harnessing our strength

jerry scharf_3

I see a theme in a series of posts. First was Hot Rod's post on modifications to the Taco RMB. The second was the state of the union address. Then there was John's post about respect, and finally John Hall's post about immigrants.

These all came together in my head with a couple other things I have heard recently. The VP of IBM spoke at a conference my wife attended, and he said that the great thing the US has is innovation. His belief that innovation is the thing that will keep the quality jobs in the US.

There are others who are great researchers. Others who are great manufacturers, and others who have multitudes thatthey can bring together. If the US tries to compete with these people head to head, we rarely do well.

So how many of you see needs that aren't being met? How many of you can see a solution that could do it? What would you need to do to turn your idea into reality?

The doors are about to be kicked open. Sure lots of money will be dumped to the usual suspects. But there will also be a great number of opportunities for ideas that solve problems cheaply and effectively. Some of these things are a person working in a basement, others require teams.

Let's demonstrate that there is a critical value in this trade by creating innovations that make life better. People need to be looking for these opportunities. Manufacturers need to be looking for and embracing the ideas as they come up. Suppliers and contractors need to be looking for these new ideas to install in their work.

I'm signing up to be a follower of Hot Rod. I've picked the thing I am going to take a stab at. If it can work, it will be something that can help the cause.

Who is going to come up with the self clearing CO detector that can last for years in a boiler or automobile exhaust? Who is going to find a way to commercialize translucent concrete? How do we convice Wilo to certify and import the variable speed ECM pump and then make sure these are widely installed?

and on and on.

jerry