Conituum

                                               
Myles Penniman
9/30/12


The best way to find out about how a company is ran, is to know who is running the company. That is why I read these two articles about Adam Byrant, the chief executive of conituum, and Gianfranco Zaccai, the co-founder of conituum. 
I admire both of these guys, because of their passion to innovatate. Also because they have created well known projects and innovations. 




Adam Byrant-Chief Executive
I found the article "You Can't Find the Future in the Archives" by Adam Byrant, very useful and informative. The article was an interview with the chief executive from Continuum Harry West. I think the best way to find out how a company is ran is from their higher ranking employees like the chief executive, Harry West. After reading the interview I get the feeling that conituum is a very well ran company. Harry West mentioned he is very supportive of his employees ideas. I got the feeling even before I read this, when I saw in the website under team it had pictures of all of the employees in alphabetical order. The page made it look like everyone had an equal responsibility in the company. I think this is very important to do, because in a company he have to let the best ideas win. And it does not matter if it comes from the CEO or a intern. 

Gianfranco Zaccai-Co-founder 

After reading "The engineer of Everyday Objects" by Ellen Gamerman, the first paragraph read, "Industrial designer Gianfranco Zaccai is lying in a hospital bed. But he's not sick. The fake hospital room sits in his company's offices, placed there to help find new ideas for a health-care client." After reading this I thought to myself this guy is either crazy or an extreme hard worker and innovator. Gianfranco stresses the importance of being in the situation and looking at things from different angles. For example, "As you can see Mr.Gianfranco does what ever he can to innovate. Mr. Zaccai's work requires him and his staff to pretend to be a lot of things: a Chinese parent (for Pampers diapers in that country), a basketball player (for the Reebok Pump sneaker), a bargain hunter (for a plastic Target shopping cart)

Capabilities and Clients 
Essentially what Continuum does is they help people improve their innovative ideas. One thing that I found unique about the company was they have so many areas of expertise. Everything from brand experience to product design. Also by looking at their staff I can see their employees had degrees in a variety of fields. I think it is a good thing that the company has a wide range of experts in different fields. Because if all of the employees studied the same thing, they will all think similar, and it is good collaborate with people who think differently than you, so they can criticize and help your idea. 

Observation before innovating
Conitnuum has worked on a array of projects. They have worked on designing lobby rooms in hotels, to make the hotel more profit able. Also they worked with proctor and gamble to create the swiffer. Just to name a few. The thing that I get out of the projects, that I read was you have to observe before you can innovate. For example, for the redesigning the lobby of the hotel project, the team has to have artichetures on the team, but before you can build a new lobby you must have people that study and observe people's habits. 









Articles I am referring to-
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/business/harry-west-of-continuum-on-defining-your-companys-future.html?_r=2&ref=business
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903999904576470091454779676.html#articleTabs%3Darticle