GLOBELICS for Inclusive Development and Innovation for the Poor 262.0
The 8th GLOBELICS jumped right into its first order of business in the plenary and in Track 1 of the parallel sessions, “Innovation for the Poor [and Inclusive Development].” This after doing the right first thing in the memorial to Christopher Freeman. The highlight in the Innovation for the Poor track was the special panel [...]
Christopher Freeman Endows Respect for Persons and Love of Humanity 261.0
The world’s leading evolutionary economists met at the 8th GLOBELICS conference from November 1 – 3 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. To me, the finest quality of the group is the strong sense of community among themselves that reflects outward into a view of the world highlighted in the best way by the conference theme: Making [...]
8th GLOBELICS – Making Innovation Work for Society 257.0
Through SYNTHESiST, my work to enrich the conversation on innovation systems and change management in emerging markets like the Philippines gets me to meet interesting people – scholars who move their worlds with knowledge work. In two weeks, I will attend my first GLOBELICS, the 8th Global Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence [...]
Beyond Productivity – Competitiveness or Innovation? 245.0
In a telephone conversation, a dear friend gave a reaction to the series of posts that SYNTHESiST had on productivity – on Frederick Taylor, Six Sigma, Paul Krugman on competitiveness and McKinsey and design thinking. She mentions that they have moved beyond productivity to competitiveness as the higher goal. This post integrates my views on [...]
IDEO Design Thinking Breaks the Productivity Frontier 242.0
Consultants’ advice on productivity improvement, as branded management products, evolve from new insights found in social science research and in empirical practice. IDEO’s Design Thinking is one such clear and late stage innovation in the business’s search for continuous productivity improvement. Design Thinking’s success and arrival in the Philippines is evidenced by entry into local [...]
Six Sigma Raises Productivity to the Effective Limit 241.0
The productivity surge in American business from 1980 through 2000 was driven by innovations like Six Sigma. Motorola first innovated on Six Sigma in the late 1980s as a method to manage process variations for quality improvement in manufacturing that, linked with business strategy, ultimately yielded improved productivity in the whole business. In the 1990s. [...]
Incentives or Industrial Policy for Economic Growth? 240.0
William Easterly criticized his fellow economists in international financial institutions for failing poor countries in their elusive quest for growth in his ‘hard-nosed’ (Solow) and ‘original’ (The Economist) 2001 book. In the Preface to this edition (2002), he writes “the World Bank encourages gadflies like me to find another job.” He had to move on [...]
Looking for a Better Way – to Eat Tacos 239.0
I love the tacos at Pancake House. I take two at a time with whatever I order. Sitting before my usual yesterday, I wondered if there is a better way to eat it without scattering cheese bits all over my plate. IE classmates, if you know a better way, please share by return email. I [...]
Learning from China and Indigenous Innovation 224.0
In China, they have a saying, “one cannot step into the same river twice.” Lu Qiwen first wrote about the China brand of national innovation systems, Indigenous Innovation, in China’s Leap into the Information Age: Innovation and Organization in the Computer Industry (Oxford, 2000). It seems, that the mode of national innovation system as described [...]
Learning from the National Innovation Systems of Emerging Japan 1/2
As with China now, emerging market Japan was accused of using an undervalued currency to build an export machine. Indeed, they may have dragged increasing the value of their currency to maximize yen returns until it became untenable for the country. Still, there were other explanations for their success that involved social innovation systems like [...]
Learning from the National Innovation Systems of South Korea 213.0
Filipino progressives would love to emulate the strong state approach of Korea to attain industrialization. Alice Amsden, a heterodox economist, wrote Asia’s Next Giant, South Korea and Late Industrialization in 1989, the same year as the fall of the Berlin wall, and described the successful Korean breakout experience to developed country status. Agreeing with some [...]
Change Management in Computerization as Case for Innovation Systems 208.0
Implementing computerization follows the global innovation S-curve The Philippines recent experience with implementing automated elections proves a similar climb up the S-curve with some path creation as with the experience in the United States. The productivity benefits of the personal computer that was introduced in the late 1970s and diffused quickly since then only showed [...]
