UPS has developed new shipping containers made of a composite material called MacroLite, similar to that used in body armor, as well as an active fire suppression system.  Tests show that these new containers which weigh less and are more durable than legacy aluminum or polycarbonate-sided containers can confine an internal fire of 1,200 degrees for 4 hours.  Bob Brown, a UPS member of the group developing the new container, stated that some of the solutions were found in unusual places,  “We had to go outside of aviation into the automobile industry, Navy submarines and space programs to see how they handled fires.”   (Aviation Week and Space Technology)

While the containers cost more, the company stated that the added expense will be offset by transportation savings stemming from its reduced weight and by reduced maintenance.  What’s equally important is the company’s approach to the project.  Members of the development team went outside the walls, or silos, of this company to explore products and practices in other companies and industries.  Expanding their vision to the periphery helped this team develop a new product with benefits that should be felt for many years.

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Homeland Security officials have declared that failing to prepare for extreme weather events cost the U.S. $1.15 trillion from 1980 to 2010. Two years ago, 15 states had climate protection plans, now 36 states do. Delaware, which has invested in shore protection, has noted that for every dollar it has invested, it has received $10 in value back from the investment. (USA Today)   Electric grid, water management, transportation system upgrade and shore protection all seem to be slated for increased funding over the next several years.

Additionally, the conditions across the United States have caused numerous school cancellations and are creating challenges for schools to meet state class-time requirements.  Under a new Ohio law that took effect this year, districts that max out on “calamity” days can use up to three “e-learning days” to meet state class-time requirements and avoid having to add extra days on to the end of a school year.

To implement e-learning days, the state requires district teachers to post lessons and assignments online for students to complete during the snow day.  At Grandville High School in Michigan, an AP calculus teacher uses online technology for snow days to assign lessons and provides videos of herself teaching the lesson and working out sample problems, that way she doesn’t have to rush through lessons with fewer school days.   (Education Week)

These events have also created planning and budget issues for many schools and has pushed teachers to explore new ways of connecting with their students.   Out of these storms may come some helpful operational changes.  As just one example, the AP calculus teacher in Michigan now tapes most of her classes as it provides another connection for kids that are absent, or who just want to hear the lesson again.

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As part of the investigation into the Asiana Flight 214 accident at San Francisco Airport, the National Transportation Safety Board learned that the pilot had set the plane’s speed at 137 knots and assumed the auto throttles would maintain the speed. The system did not maintain that speed, actually leaving the Boeing 777-200ER engines at idle speed through the final portions of the plane’s landing approach and placing the aircraft very near an aerodynamic stall less than 200 feet above San Francisco Bay. A 777 fleet captain for a different major carrier was quoted by Aviation Week and Space Technology, “I don’t know how the whole crew could take their eyes off the speed.” 

The incorporation of automated systems in many areas of endeavor might well be assumed to increase capacity and efficiency, but they also increase unanticipated risks.   Anyone care to go for a ride in a Google autonomous car?

Takeoff and landing are known to be the two key times to maintain maximum safety vigilance on all flights. With automatic capabilities now incorporated into the most advanced aircraft, one must question whether the technology guiding these planes is “training” flight crews to be less vigilant.  

 
With that being said, it is no surprise that a new study by psychologists at the University of Utah has learned that hands-free (voice-activated) texting – new technology that will be standard in some 2014 automobiles – is more distracting that talking on a cellphone, whether hands free or handheld. 

 Use the right lane while voice texting…

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This practice of taking executive recruiting in-house has produced substantial cost savings at GE, as well as Coke, Pfizer, Microsoft and Nike.  This new way of operating is one example of what we have termed Rampaging Efficiencies at U.S. companies.  But while it has produced savings in the tens-to-hundreds of millions of dollars at these corporations, it has resulted in substantial revenue declines at the talent-search companies.  No wonder the search giants are now acquiring leadership consulting companies in an effort to broaden revenue streams.  What happens when the corporate in-house recruiters also branch into in-house leadership consulting?

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In Texas, Allan Ritter, a Republican and chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, proposed bills that would withdraw $2 billion from the state’s Rainy Day Fund to establish a water infrastructure bank that would lend money for projects dedicated to the state’s 50-year water plan. His proposals received support from Republican leaders, the Sierra Club’s Texas chapter and the Texas Association of Business. (read the article)

 
Texas Republicans’ inclination is to reduce government involvement when markets can be involved, but, in this instance, previously opposing forces are cooperating to deal with what are perceived to be structural challenges. Water is essential to commerce, agriculture, energy and consumers. Current Texas politicians perceive water as too important of a commodity to be left to the markets to allocate and price.

How long will this perspective about water last?  Will other states follow?

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In eFocus 702 earlier this year, we noted how researchers are increasingly using viruses as “vectors” to reprogram patients’ DNA to cure hard-to-treat diseases, and we noted that in many such treatments, patients’ own immune systems are being prodded to treat the disease, rather than using powerful drugs. As 6-year-old girls start being saved in experimental versions of such treatment, we wonder if an era of increased medical efficiency and effectiveness is at hand.

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Could such an offering eventually become the moneymaker the Postal Service needs to replace the fall off in first class mail over the past several years?

If anything, such an offering, should it eventually be broadly offered in many cities, would be another enabler of the changing nature of retail, toward smaller stores and online shopping and fast delivery. Americans have increasingly found such convenience desirable, especially when compared to gassing up the car and zigzagging among various big-box stores and malls.

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For one, the mailbox is answering the call for delivery of online purchases.

Amazon is now teaming up with Staples, Radio Shack, 7-Eleven and Albertsons for its Amazon Locker Service.  The physical retailers will install Amazon lockers in their stores, allowing customers to buy from Amazon and ship packages to the lockers and then pick them up later.

As we have noted in our New American Lifestyles context, individuals are increasingly moving to urban locations and these locker services, also offered by startups BufferBox and ShopRunner, may prove beneficial to those living in apartment buildings and urban environments.

For another example of the past offering a solution for modern problems, the general store is proving to be a valuable retail model in some cities.

Facing a mass exodus from urban to rural areas and a general population decline that was forcing retailers to close, residents of the German village of Barmen formed a corporation and funded the creation of a village center in 2006.  Today the 150 square meter store sells basic staples and also has an ATM machine, post office, travel center, a place to register a car or renew a driver’s license and has a doctor who comes once a week from a neighboring town.

Those who run the Barmen store have gotten so many inquiries from other towns that they have created a separate consulting firm and estimate that they have helped set up about 10 other stores, none of which are losing money.  They have another 25 stores in the works.

According to one of the Barmen consultants, the most important element of the village store is the café in the back.  While the store can’t compete with discounters on price, or with upscale supermarkets on variety, it can offer a community feel and an experience.

Simplicity (the limited inventory), Connectivity (the community of the town center) and Experience (the café) are three things that are making these general stores a success and are also three of the four items, along with Restraint, on our American Consumer Values Hierarchy.

American retailers, faced with a myriad of challenges, might want to look to Germany for some ideas.

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Kansas museum officials have proposed spending $34 million to create the National Museum of Suburbia in Overland Park.

One of America’s quintessential (and economically successful) suburbs is going to build a museum of the suburbs.  Is America ready to put the idea of “suburbs” in a museum?  We suspect the suburb will always have a place in the fabric of the American landscape, but as we have recently written, the recent renaissance of urban and downtown areas across the U.S. makes it an interesting time to suggest the suburbs merit a position in history.

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First, for some time, the movie industry has targeted its filmmaking power at the young, yet last year, movie attendance declined among every demographic group (including the young) but one:  those over 60, which actually increased.  Second, the publishing industry has long looked to Baby Boomers to lead all segments in book buying, and they have…until last year.  In 2011, book-buying leadership slipped away from those born between 1945 and 1964 to those born between 1979 and 1989, Generation Y.

What an inversion of stereotypes! Book-buying young people and movie-going elders, really?  Looking a little deeper, the younger cohort’s book buying makes sense because they are buying books for school and are purchasing digital books. Yet that younger age group has never taken the book-buying lead in the past.  Also, looking a little deeper into the over-sixty segment of the Boomers, the reality that they have money and time, and, in fact, indulged deeply in movies in their past suggest that they are returning to what once drove their media interests.  They are indulging their movie-going whims just as the younger cohort turns to digital technology to satisfy their move-viewing needs.

These realities have taken both industries by surprise, and as a result, every movie studio has an “older demographic” film in the pipeline, and every publisher is looking for another title to sweep across the youth market.  Marketing messages will adjust accordingly.

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