Yesterday, I saw several rail cars of Skodas coming into Germany. Today at the Prague Palace, I saw the Czech Presidential motorcade with the much nicer Skoda Superb. Helped by VW ownership starting in 1991, Skoda has been regaining the luster it lost during the Communist era. In many ways that was a dark period for a country that has influenced so much of Western civilization via the Roman Empire, the Hapsburg Monarchy and more.
Foxconn, famous for making most Apple products in China, has a couple of factories here. GE makes some its smaller aircraft engines here. It is a major European shared services/BPO center where Accenture, GenPact and others have major staffing. BTL, based here, is a major medical equipment supplier around the world. Czech glass and ceramics are used in a number of technology fields. Panasonic, for example, has made millions of its LCD panels here. With a historically strong coal and metallurgy industry, Czech continues to be a major player in traditional and renewable energy areas.
Walking around Prague you get a sense for its glorious history. Taking the two and a half minute long escalator ride at the Náměstí Míru underground station near my hotel, you have to be impressed with the continued engineering prowess of the country.
Btw every cafe, restaurant in Prague has free wifi - pretty wired city
FastCompany has a gallery of innovative stars including
- Tom Hanks created and starred in an ambitious animated postapocalyptic noir called Electric City, releasing it on Yahoo and as an app that enhanced its graphic-novelesque vibe
- One of the most popular celebrities across Facebook, Twitter, and the like, Lady Gaga launched LittleMonsters last year to better own the relationship with her fans.
- Steve Martin has published his best tweets as a book and his love of the banjo to a Spotify bluegrass app (photo of his album)
- As much an angel investor as an actor these days, Ashton Kutcher has stakes in Fab, Fancy, Dwolla, and Zaarly
- Jennifer Aniston negotiated an equity stake and a role in the promising hair-care startup Living Proof in exchange for her first U.S. hair-care endorsement.
- Jay-Z's Life+Times channel, featuring daily videos about the art, culture, fashion, music, and sports
I spent a few days in Germany this week (my first trip there in 3 years) and I was struck at the superb infrastructure in most aspects of the trip
a) Frankfurt Airport
No wait in the non-EU passport arrivals line. The immigration officer asked me just one question “How long will you stay?” and with a smile said “there’s the first stamp on your new passport”. Over the decades I have transited through this airport at least 50 times, and when I compare it to other international hubs like JKF, CDG and LHR I am struck by how efficient FRA continues to be even as the number of wide bodies – 747s, A 340s and now A380s keeps expanding.
b) Frankfurt Marriott
I last stayed here 15 years ago. It has been extensively refurbished with a sculptural roof with fascinating design concepts
“The flying reticulated shell, created from an inverted tree growth algorithm, is supported on the supports of the underground garage. The tree-like mesh was statically optimized with a Finite Element Analysis method to arrived at a minimal deployment of steel. The result was doubly curved surfaces, which depict the distribution of forces of the structural framework. A unity of form and structure.”
The rooms have gone through similar renewal. My room had the Gerloff Magic Shower with mood lighting, music, temperature and other electronic controls
The wifi in hotel room was 20 mbps down and 4 mbps up according to Speedtest.Net – impressive for a complimentary service in a hotel. My back up dumb Nokia phone with an O2 SIM picked up a signal through most parts of Germany.
c) Taxis and Autobahn
The taxi service I used this week had mostly Mercedes E class station wagons.
Spotlessly clean, they had panoramic sun roofs, impressive navigation, communication apps, seat ergonomics, and Parktronic technology. One of the drivers gave me a taste for the Autobahn as he took the speed up to 200 kph (125 mph). He told me he goes up 240 kph in his personal BMW. Others on the trip told me about Mercedes lane assist and other features and BMW’s ConnectedDrive where the car is really a moving smartphone. The road and the auto technology has to be some of the best in the world.
d) Trains
To check out how the East has evolved (I was in East Berlin in 1988 just before the Wall fell) I took an ICE train to Dresden, on my way to Prague.
The platform and track infrastructure and other tech made me wish I had more than more a few minutes at the Frankfurt Main station. The ease with which two trains coupled to become our extended train is impressive – see video below.
Our train left just 6 minutes late and yet the driver apologized and blamed the inbound train we had just coupled with! Many Germans grumble Deutsche Bahn has gone to hell. A gentleman who sat next to me described how even a few minutes delay means missed connections and loss of reserved seats. He said it is happening too frequently.
I, for one, enjoyed my reserved seat with nice recline, power outlet and audio entertainment in the smoke free, quiet (cellphone free) section.
DB has plenty of other tech as with QR codes for its schedules
The DB conductor carries plenty of tech – like a scanner for electronic tickets
e) Eastern Germany renewal
An impressive example of the infrastructure renewal is the in city of Dresden. Leveled during WW II, it languished during the Communist period, and has been gradually restored in the last two decades as with the dome of the main station. The E. German countryside was dotted with wind turbines from the train.
Many Germans I spoke to think the infrastructure has actually deteriorated as more investment went post-reunification into upgrading the Eastern part. Tough for me to fathom how it could be much better.
As in so many other industries, brick and mortar does not die, it evolves. Here are some activities Chase is rolling out in some of its branches
Kiosks In additional to all the typical ATM functions, the kiosks can cash checks and dispense cash in multiple denominations.
Paperless tellers Customers don’t have to fill paper slips to complete certain
transactions and the devices offer a platform to verify customers’
identities.
Instant debit cards With new machines that can create debit cards on the spot, Chase can
empower customers to make card purchases as soon as they leave the
branch.
Video-conferencing with off-site bank specialists who can sell various
products and services or serve customers who speak other languages.
I spent the week in Germany as a guest of Karl-Heinz Streibich, CEO of Software AG at their pretty campus in Darmstdat, where the Blauregen blooms peek in and want to join your meetings.
He has asked me to help on his book idea. It’s about how enterprises in every industry can learn from “digital natives” like Apple and Google. The book will catalog more than 15 transformational opportunity areas of becoming a Digital Enterprise. Each will be supported with executive guest columns from some of the best known personalities and brands in the world, and number of use cases across industries and geographies.
Karl-Heinz has an amazing rolodex both in his wide customer base and with other technology thought leaders around the world, and many are participating in the project. In the last few weeks I have talked to customer executives and thought leaders around the world about next-gen factories with agile, individualized mass production and augmented reality worker training, advanced analytics in fraud detection, Big Data generated from the Internet of Things, social marketing, Machine to Machine, Digital Government and several other cutting edge projects.
When I was initially approached about the project, I was puzzled given it is the company long known for products like Adabas, WebMethods and Aris.
Why approach an innovation author like me?
As I researched the company, I found it had diversified with in-memory and application scalability products from Terracotta, Cloud Platform products from Long Jump, mobile enabling tech from Metismo and others. More impressively I found the AG executives extremely articulate about both business and technology futures. But the real bonus is coming from its global, blue chip customer list representing their classic and new portfolio
As with previous books I will excerpt sections on my blog as the book approaches publication. In the meantime it is going to be an invigorating summer of research and interviews.
Like a supersize version of CNN’s Magic Wall, Bluescape displays a unified image across 15 linked 55-inch flat-screen monitors, each equipped with 32 specialized sensors to read users’ hand movements. Unlike whiteboards or flip charts, it won’t require much erasing or page turning: When zoomed out as far as possible, the digital board’s virtual space totals 160 acres. Using Bluescape, corporate and university clients can store often scattershot brainstorming sessions in perpetuity. Co-workers or classmates can add digital sticky notes, either with a digital pen on the wall itself or by uploading documents from other devices, from which they can also browse the virtual space.
I find myself in Germany. To add to that reminder, my friend Michael Krigsman’s poignant photo is a good reminder of the sacrifices our brave men and women continue to make around the world.
Usually on Memorial Day weekend I post some new technology being introduced at the Indy 500. Oh, there’s plenty again this year, but this year, the latest in the Fast and Furious series also is out.
While Indy is a closed track, the action in Furious is in the clogged streets of London, Moscow and Tokyo. Makes it even more breathtaking. Margaret sat through all the credits at the end, just to get a glimpse at the names of all the stunt drivers the movie uses.
To me, the opportunity to listen to We Own it was more of a reason to sit till the end
Time (sub required) on the revived show whose new season streams starting today
"In a real way, it's not just Arrested Development that's being rebooted
here; it's the entire TV business. Netflix, which earlier this year
premiered the Kevin Spacey political drama House of Cards (at a reported
production cost of $100 million for two seasons), is betting big on a
future in which original TV comes through the Internet, via computers,
set-top boxes or sundry iThingies. When Arrested was canceled, it was a
blip in network-TV history. But the revived version could be the biggest
thing in whatever TV is about to become.
One advantage of streaming is the data. "We track viewing to the
second," says Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos. "We know who's
watching, how many episodes you're watching, what devices you're
watching on, how long your viewing sessions are." All that data,
Sarandos says, was telling them that whereas most canceled cult shows
maintain a small, diehard fan base, Arrested Development's was getting
bigger."
And the impact on production
"So Hurwitz (who co-directed every episode of the new season with Troy
Miller) shot scenes like jigsaw pieces, depending on who was available.
Hurwitz recalls, "Some days our call sheet would say Episode 406, 408,
409, 412 and 401. Bateman, whose straight-arrow,
white-sheep-of-the-family Michael Bluth appears in every new episode,
worked out a front-loaded schedule to shoot all his scenes before
leaving in late October to direct his first movie."
My next book project
I spent the week in Germany as a guest of Karl-Heinz Streibich, CEO of Software AG at their pretty campus in Darmstdat, where the Blauregen blooms peek in and want to join your meetings.
He has asked me to help on his book idea. It’s about how enterprises in every industry can learn from “digital natives” like Apple and Google. The book will catalog more than 15 transformational opportunity areas of becoming a Digital Enterprise. Each will be supported with executive guest columns from some of the best known personalities and brands in the world, and number of use cases across industries and geographies.
Karl-Heinz has an amazing rolodex both in his wide customer base and with other technology thought leaders around the world, and many are participating in the project. In the last few weeks I have talked to customer executives and thought leaders around the world about next-gen factories with agile, individualized mass production and augmented reality worker training, advanced analytics in fraud detection, Big Data generated from the Internet of Things, social marketing, Machine to Machine, Digital Government and several other cutting edge projects.
When I was initially approached about the project, I was puzzled given it is the company long known for products like Adabas, WebMethods and Aris.
Why approach an innovation author like me?
As I researched the company, I found it had diversified with in-memory and application scalability products from Terracotta, Cloud Platform products from Long Jump, mobile enabling tech from Metismo and others. More impressively I found the AG executives extremely articulate about both business and technology futures. But the real bonus is coming from its global, blue chip customer list representing their classic and new portfolio
As with previous books I will excerpt sections on my blog as the book approaches publication. In the meantime it is going to be an invigorating summer of research and interviews.
May 29, 2013 in Industry Commentary | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)