Pasta & Vinegar points to the latest issue of Red Herring, which has an extended feature on European technological innovation:

“Europe may not have as many venture capitalists, innovative companies and fluid markets as the United States, but the region is surely emerging as a place to seek venture capital and public funding for technology companies… in the last year, the number of venture-backed technology public offerings in Europe was the same as in the United States. Judy Gibbons, a venture partner at London-based Accel Partners, said the European venture market is changing as a result of the flattening of the world. “The talent is here and the ability to innovate and develop innovative companies is not exclusive to the U.S.,” Ms. Gibbons said.”

Ah, I love it when venture capitalists mix in Thomas Friedman references. Nice. Anyway, European innovation appears to be proceeding on a two-track path: new product innovation (i.e. Skype and MySQL) and a “me too” strategy of copying American products. As an example of this copycat innovation, Red Herring cites LoveFilm, which copies the NetFlix business model of renting DVDs by mail.

Also, be sure to check out Red Herring’s list of the Top 100 European innovators: “The 100 companies selected by Red Herring in this year’s judging reflect the rich vein of innovation and entrepreneurial activity in Europe and the Middle East. They range from a Finnish company trying to harness the power of tides to a Belgian biotech company that uses llama blood to create therapeutic proteins.”

Tags: innovation technology Europe

[image: Red Herring on Flickr]

As the New York Times explains, the production of the new Boeing 787 (the company’s first new commercial airplane in a decade) amounts to a bet-the-company gamble for Boeing. The company is essentially betting that a new emphasis on global collaboration will result in a game-changing innovation. Thus far, most of the signs are positive. Even though the 787 will not go into service until 2008, its first three years of production are already sold out. The airplane also could give Boeing a beachhead in the all-important China market, where Boeing has already signed a $7.2 billion deal for 60 of the airplanes. At the core of the 787 production process is a brand-new way of doing business:

“Boeing is also risking a new way of doing business and a new way of building airplanes: farming out production of most major components to other companies, many outside the United States, and using a carbon-fiber composite material in place of aluminum for about half of each plane. If it works, Boeing could vault back in front of Airbus, perhaps decisively. If it fails, Boeing could be relegated to the status of a permanent also-ran, having badly miscalculated the future of commercial aviation and unable to meet the changing needs of its customers.

“The entire company is riding on the wings of the 787 Dreamliner,” said Loren B. Thompson, an aviation expert at the Lexington Institute, a research and lobbying group in Arlington, Va., that focuses on the aerospace and military industries. “It’s the most complicated plane ever.”

Boeing calls the 787 Dreamliner a “game changer,” with a radically different approach to aircraft design that it says will transform aviation. A lightweight one-piece carbon-fiber fuselage, for instance, replaces 1,200 sheets of aluminum and 40,000 rivets, and is about 15 percent lighter. The extensive use of composites, already used to a lesser extent in many other jets, helps to improve fuel efficiency.”

It’s not just innovative new materials that makes the new 787 special. It’s also a new approach to the building of the airplane that relies on global partners:

“Even more innovative for Boeing is the way it makes the 787. Most of the design and construction, along with up to 40 percent of the estimated $8 billion in development costs, is being outsourced to subcontractors in six other countries and hundreds of suppliers around the world. Mitsubishi of Japan, for example, is making the wings, a particularly complex task that Boeing always reserved for itself. Messier-Dowty of France is making the landing gear and Latecoere the doors. Alenia Aeronautica of Italy was given parts of the fuselage and tail.

Nor are these foreign suppliers simply building to Boeing specifications. Instead, they are being given the freedom, and the responsibility, to design the components and to raise billions of dollars in development costs that are usually shouldered by Boeing.

Tags: Boeing 787 innovation

[images: New York Times]

SwampFox, which provides news about the Southeastern Innovation Corridor, points to a recent Michelin presentation (Contribute to the Progress of Mobility) at the InnoVenture 2006 conference in South Carolina. In a two-part video, Ralph Hulseman of Michelin Americas R&D Corporation outlines the company’s innovation strategy, which includes an emphasis on innovation communities. According to Hulseman, Michelin is actively embracing collaborative innovation, encouraging others to develop products and services that are complementary to Michelin innovations. In the future, this means that Michelin innovations will come from external partners, rather than solely from internal R&D operations. If you click through all the PowerPoint slides, there’s a great “networks of innovation” slide that shows how the core competencies at Michelin relate to the projects and initiatives that the company coordinates with external partners.

The bottom line: if you think tires are boring, think again. In fact, Michelin’s TWEEL innovation (i.e. the airless tire) was recently featured on the front cover of TIME Magazine as one of the “Best Inventions of 2005.” Moreover, it looks like Michelin is experimenting with innovation competitions and other ways to help bring in external collaborators. A hat tip to SwampFox, who has posted extensive notes from the Michelin presentation as well as details on how to follow up with Michelin’s innovation team.

Tags: Michelin innovation

[image: TireReview.com]