Wow In Music – Driving With The Brakes On

Darrell Mann

It’s difficult for me to think of a band more criminally underrated than Del Amitri. I can’t think of a weak track across the course of their half dozen albums released between 1985 and 2002 – including some … Read More

Constructed Crisis?

Darrell Mann

The main thesis of last month’s Book of the Month, Crisis & Renewal, is that real change only happens when there is a crisis. This creates a potential problem for innovation teams, because, turning the book’s finding the … Read More

Best of The Month – Hooked

Darrell Mann

Something of a controversial choice this month. ‘Hooked’ is pretty much the playbook for Silicon Valley start-ups intent on addicting customers to their products. The reason why seventy-nine percent of smartphone owners check their devices within fifteen minutes … Read More

Patent of the Month – Plasmonic Structures

Darrell Mann

We head to the University of Manchester for our patent of the month this month. US10,345,490 was granted on July 9 to a trio of inventors, two of whom are Nobel-Prize winners. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novos won … Read More

Not So Funny – You Had One (Principle 17) Job

Darrell Mann

No shortcuts. It should be everyone’s mantra. Like these people:

…especially important when kids are involved…

…so they grow up to be the kind of public servants we need them to be…

…always ready … Read More

Conference Review – ICSI 10

Darrell Mann

The 10th International Conference on Systematic Innovation was convened at the University of Liverpool from 9-11 July. Statistics-wise, the event was attended by over 100 people, from 16 different countries. They got to listen to 4 plenary presentations, … Read More

EpiPens & Natasha’s Law

Darrell Mann

This is a photo of Natasha Ednan-Leparouse, recently boarded on a plane from Heathrow to Nice in the South of France. Approximately two hours after this photo was taken, Natasha was tragically pronounced dead. She suffered from extreme … Read More

Call for examples of Inventive Principles in Health and Social Care settings.

John Sainsbury

The use of Systematic Innovation is generating some attention in health and social care settings in the UK. Workshops are proving effective in analysing problems and providing strong innovative solutions. Problem exploration tools have enabled workshop participants to … Read More

Systematic Innovation Conference

An exciting event co-sponsored by the Systemic & Systematic Innovation Special Interest Group (SISIG) of the IEEE UK & Ireland and 3M

Systemic and Systematic Innovation Special Interest group (is pleased to announce its second meeting in 2019 as part … Read More

Biology – Goldfinch

Darrell Mann

Goldfinches are some of the most colourful birds to be found in Europe. They eat seeds and houses. Or, more specifically, the mortar that holds houses together. Why do they do this?

Seeds, while nutritious on the inside, … Read More

Short Thort

Darrell Mann

“There must always be two kinds of art: escape-art, for man needs escape as he needs food and deep sleep, and parable-art, that art which shall teach man to unlearn hatred and learn love.” W.H. Auden

… Read More

Investments – Low-Cost Cancer Probe

Darrell Mann

Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, is diagnosed in more than 130,000 people globally every year. Now, work is being done on a tool to help in its early detection: a simple, compact laser probe that can … Read More

Generational Cycles – The Death Of Comedy?

Darrell Mann

Comedy is in a period of extraordinary flux. It wasn’t so long ago that it seemed like comedians were filling stadiums and everyone was saying comedy was the new rock-n-roll. The past two years, however, have witnessed the … Read More

Wow In Music – River

Darrell Mann

Released in 1971 and produced by Reprise records, River is a contemporary folk song found on Joni Mitchell’s classic album, ‘Blue’. For some reason, even though it really isn’t really a Christmas song, it has somehow … Read More

Patent of the Month – Microbial Fuel Cell

Darrell Mann

Microbial fuel-cells (MFC) have been around for over a century now, but they’ve never quite made the grade in terms of practical, commercially viable applications. Which is perhaps odd given the fact that they offer the potential to … Read More

Best of The Month – Lost Connections

Darrell Mann

This month’s book choice fits into the psychology end of the innovation story. It’s also about the Big Pharma industry and how their urge to sell drugs rather than cure patients ends up creating far bigger problems than … Read More

The £5 Challenge

Darrell Mann

Here’s a little exercise to try next time you have ten minutes to spare:

What would you do to earn money if all you had was five pounds and two hours? Imagine being given an envelope … Read More

Sustainable Innovation 2019 Conference

Darrell Mann

I’m told that the reason women agree to have another child is because they’re programmed to forget the pain associated with giving birth to the previous one. Not on anything like the same level, but I think I … Read More

Kano & Intangibles II – Case Study

Darrell Mann

Back in December of last year we started to explore the connection between the Kano Diagram and TRIZ/SI, with particular attention to the integration possibilities of Kano’s concept of ‘exciter’ and the Outcome Mapping tool. The promise at … Read More

TRIZ India Podcast- Murali interviews Darrell Mann

Murali Loganathan, a research scholar at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India had a tete-a-tete with Darrell Mann, CEO and Technical Director of Systematic Innovation Ltd. Over a few drinks, pool and lively music, Murali got Darrell to talk about

… Read More