Cheat Death – Can innovation help us live forever?

Shane Sasnow

Innovation might buy you a few years.

If you could live for 1000+ years, would you?

With the incredible advances coming out of labs, schools, government and business these days the human race most certainly is going to expand what it means to be alive and how long we might live. Here I share examples of innovative technologies that may help us cheat death…or at least hold it at bay for a bit longer.

First things first. Wikipedia covers life extension in detail. Worth a read if you want to get up on the current state of things.

The following “cheat death” methods are organized in order from ideas that are well known to discoveries that made me go “Wow!” and then I extrapolated on them (so, less known). Enjoy.

FROZEN: You can be frozen when you die and then thawed out and cured of death when the technology is ready. Alcor is a world leader in…

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Innovation 101: Innovation Basics for Individuals, Teams, and Organizations

Shane Sasnow

Is Innovation a fish shaped building? You never know till you make one.

Innovate!

Create something new.

Get it out into the world.

Generate some value.

The Innovation 101 series of articles presents specific activities and practices to achieve innovation. I chose these activities because I believe that are a great place to start. They are not the end all be all, nor are they “right”. They are simply practicable. If you do them you will notice an improvement in your ability to innovate.

Here is the series laid out for you. Pick and choose or start from the beginning and work your way through. Good luck!

The intellectual and academic FOUNDATIONS for the articles and practice.

• Developmental Framework for Innovation
• Action Language – Pt.2 of the developmental framework for innovation
• Defining Innovation – Practical thoughts & Latin roots
• The Value of Innovation

How to increase INDIVIDUALS’ ability to innovate.

• How Can I Be More Innovative?…

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How do I make money selling clothes?

Here are the 3 main sources of revenue we’ve worked with, how the money flows through them, and which we prefer.

• Retail – direct to customer
• Wholesale – to a retailer
• Consignment – to customers through a retailer who takes a cut

Retail is the best if you can do it yourself. Retail direct to customers means you keep all the profit, and you take on all the risk. We sell direct to customer via ETSY.com. and our website, Rose Temple. This means all set up and operating expenses are ours, and we keep whatever profit we can make.

The mark up for retail averages around four times the cost. So, a $100 dress cost us $25 to make. The $75 dollars above cost then goes to pay expenses and whatever is left over is profit. The disadvantage of this is that you’re not likely to be selling as much volume at first as you might with wholesale, and all the expenses are yours to carry (which sometimes ends up being more than the profit you make). Be careful here to not underestimate your expenses and keep track of exactly how much everything costs so you can see your actual profit margin.

Wholesale means we sell to someone else who then sells to the customer. For Rose Temple this is generally to a local boutique (e.g. Paloma, Radish Underground, Frock, or Twill). The wholesale relationships are built by either contacting the boutiques directly or making connections through trade shows. In time we will contract a representative to do as much wholesale marketing as possible (that will be another blog).

Selling wholesale means you are only making double your cost. That $100 dress is sold to the retailer for $50 and they sell it for $100 (sounds like a good deal for them, but retail overhead is higher and you take on more risk). This makes you $25 after you pay the cost of the dress. Not as good as retail, but not bad overall if you can sell higher volume to retailers.

Last, consignment has not been the best way to go for us. The consignment shops can be really nice (Union Rose), or they can be lousy (like the one that took our inventory and went out of business). Besides that the value is debatable. You do get some exposure and you may make some money, but it basically works like wholesale except you take on the risk.

A consignment shop will list the same dress for $100 and if they sell it they take $50 (%50) and give you the other $50, which you have to pay cost from…so you only make %25 or $25. This is the same margin as wholesale, but without the volume purchase. Also, a challenge is that if they don’t sell it they will give it back to you after a period of time (so your investment isn’t generating money and you then have to figure out how to sell it some other way), you are responsible for delivery to them and pick up (time and cost), or worse they put the item on sale for less ($80) and then when it sells you get less ($40) from which you still have to pay your cost ($25). This is not a good deal.

So, our experience so far has shown that retail is the most profitable and potentially riskiest, wholesale is reasonably profitable because you can get more volume from it and take on less risk, and consignment has the potential to be the least profitable (bordering on costing you money if things don’t sell) but is good for exposure (especially when you’re starting out).

Get Some Talent! Can’t start or run a fashion clothing business with out it.

N. (my wife) started Limited Edition Outfits (dba Rose Temple) to design and sell her own clothing. The decision was driven by passion and creativity for designing clothes, the business aspects started out as secondary.

As the company has developed it has become clear that a clothing/fashion business absolutely needs these two things:

Design Talent: (whether it’s you, a partner, or someone you pay) who can create products customers will want to buy (creating is more than just design, it also includes the entire process involved in getting the items manufactured at a reasonable cost and up to quality standards), and

Business Talent:  to get those products manufactured, marketed, sold, shipped and paid for.

If you are missing either of these elements things will definitely be harder, and it is rare that any single person has either the talent or the time in sufficient quantities to do both and grow a company by themselves.

We suggest that you don’t do it alone. Try to find a balance to whatever it is that you are good at and prefer to do. Find some people to work with you (spouses, partners, kids, other designers, etc.) or for you (that’s right, employees or maybe a virtual assistant or e-lancers to take care of some administrative or logistical work. This requires some capital though, so be aware).

Bottom line –

Get some talent!

How to Build a Clothing & Fashion Business ~

This blog series will detail business development of Limited Edition Outfits dba (doing business as) Rose Temple (www.rosetemple.com). The design side of the company is covered at the Limited Edition Outfits/Rose Temple blog.

Specifically, I am 50% partner in the business with my wife. I have my own business (www.TaoFM.com) in which I facilitate strategic planning and train organizations on innovation. At this point I teach others how to be strategically creative and now I want to be part of creating something. So I have shifted my priority focus to building LEO (Limited Edition Outfits).

I will be writing blogs here about our attempts to achieve the following results (and more):

• Find and attract new customers
• Expand product and service offerings
• Gain competitive market share
• Grow intelligently (don’t over expand early)
• Gain public awareness and repute among prospects
• Lower costs
• Create annuity business (customer retention)

Following blogs will detail these and other developmental activities in the company. A few background blogs will discuss:

• Want to Start a Clothing Company? Get Some Talent!
• How to start a clothing business in Portland Oregon
• Six steps to Sole proprietorship in Oregon
• Fashion Tradeshows: Yeah or Nay?

Look forward to your interest in our process.

INNOVATION 101: THE VALUE OF INNOVATION

Innovative Value on display

 

What is the value of innovation and why should we pursue it?

The value of innovation is that it creates novel, never before seen, value. This creation of “newness” is necessary when the current state no longer generates desired outcomes (products are old & solutions are outdated, problems are so new they don’t have answers yet, or systems are ineffective). The value it creates comes in many forms. Here are three to consider:

• Growth and renewal
• Solutions for complex and ambiguous problems
• More effective systems

Following are examples, spread across business, non-profit, and government respectively, of why we want these forms of value.

Growth and renewal for business, in the form new products, services, customer experiences and outcomes, is required to overcome competitive pressure and generate profits. For example, research shows in manufacturing greater profitability is achieved through innovation than cost cutting or competing on price. For details on this see Enabling Manufacturers to Compete in the Global Economy: 2010 Georgia Manufacturing Survey

Solving complex and ambiguous problems is a standard challenge for non-profits where there are always big issues to deal with and highly limited resources. For example, the use of existing cost effective technology (texting) to improve the rate of attendance at programs focused on helping at risk teens provides an elegant solution that utilizes current resources. For details see Unleashing Innovation Using Everyday Technology to Improve Nonprofit Services: an Idealware research document

More effective systems are key to democratic government in our increasingly complex world. The challenge is always how to provide citizens the greatest value for their tax dollars. For example, 3 to 5 trillion dollars of new value might be generated through the use of open data and government plays a key role in developing policies and standards to assure citizens benefit from, and are not harmed by, how this data is used. This is a new frontier for government legislators and will require new systems to handle. For details see the Mckinsey and Company report Open Data: Unlocking Innovation and Performance with Liquid Information

These 3 forms of value (growth & renewal, solving ambiguous problems, and more effective systems) can be generated by other methods as well, but the differentiator for innovation is the focus on novelty and “newness”. You can think of innovation like a machine with gears and levers. Other problem solving methods focus on maximizing the value of the machine and its output by improving the function of the gears and levers until they work perfectly. The problem is that the world, and competition, always catches up with these types of improvements eventually. The only way to get ahead is to create a new gear or lever that generates never before seen value.

This is what innovation is for and why we want it.

For more on the basics of innovation check out more articles in the Innovation 101 series.

INNOVATION 101: DEFINING INNOVATION – PRACTICAL THOUGHTS & LATIN ROOTS

The lightning speed of innovation

How do we define innovation and why should we?

My current definition of innovation is: Newness that proves its worth.

I define it because I want to know what I am aiming at.

The term innovation comes from the Latin word innovatus, which means “into the new”. So, innovation has movement or change that brings about “newness”. In addition there is an implicit element that exists in the modern use of the term. It is the idea that it must add value, whether to a company, society, government, or whatever context.  The Latin root of value is vale, orval, strength and worth respectively. So, when ”newness” is created the change it causes must prove its worth. It must be strong enough to stand the test of time, and only things that people adopt and use, as a part of the fabric of their lives, will prove themselves truly valuable.

In addition, innovation really is an after-the-fact title we bestow up successful solutions to problem (either known problems or ones that weren’t clear until the solution presented itself, like the need for a smartphone). All of our historically innovative legends (Ford, Tesla, Edison, Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg, etc.) were not trying to be “innovative” they were just solving problems. The innovation title has been bestowed upon them after the fact. The title is often very fleeting. What was innovative yesterday is commonplace tomorrow or, even worse, forgotten all together. Not necessarily because it wasn’t new or that it didn’t add value but because it just didn’t stick in the minds of society long enough to hold on to its title. Innovation is a fickle mistress, full of movement and change, and pursuing it can get you into the same kind of trouble that a mistress might. So, it’s better to pursue a clearer target. Specifically, the generation of newness (novelty, uniqueness, originality) that proves its worth by sticking around long enough to create some value (solve a problem).

It is worth mentioning that this definition is very close the academic definition of creativity, “The creation of something novel and useful”, as well as the criteria for an invention to be patentable, “Novel, non-obvious, and useful”.  In addition there are many different types of innovation, from incremental and breakthrough to radical, disruptive, social, and beyond. At their core creativity, inventions, and the many types of innovations all share the commonality of “newness” and the requirement of providing some value.

Defining innovation as “Newness that proves its worth” sets a target for the rest of the articles in this Innovation 101 series, which seeks to answer the question, “How to achieve individual, group, and organizational innovation?”

INNOVATION 101: ACTION LANGUAGE – PT.2 OF THE DEVELOPMENTAL FRAMEWORK FOR INNOVATION

Active kids in Tokyo communicate in the universal language of smiles and the peace sign.

Innovation does not happen without action.

This article focuses on language designed to provoke action. In my prior post on the Developmental Framework for Innovation I laid out a grid that cross-references human levels of development and a model of thought. The framework is designed to explore real world innovation problems and their solutions in a way that is deeply connected to the human experience. Here I populate the framework with language designed to inspire basic and powerful actions for achieving innovation, and be easy to relate to.

This is the framework with the action language inserted in the second row, and derived titles filled in throughout.

The action language includes these action verbs (which function as commands) Feed, Understand, Focus, & Motivate. Each word has been chosen to provoke foundational behaviors that help achieve innovation. They are not the end all or be all of actions one can take to provoke innovation. They are simply a great place to start.

Feed: This action word is focused on what you input at the three developmental levels (individual, group, and organization). You have to put good stuff in at the beginning to get the great stuff out at the end. The three level titles for Feed are:

• Feed your head
• Feed each other
• Feed the machine

Understand: This action word supports the need to comprehend what unconscious process is impacting innovation. The hidden behaviors that negatively and positively influence innovation need to be brought to conscious awareness so their influence can be limited (in the case of negative influence) or amplified (in the case of positive influence). The three level titles for Understand are:

• Understand your brain
• Understand each other
• Understand the machine

Focus: This action word supports the conscious process of innovation. To maximize the available brain power and resources it is imperative to use appropriate processes. This assures nothing is missed and outcomes are generated in a reasonably efficient manner. The three level titles for Focus are:

• Focus your mind
• Focus each other
• Focus the machine

Motivate: This action word is placed at the output portion of the thought model because it is the most important action for generating innovation. At the end of a focused process there is an output, but that output will mean nothing if there is no implementation or the will to follow through over time. The three title levels for Motivate are:

• Motivate yourself
• Motivate each other
• Motivate the machine

With language in place to provoke action the next step is to introduce innovation focused problems in each of the grid topics and the solutions to those problems. This lays the foundation for achieving innovation everyday and is the basis of the Innovation 101 series of articles.

INNOVATION 101: DEVELOPMENTAL FRAMEWORK FOR INNOVATION

 

Enter innovation if you dare!

This is the first in a series of articles focused on applied innovation methods. The topic of this article is a foundational framework I use to answer the question, “How to achieve individual, group and organizational innovation?” It combines human levels of development (Individual, group, and organization) and a basic model of human thought. Combining these creates a rich grid of topics for exploration in general, and I will focus it on innovation specifically.

Getting right to it. Here is the matrix created by combining the levels of development and the basic model of human thought.

Down the left hand side of the grid are human levels of development, individual, group, and organizational. The three levels build on each other. Innovative people make innovative groups, who in turn make the organization innovative. Each can exist autonomously (e.g. an innovative person without a team or organization), but without all three levels functioning together innovation is highly unlikely.

Across the top of the grid is a model of human thought. Humans intake information through the senses (input), which is filtered, given meaning, and manipulated through unconscious and conscious thought and emotional processes. This processed information is then acted upon, which provides an opportunity for output. If no action is taken, there is no output, and no chance for innovation. There is no input that is not processed in some way before there is a corresponding output.

The two concepts (levels of development & thought action model) together give us a nice structure to explore innovation. Individuals all utilize some version of the basic model of human thought (input, unconscious processing, conscious processing, and output), and it is a model that also functions well as an analogy for understanding how groups and organizations work. They too have input, unconscious (or hidden) and conscious processes, and are responsible for an output. The rest of the Innovation 101 articles will explore each square of the framework with a related problem and solution, which when solved will help achieve innovation.

For more detail on the Developmental Framework for Innovation seeInnovation 101: Action Language – Pt. 2 Developmental Framework for Innovation

Wake Up and Warm Up Your Creative Mind

Recently a client asked how to get their creative mind going in the morning. I said, “Get the day started in a positive, productive and engaged manner. That will set you up for creative output.”

Creativity is a natural outpouring of the work and play we do with our mind and body. Therefore, starting the day by engaging each of these is key. First thing is body engagement, right out of bed do some light calisthenics (I do 20 push ups, 20 sits ups and 30-40 squats) to get the blood moving to the mind, then drink a glass of water (as a general rule people are dehydrated and the first bodily function that suffers from any level of dehydration is the mental/cognitive function–got to keep the brain hydrated), lastly take a bit of time (30 seconds to 10 minutes) to focus attention; this can be anything from simply answering the question, “What is today about?” or, “What am I focusing on today?”, to doing 10 minutes of meditation/focused mental concentration, or any sort of brain puzzle…the point is to get blood to your brain by activating various areas.

1. Body movement
2. Water
3. Mental focus

If you want to get more specific about it you can activate left hemisphere and right hemisphere respectively by playing word games, like rhyming and speaking fluidly with free association (The left hemisphere contains 2 primary language centers, Broca’s Area and Wernicke’s area and, though the entire brain is engaged in language in many ways, the specificity of word structure activates more in the left hemisphere) and by examining or free associating with mental/visual images of objects, spaces, or maps (the right hemisphere focuses more on spatial, object, and big picture understanding, though again the whole brain can be involved).

1. Play with words and talk to yourself
2. Imagine spatial things and relationships

Taking the extra 5-10 minutes in the morning will yield positive mental and physical energy to set up your creative behavior and thoughts for the day.