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INNOVATION 12/12/94
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Because time and information are your most valuable assets, INNOVATION focuses on trends, strategies and innovations in business & technology, giving you an executive briefing on the future. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CASINOS HAVE YOUR NUMBER Visitors to Las Vegas casinos are leaving an electronic trail behind them, enabling the gambling institutions to track level of gaming, time spent playing and amount of money gambled, as well as time spent in front of the tube and restaurants frequented. The casino can then offer customers special incentives based on their preferences, with the hope that they'll spend a lot more the next time around: "We look at when you came, what you're playing level is, the supplemental folio on our restaurants and shows, and then do some very basic segmenting. We design marketing packages to get you to come back," says Caesar's Palace marketing VP. (Information Week 12/12/94 p.30)
NEURAL NETWORK SEEKS OUT BAD COPS The Internal Affairs Division of the Chicago Police Department is using neural-network software to forecast whether a police officer is likely to behave in a manner similar to those that have been dismissed or resigned. To perform this feat, the network processes information on each officer, such as whether there have been citizen complaints or traffic accidents, and translates it into a series of numeric values. The values are sorted and weighted, and the network eventually produces values that indicate the likelihood of dismissal. If it is high, the officer is recommended for counseling. Needless to say, the Fraternal Order of Police is outraged, and has suggested if the software "is so good, we should give it to all the detectives so they can solve all the murders and robberies." (Scientific American Dec. '94 p.44)
TECHNO-CAREERS ARE HOT The most promising technology-related careers, as rated by the Rochester Institute of Technology, include: those in information technology, such as building and maintaining computer systems; telecommunications technology, such as managing telecommunications systems to handle data transmission, banking, reservations and inventory management; imaging science, such as remote sensing and medical diagnostics; electronic imaging, such as storage and management of electronic and photographic images, and environmental technology, such as industrial-environmental and solid waste management. (Tampa Tribune 12/7/94 BayLife2)
CREDIT CRAZY The average spender carries 11 credit cards today, up from seven in 1989, according to Andersen Consulting. And everyone from grocers to dentists is accepting plastic, while shoppers are busy seeking out those cards that carry the most attractive rebates, such as frequent flier miles. (Business Week 12/5/94 p.42) With numerous companies working on making online credit card transactions secure, it will only be a matter of time until the credit craze swamps the Internet.
SELL WIDE OR SELL NARROW, BUT SELL BIG Two kinds of megastores are invading New York (and everywhere else): the K-Mart-style superstore that sells virtually everything, and the "category killer" stores that specialize in giving the customer enormous variety in a single category (books, bedding, etc.). The new stores are doing a very high volume of business, but it's less clear whether they're actually profitable. (New York Times 12/11/94 p.26)
ILLUMINATING USES FOR FIBER Optical fiber is infiltrating the lighting business, and neon may never be the same again. Fiber optic lighting uses as little as one-tenth the electricity, is bendable, and has no voltage and no heat. In addition to brightening up casinos, theme parks and fast-food joints, fiber optic lighting is being used for treating babies with jaundice, underwater lighting, and illuminating display cases in the Louvre. (Investor's Business Daily 12/6/94 A4)
COMMERCIAL TECHNOLOGIES GET GOV'T BOOST The Clinton administration's Advanced Technology Program plans to spend $785 million over the next five years to develop six new commercial technologies: $185 million for car manufacturing technology; $160 million for new catalysts for chemical manufacturing; $145 million for materials technologies to produce trucks and other large machinery; $125 million for improving computer data storage systems; $120 million for developing ways to send video images over computer and telecommunications networks; and $50 million for new refrigeration systems. (Wall Street Journal 12/6/94 B6)
MARKETING TO GOLFERS AT THEIR OWN LEVEL Ad-In-The-Hole places ads in the bottom of the cup on golf course greens, to get the attention of golfers. Will the sand traps be next? (Atlanta Business Chronicle 12/2-8/94 p.26A)
MEETINGS WITH A FOCUS The trend in meeting planning is toward more narrowly focused conferences, where serious training activities chaaracterize the events. A new survey sponsored by Hyatt Hotels found that 54% of executives preferred educational or training conferences over association meetings, annual company gatherings, or motivational bashes. (New York Times 12/11/94 p.23)
SMART CARS ARE GETTING SMARTER In 1970, the average car had about $75 worth of electronic gear, most of it concentrated in the transistor radio. Now the average car buyer is looking at $2,000 worth of computer chips and hardware -- controlling things like power brakes and windows -- while luxury cars sport about $3,000 worth of gadgetry. "No device you operate in your daily life has more electronics and controls than the automobile," says the president of Delco Electronics, a GM subsidiary. Coming soon: a five-year program in Chicago where 5,000 motorists will test a navigation system that alerts them to traffic problems and calculates an alternative route, and collision avoidance systems, which use low-power radar or laser beams to activate a car's braking system when it's too close the vehicle in front. (Investor's Business Daily 12/12/94 A6)
LOW DEMAND FOR PH.D.s Although the number of scientists with Ph.D.s keeps rising every year, job prospects for them keep dropping. More than 12 percent of new Ph.D.s in math had no jobs after graduation, and there is a 20-year high in joblessness among chemists. The trends suggest that the future for most American scientists lies in industry rather than in traditional academic research and teaching. (Newsweek 12/5/94 p.62)
"EVENT THEATER" Following the example set by "event rock," Broadway has developed "event theater" (such as the new "Christmas Carol"), in which the set must be a complex piece of machinery that can produce special effects spectacular enough to hold the attention of an audience nurtured on TV and movies. (New York 11/28/94 p.51)
SHOULD BUSINESS PEOPLE RUN THE UNIVERSITIES? When the president of Harvard, a scholar of Renaissance poetry, recently went on indefinite leave of absence to recover from severe fatigue and exhaustion from the demands of his job, many people began to suggest that college leadership positions should be turned over to "no-nonsense corporate types." (US News & World Report 12/12/94 p.82)
VOICE OF AMERICANS MicroVoice Applications, a Minneapolis developer of interactive voice-response software, had $27 million in revenues in 1993 from a system that uses 900-number voicemail. A customer places a personal newspaper ad with a voicemail box number, and then pays a dollar or two a minute to listen to the responses to the ad. Ads run for two weeks on average, and 85% of users are repeat customers. MicroAge also offers a number of voice-information services such as stock quotes, roommate directories, and various hotlines. MicroVoice's system "is like a drug. Once you get hooked on it, you can't get off." (Inc. Dec.'94 p.81)
FASTER FIBER Researchers experimenting with ways to make lightning-fast optical fiber even faster are using light waves called solitons, which keep their shape over long distances and can be packed more densely to carry more data. To accommodate the waves' idiosyncrasies, Corning has created a fiber that tapers very slightly -- 10% over 25 miles -- which enables the solitons to keep their original shape, thereby avoiding signal degradation. Tests show soliton-based transmission systems could operate 100 times faster than those in use today. (Business Week 12/12/94 p.105)
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