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HP's CTO Gives Keynote on Blended Reality

Posted by on 12 May 2016
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Keynote for FEI 16
Blended Reality: Riding the
Waves of Innovation
Shane Wall, CTO, HP
'Innovation
is culture,' says Wall to start the keynote in high gear.
The
way you get insight is to understand culture, he suggests, is to look at
societal change. Not technology.
At
HP labs they are charged with 'What's the future? Where are we going? We don't
look at technology, we look at society'we look 30 years into the future, into
megatrends, such as rapid urbanization, changing demographics, hyper globalizations,
accelerated innovation.'
Think
about changing demographics. It will be a different world when most of the
people on earth are over 50 years old. Most marketing will go after the silver
spenders.
The
HP vision is called Blended Reality: the intersection of physical life with
digital life. The key is to do it seamlessly. How does it all integrate? It is
happening already. Look at medicine'take a diabetic, for example, how insulin
pumps work.
First
example of a dimension of Blended Reality trend is Hyper Mobility. Today we think of phones and tablets'things we look
at no less than 137 times a day. But, what happens when wearables measure and
predict and even fix issues? The day is coming soon.
The
second one is 3D Transformation. 'This
is nothing less than the next industrial revolution. Consumer will be able to
configure everything. Tax laws and regulations will change. Supply chains will
change. Manufacturing will change.'
The
last one is the Internet of All Things.
This is a bigger idea than Internet of Things. Here, every single thing can be
connected, even without technology. You can embed patterns and encoded. 'Products
and packaging can be encoded with patterns that can be read, allowing all types
of tracking.'
So,
how does HP do innovation? They say that 'innovation is culture.' It goes back to the company's roots as a garage-based start up. It's native to their story. From
this simple garage silicon valley was born.
Here's
an example of HP's innovation definition. The word, Jugaad. It's a Punjab word meaning innovative fix. The idea is that you have no money but you seek
inventive, adaptive intelligence. You see it in India everyday. This is when
you don't have a showerhead, so you take a bottle and poke holes in it and affix
it to a hose to create a shower.
You
must capture this spirit. You can't reward it with money and praise. 'Rather,
leadership at HP embraces change. We work to highlight innovation across the
company these ways:
1. Prepare yourself to
recognize new opportunities and act on them, even if they don't fit your
existing business model
2. Communicate a clear vision,
direction'and communicate the vision of where you are going often. Do not let
process get in the way of the destination.
3. Empower everyone to make
decisions
'and celebrate decision making loudly.
4. Suspend judgment'this is
really critical. Stomp out naysayers. The best ideas often come from people who
never heard 'we tried that already. We don't do that, etc.''
Michael Graber is the
managing partner of the Southern Growth Studio, an innovation and strategic
growth firm based in Memphis, TN and the author of Going Electric. Visit
www.southerngrowthstudio.com to learn more.
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