Archive for June, 2006

Business & “Architectural Wonders”

Published
by
ron
on June 11, 2006
in Emerging Markets and Personal
. 0 Comments

Beijing Aiport


BusinessWeek’s section “Innovation” features a report on architectural wonders around the world. You now may wonder what Design has to do with business? Well, increasingly “design thinking” (user-centred approach) is becoming the centre of stage to evolve the customer experience. Even during the last World Economic Forum designers were invited to emphasise on the connection between business and design.

Here a short overview of the architectural wonders as highlighted by BusinessWeek:

The prospect of hosting the 2012 Olympic Games have created an explosion of new buildings and dynamic renovations in The City of London.

From times immemorial, Italy is know from its innovative structures, built during ancient times, whose design still inspires plenty of architects. Currently, many high-profile architects are turning their sight on Italy which results in new contemporary architectures across Italy.

As oil reserves are shrinking, Dubai is shifting its focus from an Oil power to a hot spot for tourism. To become a highly attractive tourist destination Dubai is building new breathtakingly architectural tour the forces. Including many world’s first seen architecture as well, such as an underwater luxury resort.

As China climbs up the economic ladder and the Being 2008 Olympics and the 2010 World Expo are in foresight it is steadily working on its appearance before the global audience tunes in during these two events.

More information on business in relation to design is written in the article “The Power of Design” by the FastCompany and “The Creative Corporation” by BusinessWeek. A podcast on this topic can be found here. For now, keep in mind that “design” goes far beyond letterhead.

Hydropolis

Serendipity so late at night

Published
by
ron
on June 7, 2006
in Social Media
. 0 Comments

Serendipity
Random thought I had just now (as I finished studying for today, got one down but still three exams to go this week) honestly, I don’t know why, has this to do with my brain overload at the moment?

With all this content nowadays you can pull in, and can tailor to your own needs, does that give us a lack of serendipity? You know, you pick up a magazine, flick through it, and all of a sudden you find an article that is talking about exactly your problem. But you weren’t actively looking for it. Serendipity. You run into a person in the hallway, who then turns out to know someone that needs an intern and you turn out to get the job. Serendipity. Are we losing it? With increased efficiency, with more and more pull models of getting content, are we losing our capacity for letting serendipity happen? If you just read the RSS feeds that you subscribe to, are you losing out on accidentally finding information you could use? Or is accidental finding of information out of date anyway?

Businessweek has put together a special report on Web2.0 for CEO’s. So if you’re wondering what all the 2.0 hoo-ha is, this is the place to go (a part I really liked was the interview with a VC, you can find it here).