Beyond the Obvious: Killer Questions That Spark Game-Changing Innovation by McKinney Phil

Author:McKinney, Phil [McKinney, Phil]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Hyperion
Published: 2012-02-07T00:00:00+00:00

YOUR FUTURE WHAT

I don’t know how the business world is going to evolve. All I know for sure is that it is going to evolve, and that the pace of this evolution is going to get faster than we can imagine now. Think about music and ask yourself: What’s a song? What should a music fan expect to experience when they listen to an album?

Late last year, HP was developing a laptop that would deliver the highest-quality audio ever achieved on a PC. It’s amazing stuff. This was game-changing enough to have a steady stream of cutting-edge recording artists coming through our California facilities to hear about it and try it out. One of those artists who I was lucky enough to get a little time with was Will.i.am.

I know nothing about the Black Eyed Peas. My kids are fans, but not the tech guys I meet in my usual life. Still, I figured I’d meet and greet, get in a few moments with an important cultural figure, and be on my way. Three hours later, we were still deep in conversation. Will.i.am blew me away; he sees no boundaries to what music can be, or how it should be heard. I can’t share the innovations he’s working on, but let’s just say Will.i.am asks questions. He wants to know why every listener has to hear an album track in the same way. Why can’t the listener experience a customized track—almost like a live concert—each time they listen to a song? Why do we still experience music as a complete, finished product in essentially the same way our great-grandparents did with their phonograph?

I have no idea whether Will.i.am’s current preoccupation with changing how we experience music will take. Maybe people don’t want music to be fluid and changeable; maybe making a song customizable would strip its potential for becoming an iconic anthem. Who knows? I don’t. All I do know is that Will.i.am is asking questions, refusing to accept the assumptions of his industry, and moving forward even as his peers relax in their successes or struggle with their failures. One day he’ll come up with something that will change the way we experience many, and perhaps all, forms of entertainment and information. And that’s amazing.

What products and services will I need to develop and offer to stay ahead of my competition in the next five years?

On October 4, 1957, Russia launched a beach-ball-sized satellite named Sputnik, which orbited the Earth in just over ninety-six minutes. The previous frontrunner in the space race, the United States, was now the runner-up. Our only competitor had trounced us, seemingly out of nowhere. A month later, the Russians sent up Laika, a small stray terrier collected from the streets of Moscow, in Sputnik II. The dog became the first living creature sent into space, and an instant celebrity back on Earth.

The “Sputnik moment” ended up being a huge benefit for our long-term space goals. The US government was shocked and embarrassed that Soviet Russia managed to beat us into space.

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