Intel Resorting to Unusual Strategy for Innovation

Chip maker Intel has come up with an unusual way to increase innovation; the company has hired leading science fiction authors to write short stories describing what the company’s technology could be used for in the future. The collection of literature will be dubbed “The Tomorrow Project” and is geared towards capturing the public’s enthusiasm and imagination regarding the company’s current research and future projects.

Intel hopes that the project can capture how consumers envision future technologies. By doing this, the company hopes to get an early jump on those projects and reach the peak of innovation. The anthology has been given away freely online as a download. The Tomorrow Project is spearheaded by Brian David Johnson, a futurist from Intel, who believes that the project is a great way to determine future technology needs and trends.

Johnson spoke of Intel’s reasoning behind the project, saying "When we design chips to go into your television, your computers, your phones - we need to do it about five or ten years in advance. We need to have an understanding of what people will want to do with those devices. What science fiction does is give us a way to think about the implications of the technologies that we're building, for the people who will actually be using them."

Future Casting

This interesting concept is called “future casting” and presents a very strategic way to approach the future technology market by helping to shape it. Johnson continues, "If we can give people a vision of the future - and do it through science fiction - we can capture people's imaginations."

The project features work from United Kingdom science fiction author Ray Hammond, who took an interest in Intel’s research while writing his “The Mercy Dash” – a story centered around a couple’s race against futuristic traffic technology as they struggle to save a life.

Hammond commented, "I was more nervous approaching this than I have been with any of my full-length novels. I've never written short stories, so the form was new to me." Hammond’s impressive work has been made available for download from Intel’s website for free. Hammond is excited about the reception he’s gotten. "I've had several hundred responses from people around the world who've read the story, and either want to read more of my books, or else ask specific questions on the content," he said.

Old Dog, New Tricks

This latest initiative indicates that the giant tech firm has changed their culture strategy as they’ve adjusted to a shifting consumer tech market. In the past, Intel was quite successful in their business strategy by continually innovating and increasing the processing speeds of their chips. But now, companies like Apple have gone one step ahead and actually defined consumer behavior by shaping people’s lives. It seems that everything isn’t about processor speed anymore.

"Intel has owned the desktop and server market for a long time. As the world moves to mobile devices where they are not number one, what are they going to do?" said Hammond. Hammond also has an interesting perspective on the role of story-telling in business: "Story telling is often under-appreciated in marketing and development. It can engender reactions you just don't get if you show a bunch of slides. The best CEOs - like Apple's Steve Jobs - are the most brilliant story tellers."

BBC Photo by : Intel