12.24.2012

FIPEL Lighting to Replace LEDs?

A research group at Wake Forest University has been nosing around the lab experimenting with Organic LED tech for quite a while. They've found a way to create a light that overcomes the mercury-based fluorescent light and the bluish-tinge of LEDs. I might also add that these new Field-induced polymer electroluminescent (FIPEL) lamps can be shaped in many different formats, have the lifespans of LEDs and don't require the dangerous materials of CFLs or Rare Earths of LEDs. Oh, and they are twice as efficient as the CFL lamps. Price and availability you ask? Well that seems to be an open question at this point. A commercial lighting company is currently working with the scientists at Wake Forest to bring the product to market in 2013.

Applications for this new product are wide ranging says David Carroll, the scientist leading the development of this technology at Wake Forest. Uses for this lighting technology extend to digital signage and transportation applications.  Carroll sees potential uses for large display lighting, from store marquees to signs on buses and subway cars, not to mention the millions of square feet of space in commercial and residential structures.

See the entire publication in Organic Electronics
 
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This is a post in the continuing conversation about new materials and their Connections to the Built Environment and the Links to sustainability, buildings and our environment.

12.10.2012

Fiscal Cliff, Retirement, Change Management, Federal Budget and Stupid Trends

A while back I started tracking some keywords with Google trends and today I'm reporting an interesting set of trends. It appears that stupidity and retirement are fairly equal in interest by people from Google's reports. Notice that Change Management has been consistently more interesting than the Federal Budget. This is an interesting correlation of connections.

I also find it interesting that the long term interest in the pair of retirement and stupid are about 70/8 over the pair of Change Management and Federal Budget or almost nine times the interest. What are we to deduce from this? Is Stupidity always more entertaining and interesting that federal budgets or change. I suspect so, since just about every reality show on TV now is about how ridiculous people are when they look for something, do their job or try to do something on their own. What does that say about retirement? Well there are a lot of us Boomers looking it straight in the eye and we've discovered the internet, so we fixate searches on what is staring us in the eye. A lot of us have lost a lot of what we had stashed away and in the last six years haven't recovered or maybe won't recover.

For a lot of professional and corporate management folks, these topics occupy a lot of our waking and even sleeping hours. So, as we move forward, be on the lookout for stupid people and retirees. They are all around you. Along the way if you hear about change management remember it's always there, humming along in the background, persistent, not going anywhere. It's likely the fiscal cliff will fall off the charts in a couple of weeks to be replaced with something else. Keep watching and let's see what happens with these topics of interest.




12.07.2012

The Entrenched IT Department gets a "Heave-Ho"

The following article appeared in a reading list related to CIOs. Seems CIOs are on the hot seat lately, partly for good reason. I look at this article and wonder why almost half of the staff reduction at Citi is from the IT departments? Are they that overstaffed? Are they ineffective? Apparently "yes" is the appropriate answer based on Michael Corbat's comment, "...(Citigroup) identified areas and products where its scale does not provide for meaningful returns." 

In my mind, when an IT group (or any group for that matter) no longer responds to the business they are supposed to serve, it results in statements like the one above. If CIOs are to be able to prove their worth and provide meaningful returns they will need some radical shifts in thinking and action. No longer will they be able to think of themselves as keepers of the keys of technologies, but evangelists and enablers of technology where it can deliver nimble, agile and effective solutions. That's a game-changing difference in perception and action for IT execs, management and everyday technicians and coders. 

Citigroup axes 5,000 technology and operations jobs

Kathleen Hall Published: 05 Dec 2012 From SearchCIO.in
Citigroup is to lose more than 5,000 IT and operations jobs as part of the banking giant’s axing of 11,000 jobs globally.
Some 40% of the jobs being cut in the firm’s Global Consumer Banking arm are to come from IT operations and technology functions, resulting in the loss of 2,480 jobs.
Losses in its Institutional Clients Group operation will see 1,900 positions go, of which more than half are in the operations and technology functions that support the business.
By reducing its global workforce by 4%, Citi expects to record pre-tax charges of $1bn in the fourth quarter of 2012 and approximately $100m of related charges in the first half of 2013.
Michael Corbat, CEO at Citigroup, said the bank had identified areas and products where its scale does not provide for meaningful returns.
“We will further increase our operating efficiency by reducing excess capacity and expenses, whether they centre on technology, real estate or simplifying our operations," he added.
Citi's operations and technology function is expected to achieve greater efficiency through increasing standardisation and the use of automated processes, streamlining the organisational structure, and consolidating functions and moving certain positions to lower-cost locations, said the bank.

I'll have to take some issue with Mr. Corbat's final statement in the article. Standardization and streamlining organizational structures, even consolidation don't result in substantive change which results in real innovation or a competitive edge. It's just the same old 'bean-counter' mentality of cutting costs with a large scythe and hoping the results will justify the actions. Too often we have seen this only exacerbates the issues. While I do agree most corporate structures carry way too much fat and waste along than is good for them. Just going to the clinic to have liposuction isn't the real cure, a good dose of mindset change has to accompany the surgery at the same time.

In my mind, the change in mindset should happen first and if the fat doesn't fall away with the change in mindset, then surgery might be in order. Well, let's watch and see if the surgery has the desired effect. Don't be surprised if you see more press about other major elements of Citi being reorganized with surgery. From our viewpoint, stopping some stupid activities would probably be far more effective and result in realignments and reductions where really needed in IT and other areas as well.