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Learn how companies including Siemens, SAP, Nissan and Mattel are using game technology to improve how they train workers and design and market products. The gamification market may surge to $1.6 billion in 2015 from $100 million this year.

businessweek gamification siemens SAP Nissan Mattel ceo

"Staid bankers are embracing the latest collaborative tools to drive innovation. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), a global organization that handles an average of 15 million standardized financial transactions such as wire transfers every day for more than 8,000 banks, is spearheading a drive to “inject an innovation culture not only at SWIFT but the financial community as a whole,” by collaborating on new e-banking solutions and working more closely with start-ups, says Kosta Peric, head of innovation at SWIFT.

Since 1973, Brussels-based SWIFT has provided a shared worldwide data processing and communication link for the world’s banks, using a common language for international financial transactions. Its main function is to be a carrier of messages. It does not hold funds, manage accounts on behalf of customers, or store financial information on an ongoing basis. That said, SWIFT is increasingly taking on the role of a catalyst to bring the financial community together to work collaboratively on market practice, standards, and issues of mutual interest.

With that goal in mind, Peric is behind an online marketplace called Innotribe that went live on Feb. 11 and aims to leverage the collective creativity of the finance sector. The idea is not only to deliver on the traditional mission of lowering costs, reducing operational risk, and eliminating inefficiencies, but also to get creative about taking the sector into entirely new directions.

Innotribe is clearly not your father’s banking communications platform. Bankers who wish to submit their ideas for new products, services, or business processes (or enhancements to existing ones) can do so by signing in with a Facebook, Google, or Twitter account. They are greeted with the message “Remember, everyone is an innovator; and a crazy idea that works is not so crazy at all. Share with us your ideas, be they matter of fact or wildly aspirational.”"

crowdsourcing businessweek swift banking brightidea innotribe

China is pushing to lure back top Chinese scientists from the United States back to China, using the standard tools of capitalism - funding. Capital and incentivization isn't limited to corporations, but to "organizations" (including countries) of all shapes, sizes and regions.

What are YOU doing to get the best and brightest people in your own organization?

"The goal is to address the biggest roadblock to China's aspirations of becoming an innovation powerhouse: an acute shortage of seasoned research scientists. Accomplished physicists, biologists, and mathematicians—who might produce technological breakthroughs and build key research programs—have long balked at low pay and a university system marred by corruption, cronyism, and lax standards. But now, China's economic boom and surging government investment in research are making mainland university posts more attractive. A decade ago, only 1 in 100 leading Chinese scientists in the U.S. would have considered returning, says Rao Yi, a former Northwestern neuroscience professor who is dean of Peking University's life sciences school. Today, he says, half would. "Now, there is a chance of recruiting the rising stars of Harvard," says Rao. "

innovation_management businessweek china innovation

Interesting take at BusinessWeek by Douglas MacMillan regarding Amazon releasing the Kindle app for the iPhone.

My take:
The ongoing revenue stream for Amazon is clearly in the electronic books themselves, not in the Kindle (or Kindle 2), and in general, as I found out when I was consulting with a company who served the microfinance world - credit card companies aren't competing with each other, they're competing with CASH.

Amazon isn't competing with Apple, they're competing with non-consumers of books and magazines, and for those who, particularly in this economy, who aren't willing to pony up for the Kindle but who still want the content. I have the Kindle app on my iPhone, and while it works just fine, I agree with the general sentiment, that for serious readers (I frequently consume 2-3 books a week), the iPhone isn't the format you're going to want to read. The Kindle? Perhaps.

The economics of e-books are still a bit expensive for the consumers, and publishers have only begun to get their heads around this "new" distribution model. Then again, Apple's iTunes Music Store wasn't exactly an overnight success. Innovations take time to find a foundation. All sorts of baggage that needs to be undone, for consumers, authors, publishers, and on and on.

kindle cannibal innovation iphone e-books businessweek douglas_macmillan

Wow, this reminds me of Escher artwork, but is a real pedestrian bridge.

design architecture escher businessweek thomas_heatherwick innovation

An article on SNA/ONA that has gained some steam.

social_networking social_network_analysis SNA rob_cross businessweek Jena_McGregor