“Ideas are great, but if they are not captured and used they are worthless”
Sabine – a business student – and Auriana – an engineer – talk about their visit to CA technologies, around three topics : their respective first impressions, what they learnt and what surprised them coming from each other. First impressions Auriana : “We arrived in the « early » morning, not yet really awake, at CA Technologies office, in Santa Clara. With its surrounding trees, that area was so quiet and so peaceful. Unbelievable. It’s impossible not to feel good there! Before arriving, I imagined a very vibrant place, with many well-dressed and stressed employees rushing to work. Well, it was half past eight, maybe too early. A woman welcomed us and offered us to make some technologic coffee (I mean, with a high-tech coffee-tee-chocolate machine). After we could enjoyed the wonderful view from the terrace, sipping slowly our hot beverage. Then, we entered in a comfortable conference room. And again, CA people treated us so well! We received books, pen, delicious cookies, and a complete lunch… And a lot of interesting information, of course! Before coming there, I thought they could not give us so much time (and so much importance), and it was the exact opposite: they’ve done everything in order to make our visit a great experience, and it really worked (not only for our stomach ;-))!” Sabine : “In Switzerland we tend to say that everything is little. “I could come at your place for a little dinner and we could have a little talk”. Well, that word “little” is definitely something that do not fit to describe CA Technologies building. It is huge! Lift. Stop at the 11th floor. Warm welcome with coffee. The conference room was set up for us. Each student received a book from the company. Peter Matthews introduced us to the program of the day. We were going to listen at 6 different speakers coming from 6 different departments, included one by videoconference. I thought that they were very organized and felt honoured to be there. I was looking forwards to hear about “how we innovate in big companies”, and especially by hearing all the different actors involve in such a process. What I learnt Auriana : “When it was about complicated business stuff, I was completely lost, while the others students – especially the business ones – seemed very captivated by what the speaker was talking about. At that moment, I really realized how distant our respective domains are. And also how these two domains (engineering and business) need to be combined in order to create a business that works! I like this idea because it reflects our entire experience through this under disciplinary course.” Sabine : “To innovate in a big companies is not the same as when you are in a start-up. Nothing new. But the importance of being structured is not to be neglected. Coordination between everyone is a key. The manager’s challenge is organisation. First, you need a good team that trust each other. Then comes the strategy: objective, scope, advantage. Regarding the development of the product, you need: to be in a «hot space», money and a good product. We got to spend some time with the VP of product management and talk about the differences of the terms: invent, innovate, elevate and renovate. Those terms do not have the same meaning from a person to another, which made the discussion interesting.” What surprised me coming from a business student Auriana : “As I previously said, it was funny to observe which students were interested by which topic. Actually, it was obvious and predictable! But something surprised me a lot: the questions asked by the business student were so precise and meaningful. In fact, I really appreciated their interest to the technical side of the speeches.” What surprised me coming from an engineer Sabine : “When we got to hear the responsible for application development, I had a hard time understanding all the technical terms. I looked at my engineer neighbour Auriana taking lots of notes. The speaker was also beginning his sentence “In big companies, the innovation is done…” And I was just expecting his answer for I knew I would be able to understand the answer and that was what was interesting me. But in the other side of the table another engineer was asking questions about a specific technique (which I could not even be able to give you the name). Oh those engineer! Curious about curious things ;)”
Stanford University and the d.school
We arrived early in the afternoon at Stanford University, a little after President Obama gave a speech to call for more cooperation between the government and the private sector to tackle cyber threats. We weren’t able to attend this conference but seeing all the choppers flying over the university convinced us of his presence nearby. The first thought that went trough our minds were the immensity of the campus. If we thought that Berkeley was huge, Stanford reminded us of a small city merged into another. We first went trough a series of giant palm trees leading to a first courtyard, followed by many others all bigger than the previous one. Our visit was focused on the d.school, which is the design school of Stanford University. When we arrived there, Thomas Maillart, a postdoctoral research fellow at Berkeley University, welcomed us. He told us about the university’s history and the reason of its success. One of the main reasons is the fact that the university owns a lot of land and they offered many companies to come around the campus to stay for a very attractive fee. Therefore, they succeeded in gathering many big and innovative companies more than any other place around the world. This way, the university established a strong relationship with those firms, which gives great opportunities to students to enter them more easily. Furthermore, this is a win-win situation as companies are able to discover new talents without any difficulty right after they graduate. Thomas also stressed, as well as all the other people familiar with the Silicon Valley’s habits, the fact that an idea is worthless as long as there is no tangible realisation. Here it’s all about execution. This explains one of the many differences with Switzerland, where most of the entrepreneurs focus a little too much on the idea and are worried to share it thinking someone would steal it. This is what makes for the Silicon Valley’s strength: sharing ideas and information as crazy as they might be. After meeting Thomas, Vincenzo improvised a self-guided tour of the design school. We have visited the many workshops around. What made us smile was the state of those working studios, looking more like kindergarten classes than what we would expect of a university. Indeed, the courses are more focused on developing students creativity and imagination by handcrafting their own project than having classes about design theory. As long as you’re trying and dedicated to your work, it’s not important if you fail or succeed. Indeed, the students don’t get any paper after finishing this design school, making the reason of their studies all about self-motivation. As well as not having classes, the students don’t have their own desk or place in the design school. Many students we met were lying on beanbags while working on their project, making the atmosphere pleasant and motivating. As long as the outcome of your project is interesting, it really doesn’t matter how you’ve been working. At the end of the day, we left this place full of innovative people and ideas with the feeling that we can change the world too. And if we could bring only one thing back in Switzerland, it would be this state of mind: be passionate about what you want to do and don’t care too much about failure, because it is a proof of taking risks and a strong part of the process of entrepreneurship and innovation. (Nelsia & Mathias D.)
More than sport
Listen to the screaming crowd – like a single man, a roaring ocean. Huge, inspired. Sport here is part of University, part of innovation. Being better, stronger – that’s doubtlessly a mindset, maybe more : a way of life. The women basketball game we saw last night was a demonstration of power, of management, of team spirit. More than a sport ; a battle. A battle that needs to be won. By sport, students learn how to win and how to lose, how to bounce back, how to discover by effort. Sport is a school. Sport is where failing is usefull – necessary – to succeed afterwards. It’s learning by doing. It’s about nourishing doubts even through victory ; were we stronger, or was the opponent weakened by something we knew nothing about ? That’s why sport is marketing, because you never know where your competitors will move. That’s why sport is management, because you need to know your team. That’s why sport is innovation, because you lead the crowd. “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)
A step into the world of engineering
On Thursday 12th February, after having eaten a typical American student’s meal – a delicious but fat bacon cheeseburger – at the University of California Berkley (UC Berkley), we went at the EECS Open House tour at the engineering department. First we visited the electronic place, where we met five PhD students. They presented to us their work which were related to various fields of use, from making web wireless, through printing electronic chips to building open source biomedical sensors. They seemed to us very passionate about their study and proud of what they achieved: we met pioneers! Moreover, we felt an open-minded and motivating working atmosphere, where everything could be possible. Then we visited an engineering laboratory: CITRIS. Walking around, we discovered a heteroclite place where electronic components sit between 3D printers and laser cutters. We talked with students who were working on surprising gimmicks: a small box that detects silence in conversation and asks random questions to avoid awkward moments; a sponge handler which can communicate recorded messages and a device that recognizes human’s emotion when someone looks at paintings. We found really exciting that students have the opportunity to freely work on crazy and innovative personal project. After this long and interesting visit, we did not have time to continue our exploration in the computer science laboratory. Indeed, this laboratory was already empty but we had a quick look at it. What we saw there was unexpected: in Switzerland we have dedicate places for everything, there it is a completely different mentality: for instance bikes follow them to their desk! In addition, there is no need of “Ordnung”, everything is mess up. As our professor explained us, mess is an essential need for creativity and the place illustrated very well this statement. We finished the visit of UC Berkley by discovering the huge and amazing library. We were stunned by its proportions and studying atmosphere: we had the desire of being part of this! This exploration of the engineering world was interesting for both business students and engineers. The first ones had a better overview of the “technical side” of the product development. The second ones had a deeper understanding of how Americans create – be crazy and let your imagination driving you!
Entrepreneurship is not a job, it is a sickness
We met 4 young entrepreneurs in the average age of 20, all of them created already one start-up: Thibaud, Jason, Nikita and Sagar. Thibaud, coming from France, created a solution based on what he faced which was that most of the members of his family are deaf. Before that, he worked 4 years in a start-up and did a Master program. Jason, from Trinidad and Tobago experienced failure but learned a lot from it. He had imagined an anonymous platform of discussion between students and teachers. Nikita, an American, has already created 2 start-ups, one called “Five.com” and the other one “Politify” which is a software that predicts future revenues based on the elected Presidents. Finally, Sagar originally from India invented 2 start-ups “Campus Cred” where you can find every day a new product at a special price and “Quad” a shared students’ calendar based on the syllabus of all courses with reminders for assignments. We had an open discussion between this 4 entrepreneurs and Ken Singer, Managing Director of the Fung institute for engineering leadership and teacher at Berkeley University. They gave us precious advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur: How to start Find a solution to a problem you are willing to work for 5 to 10 years. Don’t wait too long until you start your own company, there is even a higher success rate if you do it at a young age. Go outside of Switzerland because it is a wealthy country where no real issues needs to be solved. They recommended us to travel for example to Brazil, India and China to figure out solutions for fundamental problems. Be curious about your surroundings, constantly interrogate yourself about the “why” factor, adapt yourself quickly, be flexible and focus positive. How to gain experience Participate in an accelerator and entrepreneurship program if you want to start your own business. Berlin and Paris are ideal to gain experience in start-up environments. Failing is part of your success, you always learn something about it and can progress while experiencing it. How to benefit from others Look for a dedicated team before to meet potential investors. Talk to potential users to test and validate your idea. Develop network in a wide range of areas so that when you change your path you can still benefit from it. When you pitch to investors, go straight to the point, present a prototype and be upfront about your company’s problems and risks. The general feedback here is that most of the people who come in the Silicon Valley are driven by passion, they want to change the world and be part of those who change it. (Camille and Nelsia)
Cool weather hey?
Benjamin, a developper met on the IBM Bluemix told me that many city are trying the attract start-ups like San Francisco does but no one is making it. Boston, Philadelphia, New York…. some city even offer 15 to 20 k for start-up comming… but still doesn’t launch…. His explanation ? -The weather here is just so cool!
Tech Museum of Innovation
The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose give to all, children’s and seniors, an insight of what is happening in terms of technological innovation in the SF bay. But it also shows about the local problematic of earthquakes and a view of history and future of space discovery. Genetic research is also made as easy as making coffee. Here’s a simulation of a NASA style jetpack which gives you a feeling of how it is for an astronaut to try to get back to his space ship. We also could get onto a shaking platform that imitates a 6.5 (Richter scale) earthquake Different workshops are made and one of them is about building your own architectural structure and test it on a moving table witch simulate an earthquake. We were two team challenged on that. One team adopted a strategy based on structural rigidity, combined with a oscillating mass on the upper part (knowing that: The other team seemed to have a more spiritual approach of the problem…. Score? … Well, both towers collapsed within less than 20 seconds…..
« I am here for a conference »
So that is why they are here. Who are «they» you may ask? And because I am quite in a good mood I will answer you. «they» are four different people. The first one is a French man. As we walked in the plane from London to the innovative city he heard us, girls, speaking French. After knowing we were Swiss and a few exchange it was his turn to tell us the reason of his trip: « I am here for a conference ». Fair enough. After about 6 hours and (only) one movie in this flight, my back called my body to stand. So I did. I went for a coffee. There I met that guy originally from India, living in London. He is the second «they». We chatted a little. This salesman told me about his trip, a bit of his life, and also got interested in mine. «So why San Francisco then?» I asked. « I am here for a conference ». He added that San Francisco is way better than Dallas for conferences. He emphasized on how much Dallas was boring. Never been there anyway. Next morning, 8 am local time. A short night was behind us and it was time to enjoy our first «cream cheese bagel» breakfast in our international hostel. Quite a crowded room, but lucky enough to find a place to sit. In front of me: this guy from New York. The third «they» : « I am here for a tech conference ». Well at least this one precised which kind of conference he was here for. He then continued to talk about engineering stuff with one of my engineer friend. Morning plus engineering are two good reasons for me to just listen and drink my coffee. I have done it until this last (but not least) «they» got my attention: « I am here for an art conference ». Art conference? Really? So people are really coming from all over the world to hear people say things in a specific area. My thoughts on it are that conferences are strongly linked with networking. It is about Meeting people. Otherwise why would they even move from so far to do so? San Francisco is probably not only an innovative city in terms of creativity, start-ups and development, but also a nest of people willing to know about others and their points of view. I look at our program more in details … a filled-up awesome schedule is waiting for us. And guess what? I presume that we are also here for conferences.