Scan Monthly No. 021November 2004 |
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Signals of Change
Mainstreaming the Mind-Body Connection
SoC077
The growing social, professional, and scientific acceptance of the connection between physiological health and mental processes is creating the opportunity to rethink traditional health care and a wide variety of products and services. Researchers are discovering evidence that corroborates the mind-body link even at the molecular level, and the public is increasingly open to integrating mental and emotional dimensions into their health-care regimens.
Google Identities
SoC078
The amount of personal information available on the Web and the thoroughness with which search engines are indexing it are both expanding exponentially. As governments and corporations continue to digitize records of all kinds and provide Internet access, such information becomes incredibly easy to access. Sometimes information not for public consumption winds up as the first item in a list of search results. Details about divorce proceedings, intimate instantmessaging communications, corporate salaries, and specifics about job-related disciplinary actions have all turned up in Web search-engine results. Proactively protecting employee and corporate data from inappropriate indexing has become a priority for many companies.
Selling One-on-One in China
SoC079
Direct marketers are making notable progress in leveraging the cultural fit of a social-contagion sales model in China. Direct marketing techniques tap into the guanxi wang or network of connections that is central to Chinese society. Ultimately, the network and its dynamic effects are more important for business success than the products the companies are marketing. Companies such as Amway, Avon Products, Mary Kay, and Nu Skin are bracing for considerable growth in China following a relaxing of the country's restrictive regulations on direct marketing.
The IP Industry?
SoC080
Nathan Myhrvold, former chief technologist at Microsoft, believes that he has discovered the industry that will grow as fast during the next quarter century as the software industry has grown in the past quarter century. Myhrvold boldly states that "intellectual property is the next software." But even Myhrvold appears uncertain about exactly how the IP industry is going to shape up. Overly broad patents, emerging fluid open-source copyright conventions, and new forms of flagrant patent and IP violations in Asia make for a very confusing choice of business models. All of them involve lots of lawyers.
Insights
| Commercialization: From Idea to Implementation | View summary |
| D04-2494 | Download this Insight |
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All businesses desire to grow, and a key to growth is the commercialization of new products and services. In SRI Consulting Business Intelligence's (SRIC-BI's) work with clients to discover new business opportunities and develop implementation plans, we use a process that goes all the way from idea generation to the initiation of commercial businesses. This study outlines the SRIC-BI approach to commercialization and includes descriptions of the key ingredients of a successful commercialization. It also describes how the SRIC-BI methodology deals with the idea-generation process, the opportunity-discovery process (including factors involving both markets and technologies), opportunity-comparison and -selection processes, and commercialization-management issues. Authors: John Bomben, David Button. 18 pages. |
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| Peer-to-Peer Applications Move Aboveground | View summary |
| D04-2495 | Download this Insight |
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New U.S. court decisions that have refused to find P2P (peer-to-peer) software companies liable for copyright infringement that others conducted with their products have provided technology companies with more freedom of movement in respect to P2P. At the same time, a wide range of new P2P applications—from voice over Internet protocol to search engines—are emerging and may fulfill the original promise of P2P. Underground P2P file-sharing applications are not going away anytime soon and will continue to be a thorn in the side of major media companies. However, new P2P technology that allows the sharing of very large files may point the way to a new legal-distribution paradigm for entertainment content. The opportunity exists today for new legal digital-distribution models that take advantage of improvements in P2P technology and the realization that the protracted legal war between media companies and illegal file sharers is a war of attrition that will never result in a clear winner. Author: Thomas M. McKenna. 7 pages. |
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| Exploring Mass Customization in Medicine | View summary |
| D04-2496 | Download this Insight |
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A disadvantage of a business model that attempts to provide personalized products is that the model loses the benefits of mass production, so that the resulting cost of the product is too high to appeal to mass markets. Mass customization, on the other hand, is an attempt to capture the strengths and benefits of mass production (by providing at least some economies of scale) and of customization (by better meeting the needs of specific customers). The pharmaceutical industry is actively exploring the practicality and nature of mass-customization processes. Nowhere has the advancement of the concept of customized medicine been more evident than in the field of cancer diagnosis and treatment. Cancer treatment is likely to benefit greatly from the approach of combining a diagnostic with a therapeutic. To date, Herceptin from Genentech and Gleevec from Novartis are among a handful of market-approved drugs that demonstrate the underlying principle that researchers can successfully stratify cancer patients for treatment purposes according to individual genetic profiles. This study examines the progress that the pharmaceutical industry is making in developing mass-customization approaches. Author: Andrew Broderick. 12 pages. |
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| New Directions for Corporate R&D | View summary |
| D04-2497 | Download this Insight |
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The old models of corporate research and innovation aren't working anymore. Despite spending huge sums on corporate R&D, many companies are nonetheless blindsided by smaller competitors bringing new and often disruptive approaches to market. Often these new entrepreneurial companies are funded by venture capitalists that have the resources to set up the best researchers in independent, highly focused, companies. In response, the role of corporate R&D laboratories— traditional source of internal innovation—is changing fundamentally. Companies are focusing more on shorter-term applied research in their direct activities. At the same time, they are also casting a wider net to seek out new ideas and beneficial collaborations continuously with researchers outside the organization. This study looks at some of the issues and choices facing companies today and at some of their responses. Authors: Susan Leiby, David Button. 6 pages. |
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Calendar
Scan™ Abstract Meetings
Scan abstract meetings (in which SRIC-BI [now SBI] staff participate in a free-form discussion of current Scan abstracts) are open for client observation/participation on:
- 26 January 2005 at 9:00 am
- 23 March 2005 at 9:00 am
- 18 May 2005 at 9:00 am
- 20 July 2005 at 9:00 am
- 21 September 2005 at 9:00 am
- 19 October 2005 at 9:00 am.
Watch List
The Scan program's scanning and research processes identify areas on the periphery of your organizations's focus that constitute potential opportunities or threats. The areas that we decide bear watching go on Scan's watch list of defining forces that are transforming the business environment. Current watch-list topics include:
