Quickthink

So is Android just another geeky toy that will never make money? According to TechCrunch, Steve Ballmer thinks so.  Well, we might expect Steve to say and think this. But does he have a point?

I think it is an important argument that will be settled pretty soon. If Ballmer is wrong, Google will prove that its strategic thinking in product development leaves Microsoft (and others) in the dust. Google wants to make money by facilitating innovation —- rather than by hording key components of widely used products. Interesting.

This got me thinking about what kinds of institutional models we use to speed up and sustain innovation. It’s a problem that I will discuss with the Kosovo Judicial Institute next week in Strasbourg — and I am concerned. In a transition setting sustaining innovation is critical. But how do we do it?

So far, we generally rely on (1) a university style approach — extracting knowledge from experts, (2) an advocacy based approach —- funding NGO’s to advocate for change, and (3) a law based approach —- trying to block corruption, monopoly and other bad practices. There are problems with each of these approaches, and I think we need to discuss a new model.  

We might look at what Amory Lovins has done at Rocky Mountain Institute  Amory calls RMI a “think and do” tank — I like that. RMI splits its time between consulting and research on how to innovate for energy efficiency. And by the way, it was the model we started out with here in Estonia in promoting legal reform.

FOLLOW - Interesting chit chat at Giga on Ballmer’s comments — generally agreeing that he is full of BS.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 11:00 pm and is filed under Business models, Legal Reform, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.