Change awareness is the source of innovation

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" Harry M. Warner, Warner Bros Pictures, 1927

"The discipline of innovation", by Peter Drucker, lists several types of innovation divided in 2 groups: sources from inside companies or industry and external sources, such as incongruities, demographic changes or new knowledge. An example of a technological change triggering innovation was the arrival of mature sound film technology in years 1920s.

If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have asked for a faster horse. Henry Ford

Innovation comes from or is influenced by culture, resources, infrastructure or process.

Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable. William Pollard

Basically, change and awareness to change occurence in various areas (market, technical, culture) is the source of innovation. Changes in those areas that you are not aware of, are useless.

The things we fear most in organizations: fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances are the primary sources of creativity. Margaret J. Wheatley

The Chinese word weiji (危機 translated as "crisis") is often said to be composed of the characters for "danger" and "opportunity".

The goal is to take advantage before others of these opportunities and to build innovation above.

I consider high-speed data transmission an invention that became a major innovation. It changed the way we all communicate. Dean Kamen

My innovation involved taking an idea from the telecommunications and banking industries, and applying that idea to transportation business. Frederick W. Smith

Some innovations trigger an endless chain of subsequent innovations. That is what is usually called "humanity's progress".

Dinosaurs demise on LinkedIn: fullfillment of the prophecy

With the new Linkedin search page you get the final step of what I prophetized 2 years ago following the exact steps:

• 1st step: cutting visibility from 4 to 3 levels (summer 2005).
• 2nd step: limit mega-networkers activity (winter 2006).
• 3rd step : enforce the no email policy (summer 2008).
• 4th step: take off the “sort by number” search option (december 2008).

Read it at:
http://eric-mariacher.blogspot.com/search/label/dinosaurs%20demise or
http://eric-mariacher.blogspot.com/2006/06/dinosaurs-demise-on-linkedin-dont-read.html

Marc Freedman is not going to earn any money any more :(

Complainte de Mandrin

Nous étions vingt ou trente
Brigands dans une bande,
Tous habillés de blanc
A la mode des, vous m'entendez?
Tous habillés de blanc
A la mode des marchands.

La première volerie
Que je fis dans ma vie,
C'est d'avoir goupillé
La bourse d'un, vous m'entendez?
C'est d'avoir goupillé
La bourse d'un curé.

J'entrai dedans sa chambre,
Mon Dieu, qu'elle était grande,
J'y trouvai mille écus,
Je mis la main, vous m'entendez?
J'y trouvai mille écus,
Je mis la main dessus.

J'entrai dedans une autre
Mon Dieu, qu'elle était haute,
De robes et de manteaux
J'en chargeai trois, vous m'entendez?
De robes et de manteaux
J'en chargeai trois chariots.

Je les portai pour vendre
A la foire en Hollande
J'les vendis bon marché
Ils n'm'avaient rien, vous m'entendez?
J'les vendis bon marché
Ils m'avaient rien coûté.

Ces messieurs de Grenoble
Avec leurs longues robes
Et leurs bonnets carrés
M'eurent bientôt, vous m'entendez?
Et leurs bonnets carrés
M'eurent bientôt jugé.

Ils m'ont jugé à pendre,
Que c'est dur à entendre
A pendre et étrangler
Sur la place du, vous m'entendez?
A pendre et étrangler
Sur la place du marché.

Monté sur la potence
Je regardai la France
Je vis mes compagnons
A l'ombre d'un, vous m'entendez?
Je vis mes compagnons
A l'ombre d'un buisson.

Compagnons de misère
Allez dire à ma mère
Qu'elle ne m'reverra plus
J' suis un enfant, vous m'entendez?
Qu'elle ne m'reverra plus
J'suis un enfant perdu.

What are generally the top priorities you would address during first months in a new job?

This is a question asked on LinkedIn: In a new job, what are generally the top 5 priorities you would really address during the first month and then the two following months ?

One of the answer was:

First month:

- Know who is who in what places. DON'T judge
- Know the systems you have to work with
- Know your job and who is your client, internal or external
- ORGANIZE yourself
- LISTEN to people, NO MATTER WHAT

2 next months:

- Get involved in projects that will help you know you job
- Know the daily routine of your direct report
- Get in better touch with the clients
- Know what the problems are and what you are really facing
- AND NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON A PROBLEM. It won't go away

May you be successful.

Agile Maturity Model

Here are 2 interessant articles I found talking about Agile Maturity Model:

• The Agile Maturity Model
• An "Agile Maturity Model?"

Java Extracting only first Integer value from String

Here is the new java function that extracts the 1st Integer value from String:
String s = new String("Eric Mariacher 1965 AoxomoxoA 1967 Cowabunga 2009 ");
Matcher matcher = Pattern.compile("\\d+").matcher(s);
matcher.find();
int i = Integer.valueOf(matcher.group());

Here is the old java function that extracts the 1st Integer value from String:

   3:    public static int findNextValidInteger(String s) throws Exception {
   4:
   5:      // detect 1st digit after start of string
   6:      int beginIndex=0;
   7:      int endIndex=1;
   8:      int length=s.length();
   9:      while(!s.substring(beginIndex,endIndex).matches("\\d")) {
  10:        beginIndex++;
  11:        endIndex++;
  12:        if(endIndex>length) {
  13:          throw new Exception("No digit found.");
  14:        }
  15:      }
  16:      int i_startNumber= beginIndex;
  17:
  18:      // detect 1st non digit after start previously detected 1st digit   
  19:      beginIndex=i_startNumber;
  20:      endIndex=i_startNumber+1;
  21:      while(s.substring(beginIndex,endIndex).matches("\\d")) {
  22:        beginIndex++;
  23:        endIndex++;
  24:        if(endIndex>length) {
  25:          break;
  26:        }
  27:      }
  28:      int i_endNumber= beginIndex;
  29:
  30:      // return absolute value of integer
  31:      return Integer.valueOf(s.substring(i_startNumber, i_endNumber));
  32:    }
  33:
Can also be done the following way, but may take lot of resources if String
is very long and you only need the 1st Integer.
  35:
  36:    StringTokenizer str = new StringTokenizer("A 1965 Eric");
  37:
  38:    while(str.hasMoreElements()) {
  39:      System.out.println(str.nextElement());
  40:      int i = Integer.parseInt(str.nextElement());
  41:    }
  42: