The Espresso: Edition 101
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Thursday July 7 2011

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Letter From the Editor - Edition 101

Visionaries Disease

During a coffee with the boss of arguably one of the world's great tourist attractions the Sydney Bridge Climb, Todd Coates told me about Visionaries Disease . It is a disease where every day the boss walks into the office with a different dream, a different vision, a different goal or a new idea and expects everybody to drop everything and change direction to follow him. That's visionary disease. I recently watched a video of a keynote presentation by Steve Job's CEO of Apple that was filmed back in 1997. What was astonishing about this piece of footage was that he told of his vision of having everything stored in the cloud. He articulated the dream of not only the cloud (which has now become a reality) but also of how he saw apps and the development of such working in the future. So today in 2011 as they roll out the Apple cloud and revolutionise every category and industry through the development of apps, the dream that he once had may have taken a while to come to fruition but it has. It takes courage for a leader of an organisation to have a dream, articulate it and stick by it. Don't fall into the trap of Visionaries Disease where you get caught up in the latest fad and chop and change the picture of the future. A danger of Visionaries Disease is that you frustrate those that are following you, you distract them, you become uncensored, unfocused and if you don't know where you are going, try any road to get you there. When Todd told me about Visionaries Disease I could immediately identify it, as I work with a lot of leaders who either have no vision, no dream or desperately suffer from Visionaries Disease. 

Environment

Walking into Energy

Wouldn't it be cool if simply by walking around, you could generate enough heat to warm an office tower. Turns out thats exactly what the people at Jernhusen thought when they started to design their green building certification for the remodelling of Stockholm's Central Station. Jernhusen is going to use the body heat of the commuters moving around the Stockholm Central Station to heat the office tower above. Apparently the stations ventilations system include heat exchanges that will convert all the excess warmth from the commuter area into hot water. The hot water is then pumped to a nearby building where supposedly it reduces energy costs by as much as 25%. Still in the design plans, we would like to see more and more of this going on and Swedish Jurnhusen  is certainly leading the way in opening up the thought process in how this might be possible. 

Charity

Penny Pinchers

The Espresso is always stoked to find a new idea especially when it helps those who need it most. When we came across a new concept called Pennies we immediately had to share it. Pennies aims to provide an easy, affordable, private and secure way for people to donate between 1 penny and 99 pence to UK charities big and small, as they shop and pay by credit card. The founders call it an electronic charity box. Here's how it works... Pennies give shoppers the option to donate a few pennies or whatever it takes to round up their purchase total when they pay by credit or debit card. All you have to do is tap one extra button on the pin machine or one extra button if paying online and the difference between what your paying or rounding up to the nearest dollar (or pound) is then given to Pennies who pass the full amount on to charities. This is a way cool idea and if only a portion of people rounded up their totals (after all none of us would miss it) it could amount to tens of millions of dollars that goes to the people who need it most. Great idea.

Community

Pop-Up Home

The world was shaken by the earthquake disaster in Japan. No doubt fuelled by not only the Japanese disaster but world disasters in general, Japanese firm Daiwalease has created a mobile home that in the push of a button can turn itslef in a post- disaster lodging. It's called the EDV-01. Although it's not huge (but they rarely are in Japan right?) it's like a pop-up unit that can be transported on truck, ship or by helicopter to locations post-disaster. The EDV-01 is still in Beta and has been built as a disaster lodging for those who have lost homes etc in the future. This futuristic concept is certainly going to find a home in all parts of the world as our globe continues to be rocked by disasters. The push button home contains amenities like beds, kitchen and a bathroom. Its also equipped with solar panels, fuel cells and batteries to avoid having to rely on conventional grid post-disaster. It also has internet connectivity to take care of comunication in absence of phone networks. Looking like a shipping container once the button is pushed it turns into a two level unit. We love companies like Daiwalease who take the bit between the teeth and look way into the future to solve todays emerging problems.

Education

Say La Vie

Education and learing are going to be impacted more and more as apps and the sophistication of apps keeps developing. Take for example Daphnee, a slick video app done by french film production company that teaches you French in a safe and practical way, guiding you through the city of Paris. Fronted by actress Anne-Sophie Frank who starred in the film Inglorious Bastards Daphnee takes you on a trip through Parisian life. You learn greetings, customs in culture, go shopping, to cafes, restaurants and out for some nightlife. The app is free to get started and then you pay as you go for different chapters. Its available now for iPhone and iPad and apparently in the planning stages for Android and other platforms. We are going to see more and more of this in children's education as well as training programs for big kids.

Trade

Childhood Genius at Work

Charles Baudelaire once said 'genius is childhood recalled at will'. Maybe thats what the team at Meco Concept were thinking when they created their new system for turning ordinary clay into a structural box reminiscent of Lego. In the same way that kids put Lego together, the concept is that using a special Meco Concept hydraulic press they can now use mud mixed with a binding material to create bricks in less than 30 seconds that can be used in exactly the same way as children use Lego . It may not be the most innovative product in the world but it certainly looks different, and is functional and inspired by kids and the way they create. 
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Gary scours the world to find interesting tips, tools and news to give you a new or different perspective on the world around you.