New projects are always appealing, but should we do them?

CEO’s love them. Board’s love them. Banker’s love them. We all love new projects.

They hold the promise of being the long term solution to your company’s problems. A more productive workforce, less union problems, a new culture, a lower production cost, new equipment – you name it, we all see this as a good thing. However, after 15 years of doing valuations on new projects I am beginning to wonder if new projects are always good.

I now wonder if many new projects aren’t really just wishful thinking. Let me explain.

It is always but always hard to sort out existing operations. There is no easy solution. You have to spend more capital on an existing assets – which the Board is reluctant to do. Then you have to sort our culture issues, take on unions, fire people, take a financial hit as you pay out accrued entitlements such as leave, restructure, etc.

Even if you do all that, the turnaround time can be years, and your whole company can become demoralised for the period in the middle. Basically it sucks. It is hard work, and the reward is delayed.

Instead we focus on something new because we imagine it is starting with a blank slate and that none of the existing problems will occur. Trust me, those exact same problems will occur.

My thinking on this has been sparked by my own divorce. You reach a point in a relationship where things are just not working – just like a problematic asset. You are stuck in your ways, and you can’t see any way to fix up your existing relationship – just like existing operations. So you both find someone new.

Counsellors say that you need to understand your own issues and biases before forming a new relationship to avoid making the same mistakes. How many companies can say that they work through their own organisational issues before they embark on a new project?  Aren’t they just repeating the same mistakes on a new project by avoiding fixing up how the rest of the company works?

What this has really highlighted for me is that the job of turning things round and fixing up what you already have is really difficult and that most of us will do anything to avoid it.  As someone who consults specifically in the area of new major projects for major companies, I see this bias all the time. It’s subtle, pervasive and most people aren’t even aware that they are acting this way.  It’s taken me 15 years of working at the coal face of new projects to even find a way to describe it.

The challenge for all of us is to find ways to unlock the value in what we already have and bring out the best in people and operations as well as profit. That’s not to say that we don’t need new investments, but that they may not always be the best answer.

Auto-nagging and other ideas for the future of Google Glass

Since Google glasses came out I have been thinking a lot about the future of computing and apps. I think we are not far off turning science fiction technology into everyday reality.

The topic that got me started was thinking about friends with vision problems or impairments. Red Green colour blindness runs in my family and I was thinking – wouldn’t it be great if the glasses could identify a red light and flash “STOP” in your vision.

Of course I am not talking about Google Glasses as they are now, but a future device which is a powerful computer as well.

So – how about the following list of ideas.

Colour matcher for the colour blind (already an app for smartphones). Never buy a purple shirt again when you thought it was brown.

Facial recognition for the blind – hear their name. “Jessica has entered the room.” or “David is looking at you.”, or “a stranger is staring at you”.

Facial recognition for networking – see somebody and you can be reminded who they are, pull up notes from recent conversations, etc.

When travelling, see a translation of what you are hearing in a foreign language in English in your glasses.

See subtitles on a foreign language movie through fast translation.

Read a foreign language newspaper in English.

Pick out a face in a crowd – good for not only police looking for a suspect, but also at any time you are waiting for, or looking for someone – and can use the higher sensitivity of your camera than your eyes.

Lip reading – great for the deaf, but could also assist with translation too (yes, and of course spying too).

Look at an object in the shop and pull up comparative models from other brands, and pricing. “this model is available for $10 cheap within 500m of here”

Do I have any eggs left? Automatically see an image of what was in your fridge the last time you opened it.

Is my garage door shut? I can’t be the only person out there who leaves home in a hurry and then can’t remember if I shut the garage door. How about your glasses take an image and reminds you. Or it could be linked to a camera of the garage door.

Looking for directions. You are walking down the street and you see an arrow pointing you in the right direction. Or even better, it highlights your destination.

Visual groupon – walk down the street and see the deals of the day flashing in front of the shopfront.

Find your cat or dog. Not only put a little GPS tracker on your furry companion, but when the little bugger gets lost, you get visual directions to their location. You can see a flashing beacon or suchlike when you look in the direction that they are in.

Keep an eye on your kids or pets from another room.

Create a food diary that is 100% honest. Everytime you start chewing sensors pick up the vibrations and take a photo of what you eat. Never say “I forgot about the Mars bar” again.

Auto-nagging – my favourite idea and a few years off. Everytime you look at high calorie food it asks “Do you really need this today? Your calorie intake for the day is already too high. Think about your health.”

Keep track of your household budget – just look at your shopping docket (receipt) and the optical character recognition will add things up. Link it to your expenses and banking apps and you will get an alert in real time.

Recognising food for the blind – to a blind person cans and packages all tend to feel the same. How about optical character recognition reads out what food it is. This could be based on bar codes to start. They could use it while shopping to try new things, as well as to recognise food when they are home. Foodmakers could have their cooking/preparation instructions linked to a QRcode or something on the label.

Recipe suggester – don’t know what to cook tonight? Don’t want to go down the shops? How about you just have a look in the fridge and cupboard and a series of recipes come up based on what you already have. You could choose cuisine types “Indian please’, or how long it takes to cook, or recipes by famous chefs.

Reporting accidents – upload images and video to the government, police, emergency services, insurance provider, etc. It tags information with location, time stamp, and even licence plates of other vehicles.

Clothes shopping – See some clothes you like, then put them on your avatar to see how you’d look in them.

Buying new glasses or sunglasses – again, try them on your avatar and see how they fit your face. The makers would put the exact dimensions online so you’d see exactly how they fit.

For the nature lovers – how about recognition of birds, spiders, bugs, moths, etc. Not only can you find out which species it is, but you can record the date, time and location which will help all the ‘twitchers’ out there and gather data for science.

Virtual reality cenotaphs – when you visit places that you associate with the deceased, see photos or videos of them there with you.

Visible invisible friends – for the kids in all of us. Have an invisible friend that interacts in real time with objects and people around you.

Night vision – need I say more. This would be awesome, and breakthroughs are starting to be made.

Black and white vision – this may not be an obvious one, but for visual artist seeing the value of a colour painting is important. Abstract artists could more easily create figure-ground effects. You could also do paintings with imposed colour blindness – which might seem stupid, but some artists seem fresh or unique because they see colours differently.

Guided tour around the Louvre – access the Louvre App when you are there and it will pull up details about the objects you are looking at. If you are short on time, it will provide guided tours by theme that lead you around the gallery.

Virtual cosplay (costume play)– lighten up your day. Get your Google Glasses equivalent to turn all your co-workers into cartoon characters. Your boss annoying you? Well turn him into the pointy-hair boss from Dilbert. Turn your team leader into a superhero or villain. Put Angeline Jolie’s face over the top of less attractive co-worker to make your life just that little bit visually pleasing. All done with facial recognition technology.

Coping with dementia – facial recognition of loved ones, a return home when lost navigation tool, set a geographic boundary that will trigger an alarm if they cross it and notify you where they are.

Tinder on steroids – imagine eHarmony or RSVP, or tinder for those more active types, using facial recognition. Highlight the faces in a crowd who might be compatible. Eliminate them by double blinking. Nothing new here. Fifteen years ago the Japanese had pagers with proximity sensors and fetishes loaded so people who met each other in public would know there was somebody else up for the same mischief nearby. This is just the updated version.

Trouble getting it up? – how about you overlay an attractive person’s face on your partner. Put your favourite movie actor or actresses face in place of theirs and performance is guaranteed. This could be the new way to spice up your sex life – take roleplaying to the next level.

Visual instructions – want to change the sparkplug on your mower. A visual overlay will guide you. Don’t know where the fuse box is in your car – let a visual overlay show you.

There are so many more ideas out there I know. This is just a selection of ideas that have come to me, and I am sure the rest of you have millions more.

I can’t wait for the future to happen.