The Innovation Gap

The Sept 8th issue of Network World had an interesting article by Johna Till Johnson on whether the Innovation Gap is real. This is a very good question. I've been in both government and industry and have looked at both sides of this equation. Small companies that are hungry and on the edge of finance and technology are more innovative than large companies in general.

The small companies I've worked with to put proposals together for SBIR submissions have been high on enthusiasm and maybe a little short on technical know how. Many of these small companies don't have the staff to help the engineer or inventor to put the papers together. Some of their writing is a bit rough. However, in over 15 proposals with large companies last year many of them were very good technically but didn't have the enthusiasm and innovative spirit that small businesses exhibited.

In reviewing 82 SBIRs last year for military customers, the enthusiastic proposer scores higher.

"Convince me you want to get the job done.

Steve

The Secrets of a Change Agent

This is an interesting article in the CIO magazine of 1 Sept 2008.

The Secrets of a Change Agent by Thomas Wailgum.

This is an exclusive and unclassified report on how Web 2.0 and strong IT governance are enabling the CIA to collaborate more effectively with the US intelligence community.

http://www.cio.com/article/441116/Inside_the_CIA_s_Extreme_Technology_Makeover_Part_

Good Article

This is a great article on innovation.

Innovation's biggest hurdle

• By Sean Gallagher
• February 4, 2008

Innovation is the hallmark of U.S. military success. The ability of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines to adapt, innovate and overcome is central to the culture of the military service — despite all efforts to quash it.

So it’s no wonder that the pace with which innovation gets incorporated into the way the U.S. military wages war drives warfighters nuts. Although the research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) agencies of the Defense Department are responding more quickly to the impetus for change, the procurement cycle often drags out that change and dilutes its value by the time it gets integrated into operations.

http://defensesystems.com/Articles/2008/02/Innovations-biggest-hurdle.aspx

The theory of reasoned action

Ajzen and Fishbein (1975) developed the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). Based on their empirical data in a number of industries they proposed that actions by an individual were based on the interaction of two factors. One of these factors is personal and the other is social. The personal factor was termed “attitude toward the behavior” and was based on the individual’s positive or negative evaluation of performing the behavior. (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1975) The second factor was based on the individual’s perception of the social pressure being placed on him to conform to a certain accepted norm. This factor was termed, “subjective norm”. (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1975)
They separated beliefs into two different kinds, those “behavioral beliefs” toward a behavior and those “normative beliefs” about what others thought about whether or not the individual should or should not perform the behavior. This emphasis on attitudes toward behavior instead of toward objects was a major deviation from the fundamental assumptions of much social research of the time. (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1975)