Perspective 2.0

Essence encapsulated 2010

Holistic solutions for the collective future will require a multidisciplinary approach and a flexible mindset. One that is open to new ways of making, doing, creating. One that is willing to seek solutions from any and all sources, allowing for the give and take of knowledge. One that will look for solutions that can address the needs of people and the planet not simply the profits that are crucial to every business. ~ Design for an Emerging World, July 2007, written for the Torino World Design Capital 2008 website

Reflecting on the workshop and Aalto's Design Factory

Fairytales of winterland and frost aside, the experience of pulling together the day long workshop at the Aalto Design Factory (although the event actually took place next door at the Venture Park due to space constraints) was a lesson in co-creation, cooperation and collaboration and most of all, enthusiastic open sharing of ideas and knowledge.

In my previous incarnation as Director, Graduate Recruiting & Admissions at the Institute of Design, IIT Chicago, I had had enough opportunities to herd the cats required to pull everything from Open Houses to Registration Day or even RecruitID together, at the infrastructural level. We had systems and processes in place to enable outcomes. Every one had clear roles, duties and responsibilities.

Nothing of that sort exists at the DF. Is this a good thing or a bad thing, I don't know, but here's what I saw. It is true that its chaotic here and few systems or checks and balances exist but everyone knows how to pitch in and make something happen. Its the planning that's important. And communication.

I learnt that instead of creating unmanageable chaos on a deadline, the fuzziness allowed for smoother workflow. I found that everyone and anyone will do what is needed to be done at that moment, if they happen to be standing around ;p and the needs have been clearly defined, thereby ensuring energy flows are uninterrupted. Little effort was wasted in finding the person "whose job that was" at any given moment. Will this stay this way or will it change and evolve as the DF grows up? Should it?

This same quality of "lets make this happen" infused the venture cocreation exercises - I was very pleasantly surprised by the sensitivity and nuance of the output, it seemed as though the 40 odd people there had already been thinking deep thoughts about those at the bottom of the pyramid and their needs. The emphasis was on making sure that the ideas and concepts were relevant and appropriate to the needs of the people, with the attitude that we'd figure out how to make it a sustainable business after we got the systems designed. If indeed we can provide a "passion based co-creation platform" to enable innovation, then one can surely say this prototype works.

On Design's responsibility to our collective future

Reading Chris Blow's recent thoughts on the responsibility involved in the work he and all the codemeisters and hackers worldwide are doing in the name of Haiti, made me think about the importance of taking a moment to reflect before moving into action.

I think that what we have witnessed in terms of global cooperation and coordination among those with their heads in the cloud, so to speak, is no different than Google's attempt to extend their brand into the real world. Oh help, the Internet has run amok :p

Now, back to design and why did I think about the responsibility that Design has globally to start thinking seriously about their own as well as the world's collective future.

Its not enough to be cutting edge if the world is flat. You'll fall off without noticing. Allan Chochinov captures this essential blind spot in his short pointed essay on Adobe's Inspire site where he says that this year's design trends and focus have already come down predigested.

But is that what we want, or we see ourselves taking steps towards what Allan has said so well,

Indeed, the definitions of "best" (and, appropriately in this case, "good" design) have changed over the decade, embracing sustainability, accessibility, systems thinking, labor practices, and energy flows into the criteria that flesh things out beyond mere form and function. I'm all for that. But a whole decade's worth of the best examples?

Does this mean that a year after embracing all of this or talking about it for the past ten, we have nothing to show for the talk, the products are still based on dominant logics of consumption and individual ownership, underwritten by waste?

Liminal space = gray area?

I'm in a gray area here at the Aalto Design Factory, I'm a none of the above, my keycards tinted to suit my skin tone kind of terminally unique kind of gal. And we all hid our secret smiles as we said it.

That got me thinking.

What is a gray area and why do we all understand it so, regardless of language used?

I guess because seeing things "in black and white" is one of those values or traits that go across all of humanity's minor differences. I learnt some things helping a little two man startup figure out the back end of their bop service.

The commonalities that we hold are so much more than the differences, contextually speaking, and as far as online communication behaviour has been observed in both demographics. Us regular interwebs types and the bopmobweb types.

"How you doin'? What's the score? Lets go have a beer"

That is the sum total of humanity's conversations online. I keed, I keed but man, it feels that way sometimes. People! Here's a chance to improve your lives through this miracle of modern ICT and all you guys do is gossip. Meh, uplifting anyone is hard ;p Maybe enable should be a more positive word, using technology to enable____________ rather than replace.

Oh well, what do I know? I just came on here to say hello and wonder where and how this blog will evolve now onwards.

On Race

I have never written a single word, ever, in these past almost 5 years of blogging, on race. By all rights, there was a prebuilt platform, ready to use, minority abuse woman, oh wow, what would Oprah say?

Meh. Who needs that I sneered. And turned my back on the whole thing, in this case I firmly beleive that behaving like the ostrich is the best strategy one can take on one's way up the global bottom of the pyramid. If I chose not to acknowledge its existence and continued to plod on my steady way, I'd get somewhere faster than if I diverted my precious attention or energy down unfruitful paths. Show, don't tell, my grandfather would always say, and I still remember him after all these years.

He taught me how to bow my head to acknowledge teh higher power within us, for are we not all, he would say, but sparks of the infinite fire, children of the eternal bliss, to paraphrase some swami or the other.

We go far and wide, we find, but the tugs of our roots and childhood teachings remain. The best that we can do is be consciously aware of such situations, as I often am, among the BoP in India. It hurts me to stand there so

The BoP and technology - what next? Cocreation workshop, Helsinki January 26th 2010

Scott Smith of Changeist LLC and progenitor of the Some Observers blog will be in Helsinki next week to facilitate a workshop on emerging technologies and emerging customers, with a focus on the next 5 billion. Yours truly gets to interject, chime in and interrupt, albeit not that frequently, over the course of the day. Here's our invite to you,

Exploring the BoPNet: Developing Future Technology Solutions for the Next 5 Billion

Emerging consumer markets in developing countries, many whom fall into the so-called Bottom of the
Pyramid (BoP) category, represent much of the future of communications technologies and services we have come to rely on today as a driver of modern societies. Likewise, many observers say the future of
transportation is in inexpensive city cars for the growing megacities that house the BoP, and future health, environmental and education services we all use will be significantly defined by their needs.

The list goes on: more and more technologies will in future be used by, and shaped by, consumers who
today earn between 2 to 5 euros a day — but who are rapidly emerging as tomorrow’s primary consumer cultures.

To explore more deeply the interaction of trends driving the growth of the BoP, its convergence or
divergence from the developed world, and the shape of its future users’ needs, we have designed a unique one-day workshop that allows participants to interact with and shape possible future solutions for the BoP—products and services that suit its unique dynamics.

Content and structure
We will mix exploration with interactive team based exercises to probe deeper into the emerging BoP
technology ecosystem, which we are calling the BoPNet for now. We will focus on defining future users'
needs, system dynamics of the ecosystem, how technologies might evolve differently, and what new
strategies and partnerships might be appropriate in this world.

Benefits
• Learn more about the dynamics of the BoP, focusing on both the human side and its technology
behaviours.
• Opportunity to interact with visuals, trends and artifacts
• Use unique rapid ideation techniques to create future scenarios and user-centered solutions.
• Explore the implications and interactions of these scenarios.
• Help further define the dynamics of the BoPNet as they see it.
• Takeaway information and knowledge shared and co-created during the workshop that could be
applied to existing developed world technologies or solutions.

Who Should Attend
All those with an interest in innovative strategy, product development and design can test their own
assumptions, uncover new insights, and more deeply explore the needs and requirements of the fastest growing and most demanding consumer segment of the next 25 years: the next 5 billion customers.

Venue and Date
January 26th 2010 (Tuesday) at the Aalto Venture Park, Otaniemi (Betonimiehenkuja 3), Espoo.

Registration
Contact kalevi(dot)ekman(at) tkk.fi to register, free admission, first come first served, RSVP by 22.1.2010 – (only 13 spaces available)

Meaningful work, what is it and why?

I just discovered something. I don't know if it'll be heresy - to my own thoughts and perspective, as laid out in this many layered blog - but right after I realized it, I found myself wanting to blog it, so here I am, writing you as I used to do, back in the old days before I worried about a company and brand. For, as I was telling Matti Hamalainen, a friend and coworker who plowed through snow to come pick me up at the airport yesterday, there is a false difference between the person who goes to work (professional) and the life outside of it (personal). That may have been the case in the old days, back before those of us who today live in the cloud, with a - um - distributed global collaboration network - we had no choice but to go to an office and put in the old 9 to 5. Some jobs are just not made for that.

And I am blessed that I am so lucky as to be in one.

Anyway, back to my sudden 'aha' moment - I found that meaning is found, first and foremost, inside one's self. As have many, I sought meaning outside myself - particularly in my work. There was an invaluable first step right there, taking the conscious decision to align my choices with my values. That path led to this moment where i found, if that were so, then it would follow that anything now that i choose to do, must indeed align with my values, thus, freeing me from the need to think about it. It liberates me now to explore avenues and interest areas of work without that burden of feeling that I was somehow shortchanging the BoP. Come now, they don't know who I am and have enough cares to worry about already.

Who was it who said that ego makes for a bad master but an excellent slave?

A brand new day indeed.

Tell me your Story, your piece of what is Humanity?

2010: Pondering the future...

[Photo Credit: Meanest Indian]

Four years ago in first week of January 2006, I set myself the goal to give voice for the user at the very bottom of the social and economic pyramid, so that she too could be heard.

Having experienced the first gold rush into India's emerging market, with its attendant fiascos and the shifting tide of cookie cutter consumerism, someone, I thought, should look closer and deeper at understanding her, in the context of her own life and conditions, as a person, not just a dollar denominated demographic.

Today, she's one of the most visible people around even as we all scramble to figure out what she wants and needs, aspires and dreams so that we can find a better way to serve her.

She has found her voice, albeit a tad crackly with the static over the overloaded wireless network, so what need is there for me?

Even the question that I asked so many years ago,  "Where is the venture capital, the product development support and the marketing opportunity for the innovations that rise UP from the bottom?" has been answered by the stars...

Demanding savvy customers at the BoP

Probably the most successful global BoP consumer product today is the mobile phone and its attendant services. While there's fodder for a separate post to follow contained within that specific sentence, this one looks at the reasonably maturing market as a frame of reference by which to evaluate the last point made in the previous post about considering the BoP as your most demanding customers. Some snippets from the news before I summarize the lessons learned from observing those at the BoP up close and personally for a couple of years now.

From The Phnom Penh Post dated December 17th, 2009,

IT can't be easy being a mobile-phone operator in Cambodia, one of the world’s most competitive markets, with nine operators chasing just 14 million people. The Post tagged along last week on a sales push in the coastal resort town of Sihanoukville, where a vanload of chattering employees from Metfone took the trip from Phnom Penh to set up a sales kiosk in the coastal resort. The setup is a familiar one across the country, with bright advertising hoardings slung everywhere and music pouring from speakers to entice the locals in for a closer look.

Interest was strong, with price appearing to be a key consideration. The hottest sellers were low-end mobile phones retailing for US$14 and $17, as well as the firm’s $25 Methome device, which looks like a landline but runs off a mobile network. Many customers displayed intimate knowledge of tariffs and handset prices, quickly spotting any change from the last promotional visit. Though many sales seemed to hinge on these price points, most customers also seemed to have a solid grasp of comparative network quality. Many more had an eye to the future, looking for advanced products and 3G connectivity. Plenty for the customers to think about, and the operators, too. ~ JEREMY MULLINS

And coverage from the abs-cbn news from 20th December 2009 aptly titled "Getting to know the sophisticated prepaid user",

Prepaid subscribers currently account for more than 95% of mobile phone users in the country (The Philippines). (They) may usually belong to the low-income segment of the market, but they are actually very sophisticated, according to Globe Telecom Inc. CEO Ernest Cu. With the wealth of bucket-priced offerings at their reach, he said these users have learned to shop for the cheapest call and text promos, posing a challenge to profit-seeking telecommunications firms.

And why just rely on remote news articles, recall my rental car driver in New Delhi firmly dismissing the much advertised telco 'price wars' offering him prepaid plans at just one paisa a minute by saying he had a plan which cost only 50p a minute, thus saving him 10 whole paise.

What we're increasingly beginning to see is that regardless of varying levels of education or numeracy, language or culture, urban or rural or Asian or African, the BoP customer is savvy, demanding and an extremely sophisticated financial analyst in a manner that most of us - dazed by the clever pricing strategies in supermarkets - can only dream of being in our everyday lives.

Summarizing the observations made on the buying behaviour of this demographic, we can say that they tend to:

• Maximise the return on their investment (every purchase is considered such)

and

• Minimize their risk by
  
  • Choosing reputable and/or proven brands
  • Relying on a number of trusted recommendations and other's experiences
  • Waiting to purchase until proof of performance and commitment is demonstrated