BUSINESS INOVATE

Would you like to join a Think Tank? If so, you must understand that wallowing in linear thought just will not cut it, you must be able to draw from all your education, observations, experiences and knowledge, call it blending if you will. Then you have to concentrate on the problem at hand, if you are to be any use to a Think Tank in solving the challenges of mankind, so let me give you a for instance of the serious issues that our society and the future of our Republic face. Not long ago the headlines read:

Math and Science and the Future of Our Republic - "As he prepared to go on a short vacation, President Bush said at a Thursday news conference that he'd signed legislation to spend $33.6 billion over the next three years to promote math and science skills and develop additional technology needed to compete in the global economy."

Obviously this is a needed expenditure, but if the schools are not working at maximum efficiency, will throwing more money at the problem really help? Many believe that our schools are drowning in political correctness; few could argue against that point, something must be done, as the average age of an aerospace engineer is 58.9 years old and they will be soon retiring and who is going to take their place? Well, whomever it turns out to be, those students have not entered college yet. Is it too late? It is never too late as they say, but still this is a crisis, just like the shortages of school-teachers, soldiers, nurses, truck drivers and auto-mechanics as well.

Okay, so there is a for instance of something a Think Tank must consider, now lets switch gears to a small business problem. A small business person has started a mobile auto-detailing business and hopes to use this to feed his family. What type of carpet shampoo should he be using? The Think Tank needs to be able to switch gears and the participants in the Think Tank need to down shift to tackle this problem:

Carpet Shampoo for Detailing - I really like Folex myself, although have found that it depends on the type of carpet shampoo'er, extractor or steam cleaner. Hot water 180 degree plus, steam or extractors that use cold water change the choice of which chemical you use. In thin carpets water volumes are less like on a Lear Jet, thus very little shampoo is recommended and low PSI with high suction rates, spot remover like Folex works best for this and for removing stains, also works well as an all-around.

Next, a Think Tank must continually have input from many sources and some must be fun or the thinking becomes a chore rather than a pleasure. So, we ask our membership to read:

"An Exaltation of Business and Finance" by James Lipton; and "The Megalomaniac Pleasure of Creation,” the Psychoanalyst Edmund Berger.

This helps get the juices flowing and takes the Think Tankers from technical solutions and overwhelming problems and puts them back into abstract thought with a sense of humor. Now they are ready to take in more input and discuss other books such as:

1. "Stealth Aircraft - Secrets of Future Airpower" by Bill Sweetman. This book is a brief history of former secret projects in stealth aircraft such as; Have Blue, XST, T.H.A.P., Maverick Stealth, Hughes HGM 65, F-19, A-12, Lockheed ATF KH-12 and the stealth cruise missile. Also discussed are enemy surface-to-air missiles such as the SA-10. Is this stealth technology, the ultimate in "The Fog of War?" After the Think Tank members complete this book they discuss ways to uncloak stealth aircraft and then re-design them to counter the new systems they had imagined. While that is still fresh in their brains, we switch to another topic, this time Economics.

2. "Economic Issues - Economic Perspective on the Internet" by Alan E. Weissman. July 2000. This is an excellent book, although Mr. Weissman missed a couple of Internet predictions and projections, as the Internet had over 10 billion pages when he believed it might only approach one billion. He also predicted the digital divide, which never really matured, and now we have programs such as One Laptop for Child. May be due to his book, and the promotion of this problem, or the fact that he create awareness helped prevent the digital divide calamity.

He also talked about the race to the bottom, which also never occurred. One of the issues we saw was the Federal Trade Commission attacked Microsoft and other online business is calling their tactics of bundling anti-competitive to justify their Microsoft case. Mr. Weissman also predicted that there would be collusion online due to price comparisons, and also believed that Metcalfe's Law would pervade the day in the value would be proportional to the square of the users.

He got the number of users wrong, and did not understand all that the Internet would become and on top of that, he called for Internet taxes to prevent our civilization from collapsing or the government from running out of money. This book was done as a project by the Federal Trade Commission and was not to be the leading authority on the future economics of the Internet and this just goes to show you how horrific, government reports can be and how wrong. Their predictions are.

We must be very careful to trust government reports done by those who proclaim themselves to be experts; this is one thing that a think tank needs to be cognizant of. A true of think tank must completely understand the issues, watch the trends and carefully sift through the data as to not make such silly mistakes.

Perhaps you can see the importance of being able to take information from all different sources, both current and past to put together the right answer, at the right time, and for the right reasons. Just because someone has a Ph.D. or is an expert in a specific industry does not mean that they are looking at the total picture. All data and information, and all your life experiences, observations, knowledge and education is all interrelated.

Just like all the challenges and problems of mankind are inter-related, and therefore these issues must be dealt with, knowing full well that every single decision you ever make will change something else. Once you master this concept, you should be able to prevent the unfortunate law of unintended consequences, as you reason through the toughest perils that face our species. Think on this.