|
 |
Thursday, December 4, 2003 |
Kevin Marks: Commodities are a good thing
First he quotes Doc:
> The stupidest conceit of the software business is that commodities are bad.
> If it weren't for commodities, we wouldn't have civilization. Or food.
> There's
plenty of money to be made in - and on (or choose any other
preposition) -
> commodities. You just have to think smart about the
stupid stuff. Is it that hard?
Then he comments: Commodities are great -
to paraphrase something Clayton Christensen said - once your business
has become commoditized it is simple enough that you can hire some MBAs
to run it for you.
Turns out it's not all about
innovation. To paraphrase the real estate conceit: "Execution,
execution, execution." The elusive combination of doing the right
things, and doing things right.
5:09:40 PM 
|
|
MBDC: Cradle to Cradle Design. MBDC
is articulating and putting into practice a new design paradigm; what
Time calls 'a unified philosophy that -- in demonstrable and practical
ways -- is changing the design of the world.' Instead of designing
cradle-to-grave products, dumped in landfills at the end of their
'life,' MBDC transforms industry by creating products for
cradle-to-cradle cycles, whose materials are perpetually circulated in
closed loops. Maintaining materials in closed loops maximizes material
value without damaging ecosystems. [xBlog: The visual thinking weblog | XPLANE]
More and more people (including us) are playing in this conceptual sandbox -- because it just makes so much sense.
(As I wrote in 1991: "Nature's ecosystems
have nearly four billion years experience developing efficient, adaptive, resilient, sustainable
systems -- to identify and guide strategy, assessment,
design and information services that build profit,
competitive advantage and quality of life through
exceptional environmental performance. Why reinvent the wheel, when the R & D --
for companies, communities, buildings and land use -- has
already been done?")
McDonough-Braungart does it with particularly great style.
2:55:16 PM
|
|
Disappearing ink to boost paper recycling [New Scientist]: Toshiba's erasable ink can be used in ordinary laser jet printers and
pens. A printed sheet is wiped clean by passing it through an erasing
machine. The "decolourable" ink, which has been tinted blue to help
distinguish it from ordinary, non-erasable, ink, has been named
"e-blue".
Downside, for the moment: pricey "erasing machine," and 2 hours to
erase 200 pages. But both those downsides should be only temporary.
2:39:42 PM
|
|
© Copyright 2006 Gil Friend.
|
|
|
