Intensive Learning-by-Doing in the Agribusiness of Coffee – 1 of 2
Intensive learning is the best innovation catch-up strategy for the Philippines (See Post #87 for more on intensive learning.). Nestle’s Robusta coffee is an opportunity where intensive learning will yield huge benefits in total factor productivity. Nestle used Scan-Adapt-Diffuse as the technique to find the appropriate technology in Robusta coffee for an emerging market like [...]
Research and Technology Organizations in National Innovation Systems – 5 of 5
Research and technology organizations (RTOs) are government-sponsored organizations, like the DOST in the Philippines, dedicated to implementing national science and technology policies in line with a government’s development goals. Note: This is our fifth and last post on the 6th ASIALICS held in HKUST on July 6-7 (Posts 80, 81, 82, 86 and 87).
Universities in National Innovation Systems – 4 of 5
National Innovation Systems (NIS) generally have three parts: Firms (industry), Universities (academe) and the Government (RTO). Depending on the political economy traditions of each country, their roles are set up differently. The Philippines needs to path-create a custom-made NIS to find its way out towards strong growth.
Capturing and Codifyng Knowledge is Key to Incremental Innovation – 2 of 2
The practice of innovation in the Philippines is dictated by the reality that the bulk of the market lies at the bottom of a pyramid. Cost reduction is very often the main goal of innovation. Even when no basic research is conducted, my experience as an innovation practitioner is that the value of learnings from [...]
Living for Innovation and for Continuous Learning – 1 of 2
In the Philippines, hardly any basic research is being done that gets to commercialization. Much research is adaptive in nature followed by product development in response to realities in the market. My professional life was mainly in the area of technology scanning, adapting and diffusing in the private sector.
Domestic Scan-Adapt-Diffuse Yields Laing for the World – 3 of 3
Delivering laing to Filipinos, in cans or in pouches, all over the world and all through the year is a difficult challenge to Scan-Adapt-and-Diffuse (from Post 68) for new combinations of otherwise mature technologies. In an ideal world, food factories would like to get the exact quantity of raw materials for processing every working day [...]
Technology Scan-Adapt-Diffuse Yields Opportunities from Sugar Replacement – 2 of 3
(Start of Part 2 of 3) Sugar replacement is an opportunity created by lifestyle, health and demographic changes. Yet to gain the benefit from this opportunity is not as easy as taking sugar out and replacing it with any sweetener. A lot of science (and art, too) in adaptive research is needed to Scan-Adapt-and-Diffuse (from [...]
Appropriate Technology from Scan-Adapt-Diffuse – 1 of 3
Innovation through Scan-Adapt-Diffuse is appropriate for emerging markets “Making Filipinos wealthier and the country stronger” has been my mantra in this blog. Being an industrial engineer with a passion for economics, I do not present this statement in terms of aggregates – like a typical economist – but in specific and practical terms. Update on [...]
PIMCO Leads in Fixed Income Via Innovative Knowledge Research – 2 of 2
An Alpha Team. For his team, Bill Gross, specifies three characteristics: street smarts, rigorous training in economics, and a command of finance mathematics. Mohammad El-Erian, PIMCO’s current CEO, in his bestselling book “When Markets Collide,” defines street smarts as the ability to cut through the noise in the market place and capture the true signals [...]
IDEO and Design Thinking 58.0
Doing market research and rapid protyping at the same time develops great products fast IDEO is the key proponent of Design Thinking. Tim Brown, its CEO, wrote in a June 2008 Harvard Business Review article (IDEO.pdf) that Design Thinking is “a methodology that imbues the full spectrum of innovation activities with a human-centered design ethos.” [...]
Opportunity from Regulatory Change with Potassium Bromate – 1 of 2
A change in regulation in the food industry is a particularly rich source of opportunity. This source can be very important in the Philippine context depending on how it resets the technology basis for ingredients in its industry. The ban on the use of potassium bromate required new ingredients and changes on the bakery floor [...]
Lundvall and Dynamic STI- and DUI-Learning Interactions for National Innovation Systems 17.0
Note: This post has been re-written in a more accessible and longer style. Please click here for link to Post 154, the better version. I asked Professor Bengkt-Ake Lundvall for a copy of his out-of-print 1992 book. Instead, he pointed me here to the 2007 “post script.” I thank him heartily. Professor Lundvall was with [...]
