Sneak Review: Cloud Surfing May 16, 2012
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Books, Business, Cloud, Innovation.Tags: amazon, book review, cloud surfing, Ideafarms, innovation 2.0, Tom Koulopoulos
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THE FUTURE AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE. – Yogi Berra
The fact that I have the opportunity of reviewing Cloud Surfing before its launch sitting halfway across the world in India, hints at Tom’s having already made a round trip to the future. Everything in the future is about connections — Machine-Machine + People-Machine + People-People — that will reach from 5 billion today to a staggering 100 billion in 2020. This is likened to the number of neurons in the human brain. Whether or not this means that the world will become intelligent, one thing is certain – our past cannot inform the future of work, life and play.
Tom is a natural at storytelling and you run into pleasant sprinklings of anecdotes that stay with you throughout the book. Each chapter of Cloud Surfing is a revelation; the more I read the more curious I became. Parts of it are science fiction at its best, only it may not turn out to be fiction.
Vendor-Client relationships November 14, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Innovation.Tags: absurdity, client, conti, Cost cutting, Culture, Ideafarms, Innovation, negotiation, outsourcing, partnerships, provider, vendor
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Whatever one may try in building relationships with customers, it always comes back to negotiating prices the way it was done in the industrial (material) age. This hilarious, in-your-face video says it all. Is our client listening?? Can they laugh as loudly as we at this beautifully captured absurdity
Read Ann All’s post “Squeezing Vendors Isn’t a Good Idea“
Designers w/o Borders September 30, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Business, Companies of the future, Design Thinking, Entrepreneurship, Globalisation, Innovation, Thought leadership.Tags: Design, Ideafarms, India, Indo-Dutch collaboration, Industrial Design, Industrial Designers, Innovation, International Design, New Business Models, Sunil Malhotra, Sustainability
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World Trade Centre, Rotterdam, 25th September 2009. Indo-Dutch collaboration summit focused on Industrial Design. Hmmm … (Design Crossover).
- A view of the audience
- That’s me on the right!
- Raijmakers & Oberdorf
Why they invited me to speak is still somewhat of a mystery considering I dropped off the Industrial Design radar towards the end of the last millennium. I guess it could’ve been because my company, Ideafarms, has been able to maintain a growing relationship between India and Europe over the last 8 years through projects and partnerships with Dutch and German corporations.
I’ve never been a champion of networking – I’ve actually often criticised some of my friends for using networking to get ahead – but am quite overwhelmed having been in the midst of some of the most ‘conscious’ designers of today. Jeroen
Raijmakers of Philips and Jos Oberdorf of NPK Design are inspiring to say the least. I’m grateful to Ruchita Puri for the opportunity to meet them at the event.
From whatever was presented, it looks like good design can be really good business. There’s a case to be made out for a design collaboration without borders. Couple of good reasons here …
1. European design reflects high quality, the idiom being minimalistic and functional. Whereas India’s design sensibilities are more embellished. Their combination will raise the aesthetic appeal without compromising design values.
2. Pure economic tenets come into play when we see the sheer number of people both on the supply side (design talent is plenty in India) and the demand side (India is emerging as one of the largest markets). Leveraging the ‘great Indian talent pool’ is an opportunity.
3. The life sensibilities of India’s cultural make-up have always been in the mould of sustainability, something the world has woken up to only recently. Add to this the rich craft-based traditions and you have a universal design paradigm that’s as powerful as Buddhism.
Jump into this conversation folks. You don’t want to be left out. Really!



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When I coined the phrase “Heart Capital” a few years ago, I didn’t recognise it’s prophetic undertones. Here’s a ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=ae589b1b-0d1e-426d-bc92-baa8b14553dc)



