Thursday, August 18, 2005

Innovating Globally

According to Patricia Sellers a.o. in Fortune (Vol. 152, No. 2, July 25, 2005) operating globally involves more than reaching out to far-flung locales for needy customers, low-cost labor, and ready capital.
Increasingly, large companies are also globalizing innovation as well.
  • Jeff Immelt from GE is reaching out to try multiple ideas. To build a better wind turbine, it first built an international team of researchers in Germany, China, India and the USA.
  • A.G. Lafley from Procter and Gamble has improved R&D productivity by co-developing brands with other companies from around the globe.
  • Chinese engineers in the Beijing lab from Motorola conceived a Linux-based mobile phone, now a crucial part of its software strategy.
  • The revolutionary (non processor frequency based) technology behind Intels Centrino wireless technology was developed in Haifa, Israel where challenging orthodox ideas is rooted in the culture.
  • Swiss-based Novartis is developing new medicines in a Shanghai laboratory, specializing in ancient remedies.
  • Dutch electronics giant Philips got the idea for a core product, their new home heart defibrillator "HeartStart", via a US-based research lab.

Accessing the brains everywhere in the world is paying of for these companies apparently.