005:

The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

An excerpt on creativity from his interview with the Wired magazine (1995):

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.

Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.

And here are the 7 principles he says innovation is based on.

- Do what you love
- Put a dent in the universe (aim to make a real change)
- Kick-start your brain (build experiences)
- Sell dreams (not products)
- Say ‘no’ to 1,000 things
- Create insanely great experiences
- Master the message (to get others onboard)

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