Innovating In Turbulent Times: Preview

October 3 - 6, 2009

The Grand Del Mar
5300 Grand Del Mar Court
San Diego, CA 92130
(888) 314-2030
www.granddelmar.com

Preview

Recessions serve the useful purpose of forcing us to reexamine how we do business and how we can serve our markets more efficiently, more competitively, and in new ways. However, because the current recession is so much deeper than most of us have yet experienced, it calls for more profound introspection than in the past. We need to challenge our assumptions about our organizations, our markets, and how we deliver value. At the upcoming DiamondExchange, we will examine how and when to apply innovation to improve efficiency, fuel growth, and reinvent markets, learning from those who have done it successfully.

We will begin our journey with the inspiration of Dr. Robert Ballard, the explorer who discovered the Titanic in 1985 and numerous other shipwrecks. Dr. Ballard has pioneered innovative applications of technology in deep sea exploration, creating a whole new field of research in deep water archeology. He has also made it possible for students around the globe to participate in his explorations through satellite and Internet technologies, opening up a new world of insight and discovery previously available to only the few who venture so deep.

But with all the benefits technology offers, it only helps if it is applied to the right problem and in the right ways within an organization. During the 2004–2007 boom, 68% of the 400–plus publicly traded companies Diamond analyzed increased their costs faster than revenues. But cutting costs isn't easy. Our organizations have grown too complex to simply slash costs budget by budget, or function by function. Changes in one area will often cause cost spikes and capacity problems in other areas.

The only way to succeed is to rethink your business systemically–that is, to consider the business model, operations, technology platform, and organizational structures and incentives and how they all work together. Diamond Vice Chairman John Sviokla will share the results of Diamond's recent research, and what business leaders need to know about innovation–where to focus, how to apply it, and under what circumstances to ensure success.

We will also discuss cases of leading companies that have embraced innovation during the current downturn to run their organizations more efficiently, to grow their customer relationships, and to redefine themselves and their markets. Some of these stories will be brought to you by the executives that made them happen, others will be presented by the Diamond advisors who participated.

Technology is one of the ways many companies are looking to do more with less, but the key to whether any technology is successful or not resides at the human level. Dan Bricklin, a Diamond fellow, entrepreneur, and co–inventor of the spreadsheet and Wikicalc, has devoted his career to understanding the intricacies of how people actually use technology–whether intended or not. A collection of his blogs was recently published in his book, Bricklin on Technology. He will discuss how technology is created, how it is used, and how it evolves.

Increasingly, new product and service innovations come from the customer, so Diamond Fellow Andy Lippman, co–founder of the MIT Media Lab, will discuss how companies can use communities to fill the gaps that are created when large organizations try to innovate.

Many organizations currently find themselves inundated with too much data that they can't put to good use. Part of the reason is that we haven't figured out how to make the data immediately digestible. That is why on Tuesday morning, we will take the DiamondExchange offsite to the Calit2 facility at the University of California, San Diego, which is run by Diamond's newest Fellow, Dr. Larry Smarr. There we will see firsthand the data visualization and telepresence techniques developed by the institution leading the world in this field. Experiencing the impact of high–resolution, three–dimensional, and panoramic displays of data will give you an appreciation for the opportunities many of us are currently missing.

As always at the DiamondExchange, we strive to bring you ideas on the cusp of adoption so that you can prepare your organizations to capitalize on the future. You will come away from this session with a greater understanding of how and where to innovate, given the structure and state of your organization today. This understanding will help you "place your bets" on those initiatives that are most likely to succeed. You will witness cost–effective, proven technologies that are in use today, but haven't been broadly adopted, creating opportunity for those who learn how to take advantage of them. At the end of the DiamondExchange, you will have had numerous formal and informal conversations with people experienced in the very things you are trying to accomplish at your company. We hope you can join us, and we're confident you will be inspired and reenergized, seeing the opportunities and the channel to smoother waters.

Look for more information in the following weeks. Questions? Please call Talia Weidberg at (312) 268-3140.