Water, Water, Everywhere

admin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:27:00 GMT

Abstract: The LifeStraw looks simple. But it has the potential to save many lives. Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen didn't set out to help millions of people get access to safe drinking water. At the age of 19, he dropped out of school and moved to Nigeria to sell trucks. But when a political coup forced him to leave Africa and return to his native Denmark in 1992, he reluctantly agreed to join the family textile business if he could focus on relief-aid products.
His experience in Africa and later working with the Carter Center in Atlanta…convinced him that people in developing countries needed a simple, durable device to purify water.

The result was the LifeStraw, a personal, portable water purifier that eliminates virtually all waterborne bacteria and most viruses responsible for causing diarrheal diseases. The product, which costs as little as $3, has won a number of awards, including the 2008 Saatchi & Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas.

Published: Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2008
Authors: Jilian Mincer

Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121372818319181665.html

Finding the Right Job for Your Product

admin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:38:00 GMT

Abstract: “The way a company views its markets determines what it decides to produce, how it will take those products to market, who it believes its competitors to be, and how large it believes its market opportunities to be. Most companies segment along lines defined by the characteristics of their products (category or price) or customers (age, gender, marital status and income level) because that is the most easily accessible type of data, but product and customer characteristics are poor indicators of customer behavior because that is not how markets are structured from the customer’s perspective…”

Published: MIT Sloan Management Review, Spring 2007, Vol. 48, No. 3, pp. 38-47; Reprint 48301; (free for subscribers or, fee for download / reprints)
Authors: Clayton M. Christensen, Scott D. Anthony, Gerald Berstell and Denise Nitterhouse

Link: http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/issue/2007/spring/01/

Innovation @ Merage - UCI Paul Merage School of Business : Health Care, Consumer Products

Water, Water, Everywhere

Finding the Right Job for Your Product