(Far Eastern Economic Review)ASIAN INNOVATION AWARDS: 2004 FINALISTS: ASIA'S INVENTORS Pure Genius Who says Asia fails to innovate? The region's inventors are hitting back at the critics with sheer ingenuity and outlandish ideas -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Simon Burns/TAIPEI Issue cover-dated October 14, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IT'S A POPULAR STEREOTYPE in the West: Asians are not creative; Asia duplicates, it doesn't innovate. It's a view usually expressed with a large helping of condescension, arrogance even, but studies of creativity have consistently shown Asians lagging their Western counterparts. An August survey by a United States-based business organization, the Conference Board, showed lack of innovation amongst staff to be the top concern of CEOs in Asia. Asian employers need to "reward innovation, and not penalize if they are unsuccessful," says Dr. Tony Buss, chief executive of Singapore-based MerLion Pharmaceuticals and one of the judges of this year's Asian Innovation Awards. "Trying and failing, or making mistakes, is better than not trying to be innovative," he says. The REVIEW's Asian Innovation Awards are all about recognizing and rewarding great ideas. This year we received 84 nominations from around the region. They run the gamut from cutting-edge creations, such as nanotechnology fingerprints to prove a product's authenticity and micro-flying robots for use in disaster recovery, to the wacky-sounding process of turning bananas into electricity, all the way through to sheer ingenuity, such as using a computer program and a bar-code scanner to speed up a test for eye disease. With ideas like these, it's clear to see that Asia is becoming more creative. Indeed, Lim Kok Wing, president of the Malaysian Design Technology Centre and an AIA judge remarked that this year's finalists "reflect more varied use of technology . . . representing increasing recognition of the value of technology in Asia." Forward-looking Asian business and political leaders have long been aware of the value of innovation. They have always had Japan's post-war economic resurgence as a testament to the benefits of rapid industrial innovation--and rusting shipyards and steelworks in the West as a monument to the dangers of stagnation. After the financial crisis in 1997, Asian governments announced a variety of new schemes to encourage creative thinking in education and industry. Meanwhile, in the struggle for corporate survival, companies were coming up with their own ideas. Taiwan-based Shuttle Technology, a medium-sized computer manufacturer, was one. By 2001 its share price was sliding and market share crumbling under an onslaught from larger competitors. Shuttle's senior executives realized the company had to change. Hence the pressure for new ideas. Shuttle's research and development team knew that personal computers contained a lot of something that nobody really wanted: empty space. PC components had become a lot smaller, but the big metal cases that contained them had hardly changed. At the same time, consumers were becoming more concerned about appearances; they were putting PCs in their living rooms, using them to watch videos or play music. Shuttle's engineers shrank the PC down to a tiny, stylish silver cube. Alongside the average PC--a staid and sturdy beige box--it looked like a Porsche next to a dumper truck. They dubbed it the Spacewalker; it was underpowered, it ran hot and noisy, and it was more expensive than other PCs. Consumers had never seen anything like it--it sold so fast the company had trouble keeping up with orders. Almost single-handedly, Shuttle had created a new market for compact PCs, seized the lion's share of it, and today, continues to hold on in the face of competition. Shuttle's success came from seeing a need, and inventing the product to meet it. Similarly, one of the finalists in this years Asian Innovation Awards, the Inké ink-jet printer refilling system, is one of those products that seems so obvious--once somebody else has thought of it. The Inké system automatically refills expensive ink-jet cartridges with a minimum of mess, saving users plenty of cash in the process. While Inké offers a perfect solution to reusing ink-jet cartridges, Toshiba of Japan offers a solution to reusing paper. The company's e-blue disappearing ink allows paper to be returned to pristine condition and reused repeatedly. The ink is erased by a heating process. The product, launched in Japan at the end of 2003, is a contender for the Global [EMAIL PROTECTED] award, which is running concurrently with the Asian Innovation Awards. Anil Gupta, a professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and one of the judges, described it as a "revolutionary idea." While many researchers and engineers, like Inké creator Tan Kong Cheok, invent products for others to use, other inventors draw on their own day-to-day experience when they see a way of doing things better. Staff at the Ophthalmology Department of Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand, for example, were frustrated by the slowness of an important eye test. The Farnsworth-Munsell 100-hue colour-vision test is used to identify problems in the optic nerve, diabetic blindness and glaucoma. Using a computer program and a bar-code scanner, a team led by the department's Dr. Rudy Hidajat rapidly reduced the procedure from one hour to just four minutes. The medical field was strongly represented in this year's awards. A Singapore team, for example, has developed a biodegradable bone-like substance to plug holes in the skulls of people who have had surgery for head injuries. The substance allows the bone to grow back and is a cheaper, safer alternative to titanium. Lim of the Malaysian Design Technology Centre said this invention "demonstrates the potential for creative and innovative multidisciplinary work--using technology in a manner that will improve the quality of life." DRIVING IDEAS While the strongest driver of innovation in Asia is economic, other events also encourage original ideas. Last year's Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome crisis, for example, triggered a flurry of innovation in public health, disease control, and medicine. This year's Asian Innovation Awards finalists include technology designed to track the movements of staff, patients and visitors in hospitals and other institutions. The StarTrack system, developed at Singapore's Institute for Information Research, instantly produces a list of people who have been in close proximity to a suspected Sars patient. Doctors treating Sars found early on that contact management was key to halting the spread of the disease. If StarTrack can be produced cheaply enough, it could be hugely useful in the event of a future outbreak of Sars. Even without such a serious threat, StarTrack could also be useful in controlling the spread of opportunistic infections inside hospitals. Creators of products like StarTrack, who bring their ideas to market in Asia, will often find that weak protection of intellectual-property rights means their good ideas can be copied, leaving a brief window of profitable opportunity before price-cutting imitators jump in. But perhaps even that can be a virtue, Asia's inventors can't rest on their laurels for long. Instead, they must come up a ceaseless stream of new ideas. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/BRUplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg Lebih Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny. www.ppiindia.shyper.com *************************************************************************** __________________________________________________________________________ Mohon Perhatian: 1. Harap tdk. memposting/reply yg menyinggung SARA (kecuali sbg otokritik) 2. Pesan yg akan direply harap dihapus, kecuali yg akan dikomentari. 3. Lihat arsip sebelumnya, www.ppi-india.da.ru; 4. Posting: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5. Satu email perhari: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 6. No-email/web only: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 7. kembali menerima email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
