Campus.News: Features

Outsmarting the Upstarts: Harvard Business School Press Publishes New Book by Lally School Professors

Radical innovation happens in big corporations — but it's the exception rather than the rule. Making it sustainable and routine requires visionary leadership, markedly different management techniques, and an entrepreneurial team that can "manage chaos," say six Rensselaer management professors.

In their new book, Radical Innovation: How Mature Companies Can Outsmart Upstarts (Harvard Business School Press), the Rensselaer team lays out a manifesto for managing corporate innovation.

"The business model these days is more than 'build a better mousetrap,'" says Mark Rice '71, director of the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship. "Firms need to build a different mousetrap. If they don't do it, a competitor will — and will drive them out of the market."

Rice is one of six Rensselaer management professors who have followed top-secret research projects at 10 major corporations. Funded by a major grant from the Sloan Foundation in partnership with the Industrial Research Institute, the research examined radical innovation at Air Products, Analog Devices, DuPont, GE, GM, IBM, Nortel Networks, Polaroid, Texas Instruments, and United Technologies.

The researchers found that creating the culture of entrepreneurship within a big corporation is no easy task, but sustaining that culture was a real management conundrum — "an unnatural act," says Richard Leifer, associate professor of management.

"It's impossible to predict manufacturing costs, sales figures, market response, and profits for a product that doesn't exist," says Gina O'Connor, assistant professor of marketing and another member of the research team. "Traditional management and marketing techniques just don't work when applied to radically new technologies."

Texas Instruments, for example, developed a Digital Micro-mirror Device capable of creating a high-quality screen image by bouncing light off 1.3 million microscopic bi-directional mirrors squeezed onto a one-square-inch chip. The technology will displace rolling movie films and has opened up an entirely new infrastructure for distributing motion pictures to theaters.

A task force has been appointed to begin planning for a new 1,500 seat electronic media and performing arts center called for in the Rensselaer Plan. Design of the new facility is part of the Plan's "first-year priorities." Groundbreaking could begin as early as the fall of 2001.

The facility will house Rensselaer's prominent and expanding program in electronic media and will create a high-quality venue for campus events such as Freshman Convocation, Honors Convocation, concerts, dramatic performances, speeches by nationally known individuals, and national debates.

John Tichy, head of mechanical engineering, aeronautical engineering, and mechanics and chair of the task force, said the group is now hearing from interested constituencies, such as electronic arts program participants, student music and theater groups, and others, to understand their needs. By Thanksgiving the task force will produce a draft report, and after the holiday will ask the full campus community for response and input.

By January 2001, an international competition could be in place to generate conceptual designs for the building. An architect could be selected by the end of March. Designs and site selection could possibly be completed by August 2001.

In addition to Tichy, members of the task force include Alan Balfour, dean of the school of architecture; Frances Bronet, associate professor of architecture; Michael Brown, a chemical engineering graduate student; Charles Carletta, secretary of the Institute; Herbert Cheseborough, president and executive director of Saratoga Performing Arts Center; David Haviland '64, vice president for Institute Advancement; Oliver Holmes, director of planning and engineering; Lucas Johnson, Rensselaer Union president and mechanical engineering undergraduate; Larry Kagan, professor of arts; Eddie Knowles, interim vice president for student life; Cynthia McIntyre, chief of staff; Neil Rolnick, professor and chair of arts and director of iEAR; Paulina Shur, clinical associate professor of arts; and Amy Williams, vice president of The Arts Center of the Capital Region.

The Human Resources Division (HR) has begun publishing a monthly newsletter for employees of Rensselaer. HR Polytechnote, which debuts this month, will be available in both print and electronic formats, to accommodate the wide range of users on campus.

The November issue contains a report on HR's "Six-Point Plan Focus," an institutewide plan of action for evaluating and updating job descriptions and compensation.

The newsletter will regularly report on HR's Rensselaer Plan initiatives; HR news, including information about benefits and programs, upcoming events, and important dates; and general employee news such as retirements and new hires. A special feature of the newsletter will provide examples of employee "success stories."

"We want to help create a collaborative partnership among Rensselaer's employees to enhance the vital mission of this institution and to make this the employer of choice in the Capital Region," said Curtis Powell, vice president of human resources. "This newsletter is a step toward reaching our goal."

Printed copies of the newsletter will be distributed via campus mail to those areas without desktop Web access. The newsletter also can be accessed online at www.hr.rpi.edu/newsletter or from a link on the Campus.News site.

If you do not receive a printed copy and would like to, contact Human Resources at ext. 6302.

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Using GPS, McCaffrey Finds Earth Shifting Beneath Oregon

Editor's Note: This research has received coverage in USA Today on Nov. 15, and The Wall Street Journal western edition on Oct. 18)

Oregon is turning on a clockwise axis, and the impact of such a protracted, geologic shift may prove more than merely academic, according to a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Rensselaer.

With the aid of a global positioning satellite (GPS), Robert McCaffrey and his colleagues have determined that the Earth's crust under most of Oregon is turning several millimeters each year. That is not a shift you might necessarily notice in your backyard, but in geological terms it is a major and potentially dangerous geologic movement.

"We're using satellites as surveyingtechniques. It's our discipline's latest application of IT (information technology). What we've observed over the last couple of years is a significant change in the Earth's crust," McCaffrey says.

McCaffrey and six colleagues published their findings in the October issue of Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. While the center of the rotation is in east central Washington, Oregon makes up the largest section of the Earth's crust in motion.

"What we see is called sheering activity, a combination of rotation and squeezing, big pieces of the Earth's crust moving against each other," McCaffrey says.

As a result, he says, the risk of earthquake in the Portland, Ore., region appears to be reduced, while the earthquake risk is increased in the area surrounding Seattle, Wash.

McCaffrey's research is funded, in part, by the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program of the U.S. Geological Survey.

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Architecture Students Score Big in International Competition

Paul Lipchak

Competing against a field dominated by professional firms, fifth-year students in the School of Architecture took three of seven prizes in an open competition seeking design ideas for revitalizing the Toronto waterfront. Paul Lipchak was awarded one of four equal top prizes, and Sunho Choi and Jeremy Voorhees were awarded two of three honorable mentions.

Each year, the school requires its fifth-year students to take part in an open, judged competition, said Mark S. Mistur '83, a clinical associate professor who coordinated the school's entries. Guided by the Montreal architectural firm of Atelier Big City, the students had just five weeks to prepare their entries.

The Toronto Waterfront Competition, sponsored by the Toronto Society of Architects in anticipation of that city's bid for the 2008 Olympics, drew 97 entries, two-thirds from professional firms. Rensselaer entered 16 designs, chosen by an internal jury from the work of 36 students.

Rensselaer's strong showing in the competition is impressive, according to Robert Glover, Toronto's director of urban design and one of four members of the jury. "They seem to be experts on the city," he said.

In competitions over the past two years, Rensselaer students received recognition for their design entries in the Gowanus Parkway and Times Square tickets booth competitions sponsored by the Van Alen Institute and won prizes for the Charles Street Station competition in Boston.

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