Comments on: Low-Tech, High Impact Innovation

By: A New American Competitiveness, Fueled by Relative Innovation « Quality and Innovation

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 14:46:04 +0000

[...] requires a capital investment, but will focus less on the basic R&D issues and more on the issue of appropriate technology, even within the host [...]

By: Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog » Management Improvement Carnival #47

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:30:48 +0000

[...] Low-Tech, High Impact Innovation by Nicole Radziwill – “Adopting the perspective of ‘appropriate technology’ is an excellent way to promote and increase innovation. Your solutions don’t have to be high tech, they just have to provide wide benefits” [...]

By: John Hunter

John Hunter — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 15:45:00 +0000

Great post. Often the failure to adopt appropriate technology solutions results from 3 things. One, failing to understand the conditions where the solution will be applied. So failing to “go and see” in lean manufacturing terms. And the second, often very related, is short term thinking. The failure to see the challenges in maintenance. Appropriate technology solutions are often very simple, less sensitive (less moving parts to break…) and more easily repairable. Third, a common desire to use the cool new gadget and idea.

Thinking about why appropriate technology is so effective but underutilized can help anyone improve the solutions they adopt. I would especially encourage people to stop looking for the newest management book and actually read and adopt and re-read and adopt and re-reread and adopt the excellent books from the last 50 years. Stop chasing some new shiny thing and adopt solutions that are effective even if they seem boring.

I think people believe they can’t get ahead by adopting ideas that have been published in books for decades. This is a colossal mistake. Most of the ideas of Deming, McGreggor, Ohno, Ackoff, Scholtes, Christensen… are not used by you or your competitors. Just read their stuff and adopt their ideas and you will be far ahead of most everyone else.

There is plenty of decent new stuff but hardly any that provides anything you don’t get from those writing decades ago. Some of Clayton Christensen’s work is actually significantly new, but in general you miss very little if you ignored all the trendy stuff and stick with the classics.

By: Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog » Appropriate Management

Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog » Appropriate Management — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 15:44:41 +0000

[...] Low-Tech, High Impact Innovation Adopting the perspective of “appropriate technology” is an excellent way to promote and increase innovation. Your solutions don’t have to be high tech, they just have to provide wide benefits – and taking this sometimes counterintuitive approach can be enlightening. [...]