Why and How: A Strategy for Innovation

Year of the Bird and Canaries

Many of you like to read, as do I, and in the January edition of National Geographic magazine, they declared 2018 “The Year of the Bird,” marking the 100^th anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. I had forgotten a quote from Thomas Lovejoy, a Biologist and Godfather of Biodiversity: “If you take care of birds, you take care of most of the environmental problems in the world.” Many of us do recall the concept and use of canaries in coal mines to detect carbon monoxide and other toxic gases before they hurt humans. This practice was continued from 1911 until December 30, 1986 according to Kat Eschner in a Smithsonian article entitled “The Story of the Real Canary in the Coal Mine” from December 30, 2016.

We continue our shift from large mainframe to personal computer to network to mobile computer to cloud computing, adding more capabilities with each new technology. We don’t tend to retire too many technologies. Some do finally disappear, such as mimeograph, when it is clear they are no longer cheaper, faster or better than any other method. When was the last time you received or sent a fax? Is there a need for fax? Do you still send or receive faxes? The technology is not quite defunct, but you can see it is close. Consider 8”, 5.25” or 3.5” floppies. Do you still use any of these? The technology canaries are beginning to tell me that things that are familiary to us are getting ready to disappear.

So, What’s the Format and Goal?

Although my columns won’t always be of the same format, for the foreseeable future, my intent is to present each technology explaining the why and the how. Further, if a current technology is threatened or could be supplanted or replaced with a new technology, I’ll provide that warning, too. The goal is to make you aware of the opportunity, not claim that you are behind or negligent if you still rely on the technology being covered.

Many of the technologies will be new to all of us, but if it is not clear that the technology works, it won’t be covered. If there is a business case that can help your firm and your clients, I’ll do my best to find examples of the emerging technology that works. I’ll be trying to build a cookbook with lots of recipes of the whys, hows, and pitfalls/risks to avoid. Historically, I have done that with all significant technologies including networks, Windows, Microsoft Office and more. I have not seen a time when so many technologies are presenting so many opportunities to so few people. I cwant you to be included. Although a typical column will have more detail, note the abbreviated example below of recently introduced archival, thermal, color printing.

Now, picture the topic changing from Inkless printing to: Blockchain, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Cryptocurrency, Robotic accounting, Big Data and other technologies directly affecting the practice of accounting. This strategy won’t leave out other important technologies when they are ready for consideration including self-driving cars, 3D printing, augmented reality, and virtual reality.

And yes, I’ll have plenty of room for tax, audit, collaborative accounting, business advisory tools, wealth management, practice management, business development and the tools that support them including paperless, workflow, portals and productivity software when there are key breakthroughs that need to be covered.

I’ll look to simplify the very complex emerging technologies into a formula you can consider and use. My canaries tell me it is time to look for more oxygen in the world of technology. It is time to look for new sandboxes to play in, complexity needs to be reduced and that less may be more. Stay tuned.