Sunday 19 October 2014

Progress!

The design for the website is done with the overall look completed! The only things to do is to fill in some details and adding worthwhile content. The plan will be that this blog will be integrated into the website, and also be a portfolio for my designing endeavours. This will be up and running in the near future.



Also, this week the delivery of material to start making the second half of the workshop has arrived. With the help of dad and my older brother, we have now complete the majority of studwork. There had been problems with space as we had to move all the bits and bobs from one end of the garage to the other. We just had little space since we had the new material coming in, the area we were working on, and also the mysterious things that end up in garages.  With spaces in mind, I have also included a set-up on where major machinery and work areas could be.  This is still in the planning stage and so would love to hear feedback on some do's and don't.  At the moment, there will be worktop on the far end with sink.  Then also a Pillar drill, Table saw, Thickness plan/jointer, assembly table and maybe a lathe in the spaces behind it.  Leave comments below. :)


On a side note, I did end up knocking together a trolley to hold the small pieces of wood so we didn't have to waste time shifting it all. I bought four castors and attached them to a box I nailed together. Really not the prettiest thing to look at, but it did the job and also reduced some of the scrap wood we had lying around.  

assembly of garage and flooring

Length of garage (front to back = 11m)

Planning work area
Trolley

Tuesday 14 October 2014

Pang Designs HQ

Beginning of new term and new design studio! It's been the first couple of weeks now into my MA Product Design and already it's looking to be great. Having settled somewhat into the new MA design studio, there is quite a lot going on already with our brief for our first project. Also, on the side of this, I am constructing my own studio/workshop for myself. Extremely exciting! This will be HQ for most of my personal work to be invested into starting up my own business.

Having the ability to freely experiment and prototype designs is essential and which I feel is extremely limited in the last few years. Joinery skills and processes seemed like it was common knowledge and no access to a thickness planer, table saw and router seemed extremely counter productive. I only very recently discovered these three 'essential' machinery. Having been inspired greatly by Matthias Wandel's youtube channel and learning the uses of these machines, it's a wonder how I managed any type of woodworking in my final year. Sadly, I admit resorted to doing everything on the band saw and CNC router, as that is all I really had at my disposal.

So up and coming into the near coming future, there will be a new website and new blog! Here I will be sharing with everyone Pang Designs. Also, here are some photos to show the progress made. It's still a long ways to go yet.



After a couple days of tidying of clutter, sorting wood worth keeping and shooing the spiders alway!

garage has power outlets and also an outdoor tap.

Studwork and insulation

Front of garage holds the piles of stuff. lol

Dad helping out with flooring.

Monday 22 September 2014

Chapter 4 + Conclusions

Chapter 4 – Valve the company

Before we see how Valve has contributed to the gaming industry, lets look at how they work. Afterall, it is how they managed to continuously bring out innovations that are interesting and, not what products they have released. Valve is a company dealing in the games industry but they can approach it in whichever way they think is most valuable. In their new employee handbook, the company is described with these defining features. These are what make Valve fundamentally different; and through these differences, innovative experiences and solutions are created.

  • Valve is self-funding, no outside financing
  • Valve owns its intellectual property
  • Valve is more than a game company
  • Flatland hierarchy
  • 100% self-directed projects
  • Desk with wheels
  • Stack ranking (peer reviews)
  • Advancement and personal growth
  • Hiring T-shaped people

Firstly, by trying not to restrict their employees, Valve has made an environment called Flatland; meaning there is no management and there is no boss. There are no stakeholders to appease, no licensing worries, and development is not strictly within games. This structure has made Valve into a unique environment to work in and resulted in the release of Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Steam platform, Steamworks, Source filmmaker, and most recently, the Steam machines. These are not all games. People are free to decide on what to work on, and where to utilise their skill set within the company. With this, the “Desk with Wheels”(illustration 1) was invented rather humorously to illustrate that people really are able to move. Deciding what you believe will be most beneficial and what to work on is more important. With no manager, desks are on wheels where computers are attached, making moving is easy and not at all frowned upon. Of course there should be coordination between groups, and there's common sense to move at an appropriate point in time. Everyone on a project is an individual contributor, doing whatever is needed such as coding, artwork, level design, music and so on, including the leads; there is no such thing as a pure management or architect, or designer role. (Michael Abrash 2012)

  • Of all the projects currently under way, what’s the most valuable thing I can be working on?
  • Which project will have the highest direct impact on our customers? How much will the work I ship benefit them?
  • Is Valve not doing something that it should be doing?
  • What’s interesting? What’s rewarding? What leverages my individual strengths the most?


Illustration 1: NEH: Intructional illustrations

Secondly, T-shaped people (illlustration 2) are highly sought after. These are, people who have a broad set of skills and are also experts in a few other disciplines too. This is because generalists do not contribute much, and specialists are too focused to be useful. These are the most useful in a company like Valve. They need experts in a variety of functions to be flexible and able to innovate in different areas of the company. But they also need the have a margin, so that when needed, they can be called upon to help contribute to other projects that the individual is less specialized within. Valve is very sensitive to change and because of that, hiring the right right sort of people is vital. Flatland means that people are able to make bad decisions and steer the company into the wrong direction and make expensive mistakes. Instead of penalizing, valve looks at the lessons learnt from mistakes to enable them to move forward. “Screwing up is a great way to find out that your assumptions were wrong” (NEH), but as long as you update your model and not be afraid to collect more data and experiment, progression is made. There is a tremendous amount of trust that a lot of good decisions are made, where bad decisions make up for it. Employees are the most important assets to Valve.


Illustration 2: NEH: Ideal hiring applicant

“There are a bunch of things, like the people who are really talented often don't fit into rigid boxes. It's part of why they're good. For example, Ken Birdwell was one of the first people here and he has a bachelors in Fine Arts -- he's an artist -- and he also happens to be able to program really well. At any other company he would be sort of forced to fit within an existing structure but if you look at the class of problems he's able to solve since he can animate, model, and program he's able to invent solutions that other people can't.” (Gabe 2014)

Problem solvers

So how has Valve, a company as an innovation machine, been able to translate to a profit machine? After all, they are not innovating just for the pure joy and philanthropy of it all. How did they tackle the issue of piracy? What has the Source engine, Steam platform, Source Filmmaker and Steam machines achieved?

Piracy has been rife in the gaming industry for years, particularly in PC gaming. Accompanying piracy, Digital Rights Management (DRM) has also been there as a deterrent. Unfortunately, it has long since been a clear a losing battle as almost all games are able to be pirated through all sorts of methods. Serial numbers, limited installations, and online authentication eventually gets bypassed in one way or another, often to detrimental effect of the user experience. Console games have long since been better at combating piracy with hardware requirements but even so console piracy is prevalent. This issue has often been deciding factors for many game developers to make only console games. But with the additional costs of marketing, distribution and development restrictions in making console games, this makes the games expensive. Valve's solution was released in 2003, in the name of Steam.
Steam was a platform in which users were able to browse, purchase and play games (illustration 3). It's a digital distribution that keeps your games within a library and has additional features such as friends list and in-game voice chat. Steam is also DRM, because it will check your license when online, and is restrictive. But there are a few key differences that make Steam's DRM much more appealing. All purchases and authenticated games can be added into your library of games and stored to your account. It means that games purchased can be stored safely in your account forever. There is assurance and confidence to this that people do not get when purchasing console or even PC games. A physical copy of PC games always had a stigma that it would require a serial number to install and then if you had misplaced or lost the CD, it was gone forever. PC games were often more 'disposable', as many eventually lost interest and discarded the CD altogether. Then a couple months along, the game would be uninstalled in favour of a new game. This was entirely different to console games which were seen as valuable physical items. Particularly when cartridge games were unable to be pirated, in the early days of console gaming. Notable examples are, the Sega Mega Drive and Gameboys in the early 1970s. The Steam platform has changed the experience of owning a game.
Secondly, games have progressed into an area where it has not become an isolated activity. Many games have since tried integrating multiplayer experiences, but it is not until recently that the internet has progressed games into social interaction. Console games have previously only really ever allowed less than ten players at a time without internet. Now, interaction can happen with hundreds of other players. Phenomenology has always been an interesting part of games, that is, the self-projected image of one's self into the world. It is the feeling of being in the world of the game; the immersion of one's self within the rules of the game. People like to interact, chat, explore games together and Steam is able to feed this desire to create a more connected community of gamers. For example, Valve released Team Fortress and Counterstrike in the years 1999 and 2000. Both series of games still continue to today in 2014. It is the community and experience that keeps people using this platform. The Steam community, even though it had an unstable start, it is now a vast network encompassing a variety of activities.
Being an online distribution platform, it is able to integrate all the technological advances along with the Digital Age. Games consist of only a portion of the whole economy that Valve has created, because there is just as much time spent in the games as outside of them. Steam can be a market place, a modding community and also social media site. People are able to go on to steam to voice chat, browse games, read forums, write reviews, and interact. This goes for everyone: players, game developers, publishers, modders and of course Valve employees too. It means that games developers are able to gain feedback from gamers, and respond appropriately with regular updates. Games which previously had problems can be fixed and updated to your game quickly. The introduction of this vibrant interaction which allows games to have a longer shelf-life and can be evolved in little time is what gives value to this service. The steam platform is beneficial for so many users that piracy has become much less of an issue. One of the most common excuses for downloading a pirated game no longer applies: “Games cost too much”.
With the vibrant 7.1 million communities of users in December 2013, the success is clear. People enjoy using the service provided; developers are happy to use the Steam platform, and piracy is brought to a minimum. And now, through the continued response and feedback from the their community, the recent introduction of filmmaker allows players to branch out into other disciplines. Who knows what will be next, Steam consoles within living room?



Illustration 3: Steam platform interface


Conclusion

It seems then, that this account of innovation has had a long history. Innovation has always been identified as a way to become profitable, by Adam Smith, Ronald Coase, Ronald Shumpter and Karl Marx. Firm thrive to be innovators, yet have somehow become the blind to the value of creative minds. Instead, leaders have become engrossed in an hierarchical system, only to reap the benefits of the company. But it is in the Digital Age that has finally shown that the invisible hand still holds true. It has been clear; Gabe Newell witnessed the transition and grasped at the opportunity by creating Valve; an environment where creative minds can play and are shown to succeed in today's fierce competition. Their Steam platform has rocked the gaming industry by combating piracy effectively. But in the end, it appears that Valve's success is not the innovation of creating new and interesting games, but creating an environment suitable for gamers.

References:

http://www.valvesoftware.com/jobs/index.html

Bibliography:

Valve, New Employee's Handbook (2014)
Stickdorn/Shneider, This is service design thinking (2013)
Bill Price/David Jaffe, The best service is no service (2008)
Yanis Varoufakis, blogs.valvesoftware.com (2012)

Mike Abrash, blogs.valvesoftware.com (2012)

Pang Designs - Beginnings

To start this new academic year and end this year's amazing summer, I will be starting to really push to setting up a personal design studio. Completing my degree and exhibiting at London's New Designer's 2014 made me realise the quality of work out there to become a designer. Meeting and seeing all these designers showed me I was not ready. However, I did not think it was a level that was far outside of my reach.

From 2nd to the 5th of July was hectic and an amazingly fun experience for me and my colleagues. It took us roughly five hours on the Tuesday to set up our show. Taking it down took two. As with all team related tasks, puzzled faces and discussions were plenty. Including myself! I had never applied vinyl before, never mind sheets that were over a square metre in size. Thankfully, Stephen was out in-house expert and co-ordinated the operation.  To keep this post a lot shorter and to the point. I'd thought I would show some really cool designs at the show. These were really inspirational and I would hopefully glean some design ideas from in the near future.








Kai Venus's upcycled knives from sawblades. I loved the rural styling and simplicity, but he was charging £25 for a knife which was actually rather cumbersome. The steel was soft and required to be honed and sharpened regularly. However, I really enjoy the idea of upcycling and this is clearly a viable way of reusing scrap steel. With some heat treatment and source for higher quality steels, I think this can be a really fun and enjoyable range of knives.


Really comfortable stool that sat on large rubber grommets to give a firm, yet comfortable spring. There was about 1.5 inches of travel. The stool top was welded onto a very large industrial screw which threaded into large nuts in the stool base. This means the stool is height adjustable. Ergonomics taken into consideration very well!


This chair was a very elegant and interesting design. Made using beech wood and steel joints it was very strong and allowed a canvas seat to be hung from the frame. Very modern and unique design. The designer was called Will Phillips.


This V-Speaker as it's called is a speaker cabinet that acts also as table top. There are control knobs on top, as well as recessed area for placing your music devices, keys or whatever you want. I really love the idea that this product is also a piece of furniture. Because it is very free from the world of audiophiles, where sound is is scrutinized in every way possible. This product is really a great for students, or open plan living, as well as for people with very little space and listen to music everyday.

Finally, the last few photos are of York St. John's show, featuring Rachel Smith's reading lounger, James Birkbeck's space saving stack, Rowan Spear's multifunction unit, Kerry Foulger's wooden toys, and Josh Parker's 3D printed plastics and ceramics.  Mine is there of course; the flat-pack coffee table.  Hope everyone who came enjoyed it!






Monday 19 May 2014

Chapter 1,2,3

Chapter 1 – What are firms for?

To begin to answer this question, Adam Smith, the 'father of modern economics', demonstrated this with the well known account of his pin-making firm which was able to make so many pins from the division of labour. He believed that firms could be efficient by producing goods cheaply which allows them to make a profit. Again, with the assembly line which made Henry Ford so famous, the principles were the same. They succeeded and profited by minimising costs in order to allow the current market price of the goods to be moved by the invisible under the theory of the general equilibrium. Therefore, whatever goods is produced, the price is determined by the market not the producer. Firms in Adam Smith's mind were places where costs can be minimised, and processes things efficiently with the division of labour by reducing manufacturing-cost, this makes them profit machines.
This was different to Ronald Coase, who looked at the limitations of a firm in “The Nature of the Firm” and “The Problem of Social Cost” (1960). Coase questioned why firms emerged and when they are needed. Coase examined the costs that arose when obtaining services from other individuals through subcontracting. Within subcontracting, there are communication, information, bargaining, trade secrets and transport costs which need to be considered i.e. transaction costs. Coase pointed out simply that firms are needed when the cost of subcontracting a good or a service is much larger than producing the same good or service internally. (Yanis 2012) As in the example of Sturges vs Bridgman (1879) case, both parties were unable to enforce the other party action. The solution to a case like this should be the one with the lowest transaction cost, i.e. the doctor to move his shed away from the noisy neighbour, soundproof it, or to use ear plugs. The doctor internalises the problem.
Another influential philosopher, Karl Marx agreed that firms should be efficient, but argued that prices would crash to the level of per unit costs under Smith's theory and result in crushed profits. Instead, Marx's theory was that for profit, firms paid for 'labour' at a fixed market-determined price which is then overcome by the costs with the fruit of labour. (Yanis 2012) The fruition could be in various forms such as time, energy, ideas, which has its own value. However it is only the financial cash profit that is often seen, as for most owners, this is the purpose for starting the business in the first place. How valuable is it to have cleaners in a hotel? Hoteliers will mostly consider cleaners to be of upmost importance, as their clients are highly sensitive to hygiene and cleanliness. Complaints would tarnish their reputation and future trade. However, the warehouse floor in a timber construction company would probably never consider hiring someone specifically to clean. Identifying what is valuable within the business and strategically allocating valuable resources can also be considered as the role of a firm.
In conclusion, progression in civilisation brought about market societies where labour becomes a market commodity to be sold: “I will work for one hour for £10”. Money is the invention after many years of bartering and clearly, you want to trade as little value of something in exchange for something else of much greater value. This is the role of a firm. So what do you do with your scarce resources to be efficient; either through division of labour, or through subcontracting? A firm must operate as a whole and use the availability of innovations, where possible, to reduce marginal cost, and ultimately create value.

Chapter 2 – The world today

Allocation of Resources

Every social order, including that of ants and bees, must allocate its scarce resources between different productive activities and processes, as well as establish patterns of distribution among individuals and groups of output collectively produced.” (Yanis' Valve economics p.1)

Just as Adam Smith's theory of general equilibrium uses some mechanism to regulate market societies; it is implied that firms should also be the same. There is always a price signal that controls processes and activities in response to tend towards the equilibrium. This price mechanism helps to dictate the price and any imbalances which can attract attention. It's the incentive of money that attracts more resources to be used in the hope of getting a bigger profit, known famously as Adam Smith's 'invisible hand'. In other words, without any interference, this is the free market capitalist system where the allocation of resources is dictated by the goal of profit-making. But interestingly, firms have surprisingly been keeping to a different system; a hierarchical one where resources are not dictated freely by the price mechanism. Often, market-societies, or capitalism are synonymous with firms and corporations. But still, firms can be seen as market-free zones. Firms operate within the market, but they themselves are run as an individual, where stakeholders have the say for the allocation of resources. Mike Abrash recalls how Gabe Newell, the founder of Valve explained his realisation of this:

Gabe tells it this way. When he was at Microsoft in the early 90’s, he commissioned a survey of what was actually installed on users’ PCs. The second most widely installed software was Windows.

Number one was Id’s Doom.

The idea that a 10-person company of 20-somethings in Mesquite, Texas, could get its software on more computers than the largest software company in the world told him that something fundamental had changed about the nature of productivity. When he looked into the history of the organization, he found that hierarchical management had been invented for military purposes, where it was perfectly suited to getting 1,000 men to march over a hill to get shot at. When the Industrial Revolution came along, hierarchical management was again a good fit, since the objective was to treat each person as a component, doing exactly the same thing over and over.”(Michael Abrash. April 2012)

It was at this point that Gabe Newell had realised something had changed. He had realised that hierarchical management is no longer efficient, and repetition was no longer valuable. Think about it, once something new and exciting has been released, there is a surge of demand and the market becomes over-saturated. This is not new; there have been innovations throughout history which has since become standard processes, goods, services that we do not even think about. Division of labour gave birth to mass production, satellites to telephones, internet to social networking. Technology is a gateway which is opening new markets; but clearly not everyone is able to exploit the potentials. People like Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Alexander Fleming and Steve Jobs are well known to be 'famous inventors' when that really is not the case. There are so many cases where ideas have been 'stolen' and the true origins of some things are difficult to locate. Who would you associate the famous 'Moonwalk dance' to? In fact, it was first ever seen in video of Bill Bailey in 1955. However, it was only made famous by Michael Jackson in 1983 during Motown 25. Gabe Newell understood this and understood that innovation alone will not add value. The initial creative act has potential, but needs to be delivered correctly to exploit its enormous value. What Gabe Newell had to do was to be able to continuously be innovative in an industry that is growing fast and present it to the market correctly.

The Hungarian journalist who invented the Biro pen - Laszlo Biro - sold the patent for his invention in 1950, just before the pens dropped in price and became mass market items used in schools. The Bic Cristal - based on his idea - has since sold more than 100 billion units, and sells more than 14 million a day.” (Rob Waugh, Aug 2013)

The Digital Age

The Digital Age can be characterized by technology that has increased the speed and breadth of information within society. The availability of internet has increased to a vast 2.4 billion people worldwide which is 34.3% of the world population. (http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm) The progression of technology utilising the expansion of the internet has made the world smaller. Digital content has become the bread and butter of today's life; it has become incredibly easy to send and receive information. Working in one country doesn't have the same limitations today as it did 15 years ago, the majority of the internet was on dial-up and restricted to large desktop computers. Today, smart phones allows you to send and receive gigabytes of data, all of which can include movies, music, work files/documents, photos etc. Digital content has become a necessity of today, just as writing and sending letters was over 20 years ago. But now, with the increased connectivity of the world the global market has expanded, but with it, problems begin to emerge.
Boundaries that have been set for many years are breaking. Workers within production and service industries have to compete with individuals from developing countries. Contrasting, 'mind workers' are now not from restrained to their locations. There is a trend where exchanges are separating the physical world from the digital world. Just as the inadequacy of computer interactions were foreseen giving rise to the touch screen technology, new markets are being opened to which only a few prosper from. (Nicholas Negroponte, 1995)
Company
Equity
- US$ million
Employees
Equity Per Employee
Valve
2,500
400
6.3
Google
72,000
44,777
1.6
Activison Blizzard
11500
7000
1.6
Apple
118,000
80,000
1.5
Mojang
52
36
1.4
Microsoft
79,000
97,000
0.8
Rovio
202
650
0.3
Nike
10,000
44,000
0.2
Sony
28,000
146,300
0.2
Dell
11,000
108,800
0.1
Ford
16,000
171,000
0.1
Table 1: Company equity statistics (Wikipedia 2014)

Looking at Table 1, how have a handful of people been able to create value in the same regions that top companies are making? How can a company like Rovio, Mojang and Valve compare to companies like Apple and Microsoft who have been around for two or three decades longer? The answer lies within how Valve have managed to identify that in today's Digital Age with the hierarchical management bottleneck innovation through people at the top. Valve is designed as a company that would attract the sort of people that is capable of 'taking the initial creative step'.

Chapter 3 – Identifying value

Think about it. What do you do when you have a question and have nobody to ask? Most people would 'Google' it; you need to use a tool to find what you are looking for. The internet's humble beginnings began with the indexing of vast amount of data and search engines have been the driving force behind its success. Google has become so common that its use has become an adjective in the English language, just as 'Hoover' and 'Phillips' pertain to vacuuming and screwdrivers. The problem today is that there is too much information. Just as there were hundreds of inventors discovering and exploring ways to create the telephone, or the lightbulb in the 1800s, we now have millions trying to be innovative. For a firm to be successful in the world today, they must adapt to on-going new trends arising world-wide, indicating they are adapting to the new era. But how can this be performed in such a fast-paced society?

“You need people who are adaptable because the thing that makes you the best in the world in one generation of games is going to be totally useless in the next. So specialization in gaming is sort of the enemy of the future. We had to think about if we’re going to be in a business that’s changing that quickly, how do we avoid institutionalizing one set of production methods in such a way that we can’t adapt to what’s going to be coming next.” (Gabe Newell 2014)

Gabe Newell, who had worked for Microsoft for thirteen years, entered the entertainment industry because that was where he felt he could make a contribution. He was already financially set for life, yet instead he ventured to satisfy his creativity. Doom showed to Gabe that games are popular, digital, and are progressing with the new era. What's more, Doom is still being played today in the form of First Person Shooters (FPS). Doom was simply an intangible good that can be made highly cost effectively and distributed quickly with the rise of the Digital Age. Tetris, Bomber-man, Angry Birds, Farmville, Twitter, Facebook and many other programs could be replicated once you realise their success. But there would be almost no value in doing so; Gabe understood that the most valuable assets in a gaming company are the creative people. By giving freedom and not restricting the creative potentials of employees, this became the key goal at Valve.

Gabe could have started his own brand of computers, software and consultancy or even worked at Apple. So why did Valve, as a company decided to make games? The answer is not clear, but it seems that in the Digital Age, there is with little doubt that they were almost certainly going to produce digital content. As we already established, there is no value in repetition, so entering into any kind of manufacturing processes would not be innovative. From here there is only one way to go: experiences. Whatever the hardware, there needs to be content to be experienced and the most unrestrained possible genre would be within gaming. This is the difference to older companies such as Ford, Dell, Sony and Nike. These are industries which have a lower level of efficiency in today's information era. There is less value in hardware, just as Apple has managed to create pleasurable experiences through their products. Apple has done this most significantly with their phones, introducing touchscreen and an intuitive operating system. Similarly, Valve has contributed to the gaming industry with their release of Half-Life.
They first released Half-Life in 1998 using a very heavily modded version the Quake engine used for Doom. This was a massive success which won over 50 Game of the Year awards. By November, 2004 eight million copies had been sold. But does this equate to massive profit? The success of games has always been disproportionate to its profit. The reason for this is that even the most successful games have always been hampered by piracy. For example, Crysis, considered one of the best selling games of all time had also been leading the charts in piracy. Cevet Yerli, the CEO of Crytec, believed that the game would have sold four to five times more if released on console, where piracy was much less prevalent. This was the problem Valve faced.


Tuesday 28 January 2014

Innovation and it's place in business

Preface

Karl Pilkington once said “They say the more you know, the more you don't know”. It is comments like these that I find so funny. It's comments like these that put him off trying to learn. But I think otherwise; its comments like these that are thought provoking. I would respond “The more you know, the more you realise you don't know”. Its blunt statements like these that makes me want to analyse the plausibility of it. I love the variety of interpretations and viewpoints.
So, when I came across Valve's employee handbook, I envisioned a great place for designers and innovators where exciting work has been done. I realised that these people are not just game makers. These are fun, interesting people who collaborate to make wonderfully innovative experiences and products. It is then through reading Mike Abrash's account of him working at Valve, that got me interested. Valve is special. Without realising, the games that I have played and enjoyed tremendously were made by creative people. Games that have character, humour as well as the great passion originating from engineers, artists, musicians, writers, and of course designers. These products are detailed and have depth and nuances that feel just right; maybe this is why I enjoy Valve products so much. However, this is not to say that Valve is the only company.

Introduction

This dissertation is about innovation; where it comes from and how technology brings new innovation to open new markets. The role of a firm is to generate profit by efficient use of resources, to be creative and to be able to evolve. This is the story of how the founders of Valve identified the changing value of innovation and how they have been able to use innovation to become frontrunners in their prospective industries. This dissertation will give insights into the growing importance of innovation and its place in today’s business world because innovators are able to drastically affects society and our daily lives. We now live in a society where there's fierce competition and just innovation alone will not always mean success.

We will look at the history of a firm's role; the father of modern economics, Adam Smith, who has always been the foundation in which economies thrive within. Others have also given hints to the purposes of a firm and how businesses profit, but the invisible hand and the theory of general equilibrium still prevails. However, should this be true in a world over 200 years ago? From the beginnings of bartering, innovation have taken place throughout businesses all around the world. The invention of money, the division of labour, communication and technology are examples. But it is clear that the majority of businesses are unable to become true innovators. There are only a few leaders in each industry, the rest follow in their footsteps. Yanis gives great insight into the innovative structure of Valve.

Fast forward to today's world; we are now living in the internet-age, just as Adam Smith lived in the time of the Industrial Revolution, where mass production created a large gap between the poor and the wealthy. Allocation of resources are seemingly no longer common practices, and firms can be seen as the last slivers of communism. Now we are living in a new era where the internet is breaking boundaries for many industries and the rise of the Digital Age gives great context into the world in which Gabe was entering into. Throughout history, there have been many advances, but there have only been a few who were able to deliver and fully utilise the opportunities. Innovation has seen to open up new markets, however only a few have ventured into and return prosperously.

Knowing that being innovative is important, and everyone knows what can happen when it does happen, it affects us in our daily lives. So how has the digital-age or the internet-age affected us? Similarities can be seen just as when trains, telephones, televisions and computers were invented and what new markets have opened up as a result? This study will be examining what innovations can do, and how Gabe Newell was able to start Valve with an intention to make innovation as its produce. After all, not everyone can benefit from innovation; identifying what will the best and most profitable for a company is difficult. Mike Abrash and Yanis Varoufakis are witnesses of Gabe's creation, and from here we can start to deduce what Valve is. What's more, they have even made a new employee's handbook to shed light on what's like to be at Valve.

So, why Valve? Well, they were able to overcome the biggest problem in the gaming industry and push the limits of their creativity to produce innovative and quality products every time. Valve has become Pixar in their industry; creating something that's fresh and never been done before every time. Arguably, they can be the newest and most interesting company to enter the gaming industry within the last 20 years. Tapping into the benefits of the internet era, they are in a perfect situation. Manufacturing and the physical world is now oversaturated and the digital 3D world is expanding. Gabe Newell saw this, and has been breaking boundaries in this new world ever since. We will be looking at Valve's innovations from their Source engine, Steam platform, Source Filmmaker and most recently, Steam machines, and how these have been a successes.


If Valve can be so successful, why are there not more companies following suit? Clearly, this business structure must have its problems. There have been places where similar practices have been implemented giving freedom to employees to do as they wish, but not to the extent that Valve has done. Places like Google are one example, and it can be a huge risk to the company. After all, it seems counter-intuitive to pay your employees to do what they want. Being successful is a lot of hard work, and maintaining such a place requires high levels of trust, faith, money and exceptional people.

Tuesday 7 January 2014

Dissertation - Innovation and it's place in today's world

These last few weeks have been hectic with Christmas, New year, work, Reinvigorate York project.  Now, with the deadline for our other assignment coming up, a design dissertation, I have been unable to progress with this blog.  The dissertation is currently in progress and should be finished by next week.  i hope to share this at some point and hope it will spark some interest.  The dissertation title will be: Innovation and it's place in today's world

This will give insight into a bit of history into economics, innovation as opposed to 'design' and also provide a very fitting example of a new company that thinks out of the box.  As a hint, the company has been since 1996 and has made a big impact in the gaming industry since.  The company is featured on this list:

http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/2013/industry/gaming

If you have any suggestions on topics or insights within this broad subject, feel free to comment. :D
Happy New Year!

Here's another hint as to what will be coming up for my Reinvigorate project.  ;)