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adapted the principle further and gave us the jet boat. The vacuum
cleaner is based on a similar principle. In Australia, Kerry Packer of the Nine
TV Network, reduced the time of test matches to invent one-day cricket, and a very
profitable new summer television feature. Computer spell-checkers have reduced
printing mistakes.
What new forms can you create?
Can you make it: Hard, like frozen ice blocks? Soft,
like easy-spread butter or margarine? Quiet, like a Rolls Royce? Loud, like
rock music? Thick, like Doc Marten bootsoles (a profitable fashion industry based
on the initial choice of "skinheads")? Fun, like Trivial Pursuit? Vertical,
like rocket takeoffs? Horizontal, like reclining chairs?
Can you: Blend it, like shampoo and conditioner?
Glue it, like Glue Stick? Shake it, like a milk shake? Cover it, like
umbrella cocktail decorations? Uncover it, like the miniskirt or split skirts? Color
it, like new lipsticks, cosmetics or blue-packed Pepsi Cola? Compress it, like
CD-ROMs? Liquefy it, like shoecleaners? Squeeze it, in plastic bottles? Spread
it, like pate? Raise it, with self-raising flour?
Can you repack it: In teartab cans, like
premixed drinks. In plastic containers, like cask-wine? In aerosol cans,
like hairspray? As roll-ons, like deodorant? Sleek, like Acer Aspire
computers?
Business innovations like these - and hundreds more -
are changing the face of society. Dell Computers have gone from a $60,000-a-month
business to $18-billion-a-year in 16 years because of the revolutionary way they have
customized individual computers and sold them by direct marketing and great telephone
service. Lego has developed into a $1.5 billion business, since started by an
out-of-work Danish carpenter, Olo Christiansen, as small wooden toy company. Sweden's IKEA
has become the world's biggest home furniture retailer, with 79 outlets in 19 countries,
through brilliant catalog selling and simple home assembly.
Yet where is the same innovation in the vital field of
education and learning? For this book we've selected breakthroughs from around the world.
But generally they've been chosen from isolated pockets.
Come up with a new idea in electronic communication -
and it will be carried to a million enthusiasts immediately on the Internet and World Wide
Web, and within a week or a month by scores of personal computing magazines. Inventors and
early-adaptors are making fortunes by cashing in on the new third-wave of economic
development. Why not the same verve in education?
Contents Page Preface
Introduction
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