lead/marke | ralf schwartz

Puma aiming to market compostable Trainers, T-shirts and Bags

"We are confident that in the near future we will be able to bring the first shoes, T-shirts and bags, that are either compostable or recyclable, to the market," Puma boss Franz Koch told the German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche.

He explained that the company was working with partners on developing products on the principle of the "cradle-to-cradle" design. "It follows two circuits, the technical and the biological: I can use old shoes to make new ones or something completely different, such as car tyres," said Koch, who has led the sports clothing company since July.

"In the biological cycle, I can make shoes and shirts that are compostable so I can shred them and bury them in the back garden. We are working on products that meet these two criteria."

Via theguardian.

Innovation: Why Kids are Less Creative!

I would like you - as a manager - to read the below quote pretending you are the teacher, your co-workers are the kids.

I would like you to pretend - as a co-worker yourself, and aren't we all? - to be the kids in the following quote.

Via ellephanta.

What would you change immediately in your working environment to become creative and innovative again?

"Since 1990, children have become less able to produce unique and unusual ideas. They are also less humorous, less imaginative and less able to elaborate on ideas." ...

"You can do well on a test by studying a lot, but it won't encourage original thinking." ...

"If we just focus on just No Child Left Behind — testing, testing, testing — then how can creative students survive?" ...

"After all, ideas in childhood may lead to future career pursuits."

"If this trend continues then students who look different, nonconformists, will suffer, because they are not accepted," Kim said. Research shows that if creative personalities don't adjust to the school system, they can become underachievers and drop out of school" ...

"Kids also nurture their creativity abilities when they "pretend," ... Elements of insight, fantasy and emotional expression all go into this type of story-making, Russ said. Nowadays, with kids' overbooked schedules, there is less time for pretend play." ...

"Teachers don't spend a lot of time exploring unexpected ideas because they might not be sure where it will lead, ... "out-of-the-box" thinking gets discouraged. ... not blaming teachers, who may even feel as though they cannot teach creativity.

But teaching to prepare for tests and teaching to develop creativity are not mutually exclusive, Beghetto said. Teachers should recognize that unexpected answers may still lead to meaningful conversation and learning in a classroom."

Via Are Today's Youth Less Creative & Imaginative?

Save the World: Wash this Spoon!

Via sustainable-sam.

Business Innovation: One Tonne Life - Actions Speak Louder than Words!

From the One Tonne Life project website:

"One tonne of carbon dioxide per person and year is a major challenge bearing in mind that the global average today is about seven tonnes.

However, house specialists A-hus, power supplier Vattenfall and Volvo Cars believe that with the right know-how, the right technology and confident, consistent behaviour it is possible for the test family to approach the one-tonne target figure without departing significantly from its regular lifestyle or standard of living.

Much of the technology and the solutions the family will use are already available to the general public or will be in the near future. The necessary preconditions are there – right now!"

...

"One Tonne Life” is a project in which A-hus, Vattenfall, Volvo Cars and other partners will create a climate-smart household. A selected couple with young children will try to meet the low carbon dioxide target yet at the same time live a normal life. They will be helped in a variety of ways, not least with a climate-smart house featuring solar cells on the roof that are used to recharge the electric car parked in the driveway.

Experts from the Chalmers University of Technology with take part in the project in order to ensure a reliable calculation of the family’s carbon dioxide emissions."

Why this is important? Because all innovation will have to inhale and incorporate that philosophy to be/come successful in the future. You better start today!

EVERY product, service, offering may support that goal! And the more the more disruptive you become!

Business Innovation: "Get Ready"

Please inhale the following without putting it into an overly greenish corner. This will be the road ahead for every sustainably successful venture now and in future.

Please imagine what every single word implies for your company, your product and brand, your culture, leadership, and vision!

Matt Mattila from the Rocky Mountain Institute:

"Imagine a world, a few short generations hence, where spacious, peppy, ultra-safe, 120- to 200-mpg cars whisper through revitalized cities and towns, convivial suburbs, and fertile, prosperous countryside, burning no oil and emitting pure drinking water—or nothing; where sprawl is no longer mandated or subsidized, so stronger families eat better food on front porches and more kids play in thriving neighborhoods; where new buildings and plugged-in parked cars produce enough surplus energy to power the now-efficient old buildings; and where buildings make people healthier, happier, and more productive, creating delight when entered, serenity when occupied, and regret when departed."

Via Alex Bogusky's fearless.

lead/marke NET: Tom Fishburne > "Quality (out of) Control"

Note: Who stifles innovation, differentiation, variety in your company? Did you think about your own quality control? You will - after Tom's post. Enjoy!
(lead/marke NET proudly features Tom's inspiring posts on a regular basis.)

I’m enjoying Rework, the entrepreneurial handbook by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hanson, founders of 37signals.  I was inspired to read it after meeting Mark Rohde, who drew all of the illustrations.

One of the brilliant riffs in the book is titled, “Nobody likes plastic flowers”. Jason and David lobby for the beauty of imperfection and advocate the Japanese principle of wabi-sabi. They illustrate wabi-sabi with a wonderful quote by Leonard Koren:

“Pare down to the essence, but don’t remove the poetry. Keep things clean and unencumbered, but don’t sterilize.”

This flexible philosophy often conflicts with Quality Control, which prizes consistency over “poetry”. The Six Sigma Quality Control movement in particular clamps down on variability.

Strict discipline may be crucial in many forms of product development (otherwise you wind up with the Toyota brake recall). Yet strict quality control standards also sand out the more interesting attributes of product experience. Product development becomes a constant tug-o-war to standardize, not sterilize. How do you write a Quality specification for “poetry”?

When I worked on Häagen-Dazs, we had a lot of internal debates on Quality. We had two US factories, one in California and one in Maryland. The milk came from local farms. East coast milk inherently tastes slightly different from West coast milk because the diet for the cows is different. Yet, our goal was to ensure that West coast ice cream tasted the same as East coast ice cream. Why exactly? Why does Quality Control have to mean absolute consistency? Consumers expect wine brands to taste different from year to year because of crop variability. Why not other products?

Our Mango ice cream created tension because the mango pieces were not consistently sized. Each pint had large pieces and small pieces, as if they were hand-cut, not machine-cut. Consumers liked the variability. Yet, Quality Control wanted to pick one consistent size. It was easier to design a specification that way.

Why can’t mass-produced products accept some variability? Jones Soda features different labels each time you drink them. It is those differences that create drama and interest. Quality is important. But that doesn’t mean that brands should become plastic flowers.

Tom, when not cartooning (eg. for Marketing Week), is method's international managing director. Based in London, he frequently speaks at campuses, companies, and conferences about marketing, cartooning, and how to spread business ideas. @tomfishburne