Design matters for business, for startups

13 November 201415 January 2015 ~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

Originally appeared in The Irish Times on 7 November 2014. Full story is at http://www.irishtimes.com/business/find-your-niche-and-put-focus-on-design-1.1991105 A report by Sir George Cox for the UK Treasury in 2005 started with definitions of three key ingredients that could enhance business competitiveness: creativity, innovation, and design. Creativity, Cox said, is the inception of new ideas, approaches to problems or … Continue reading Design matters for business, for startups

Lean Startup Strategy. Not just for startups.

3 May 20143 May 2014 ~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

I spoke to Steve Blank, Alex Osterwalder, and the man who coined "Lean", John Krafcik. Here is what they said. This article appeared in The Irish Times 2 May 2014 see link. “U should apply Lean Start-up Strategy in everything u do. Even ur personal & love relationship. Think about it & makes sense.” Thus tweeted … Continue reading Lean Startup Strategy. Not just for startups.

Big Data R&D for the newsroom

27 October 201318 March 2014 ~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

As the ratio between quantity of available information and our capacity to absorb it changes, we must be more selective.

Advertising’s historic pivot point

13 May 201318 March 2014 ~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

This is a piece I originally published in Contagious.An understandable malaise in ad agencies surrounds all things digital. Low revenues on the one hand and a new answerability to metrics on the other are accompanied by a sense that digital formats remain largely underdeveloped, and that new, possibly unwelcome, surprises await. This is a moment … Continue reading Advertising’s historic pivot point

An experiment in startups working with news media companies: looking back at The Irish Times Digital Challenge

4 October 201215 January 2015 ~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

(This post also appeared in The Irish Times on 4 October 2012.) LAST FRIDAY, at The Workman’s Club on Wellington Quay in Dublin, an Irish technology start-up company called GetBulb was announced as the overall winner of The Irish Times Digital Challenge. GetBulb has produced a system that can rapidly create data visualisations suitable for … Continue reading An experiment in startups working with news media companies: looking back at The Irish Times Digital Challenge

Piece on 3D printing in The Irish Times

24 September 201218 March 2014 ~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

The Irish Times, 24 September 2012: "3D printers to manufacture a revolution". (This is a condensed version of a longer piece - read full piece here) THE THREE trends toward cheaper 3D printing, consumer co-creation, and digital distribution should be understood as part of a great adjustment. The current stage of 3D printing is analogous to the … Continue reading Piece on 3D printing in The Irish Times

Week One: The Irish Times Digital Challenge

3 August 201218 March 2014 ~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A_zI4oMWwM I PREVIOUSLY POSTED THIS ON THE HUFFINGTON POST. RE POSTED HERE. Some months ago I set up The Irish Times Digital Challenge to invite digital entrepreneurs to propose ways to work with The Irish Times. Almost 81 early stage digital companies applied, of which 14 were invited to pitch in person. From this a … Continue reading Week One: The Irish Times Digital Challenge

Startups and The Irish Times

2 May 201218 March 2014 ~ johnnyryan ~ 5 Comments

The Irish Times is a media company with a long history. To get a sense of this reflect on the fact that it was already half a century old when one of its printing presses was burnt down during the 1916 Rising, when the rebels used its massive rolls of newsprint as barricades. In 1994, … Continue reading Startups and The Irish Times