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Thanks for signing on. I’m Bob Carkhuff, and this is Freedomblog.

The theme for today is Freedom-Building as a vital step on your roadmap to freedom.

For thinking people, this means that we must regain our bearings as policy-makers.

Like many of our citizens, I am distraught by current American policy. I believed fervently that we, as a people, would come to a better end than this—“Modern Colonialists,” “One-Armed Superpower,” “Sheriff of the World.”

Further, I hoped that our so-called leaders could be visionaries along the lines of the great Indian Chief, Sitting Bull, who defined leadership forever:

“It is the chief’s responsibility to look seven generations ahead to the welfare of his children’s children.”

Moreover, I am deeply disappointed in people who define programs in what we Celtics humorously label “Irish steps:”

1. “Bring it on!”
2. “Shock and awe!”
3. “Mission accomplished!”

Have we not come along further as a civilization than this “cheerleader drivel?!”

Most of all, I am unhappy with America’s loss of leadership in the marketplace. We used to lead in generativity or creating “breakthroughs” in science. Now we follow the giant Multinational Corporations who want only controlled minimal innovation in the commercialization which satisfies their stockholders.

Moreover, we used to lead in The Freedom Functions:

• Collaborative Cultural Relating where we transformed a “boiling cauldron” into a “melting pot;”
• Free Enterprise Economics where we pioneered Tom Watson Sr.’s principle of “World Peace through World Trade;”
• Participative Governance where our constitution empowered an enlightened citizenry to be policy-makers.

Now we are “Back-in-the-Pack:”

• Competitive with continuous class and cultural struggles;
• Command economics controlled by Multinational Corporations;
• Authoritarian governance controlled by Totalitarian Edicts.

If this sounds more like a description of an Unfree Nation than a Free Nation, it is! For this is what our scientifically derived Freedom Scores tell us.

Yes, along with many, I am unhappy and angry, too!

I am furious to have been led down the “primrose path” pointing toward tyranny.

I am livid with having our freedom-loving attributes turned back upon us.

But I am not feeling hopeless! Our country has taken a “U-turn in The Freedom Road.” But We the People can take the “Roadmap to Freedom!”

We are, after all, Americans!

Pragmatists all, we’ve always taken the best from the past and applied it to our future.

Americans are builders. Freedom-builders! Let’s get our bearings!

Signing off for Freedomblog, this is Bob Carkhuff.

Remember, We the People are freedom-builders and we must let no rank politicians stand in our way. Think about it!

We invite your comments below.  Please send them to Bob at Freedomblog. 

“May the road rise to meet you
And the wind be at your back.”

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Thanks for signing on. I’m Bob Carkhuff, and this is Freedomblog.

The theme for today is Voyage of Discovery.

For thinking people, this means that all science is the explication or explanation of the unknown.

I am a scientist, an applied scientist who defines science as the “explication of the unknown.” I have spent my entire adult life of over 50 years on a “Voyage of Discovery.” Just like the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1805 exploring the Louisiana Territory, I have experienced all stages of human development in the evolution of a Free Civilization—one that was once Peaceful, Prosperous, and Participative.

Just like Lewis and Clark who visited many First American communities in opening the West, I have experienced fully the evolution of humans in our time: as individuals, organizations, families, schools, colleges, governance, businesses, communities, cultures, and nations. I have found the developmental principle, “Ontogeny replicates Phylogeny” to be accurate: human development evolves as does the evolution of life.

Just like the original “Voyage of Discovery” in its dedication to our external Westward Expansion, I am committed to the internal expansion of Human Brainpower in all of its manifestations:

• Relating to receive images;
• Representing to improve images;
• Reasoning to generate new and more productive images.

It is our human capacity to reason that empowers us to shape our own changeable destinies. It is our Reasoning that generates a Science of Freedom. It is our Human Brainpower that will save the world!

Signing off for Freedomblog, this is Bob Carkhuff.

Remember, We the People, that Human Brainpower is the most powerful source of freedom. Think about it!

We invite your comments. Send to Bob@Freedomblog.com.

“May the road rise to meet you
And the wind be at your back.”

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Thanks for signing on. I’m Bob Carkhuff, and this is Freedomblog.

The theme for today is Secrets of the Marketplace.

For thinking people, this means that multi-modal curves best represent the market.

As most Americans, I look for the current utility of past traditions in order to see if we can build upon them. One of the “tricks of the trade” has been to find exemplary performers—past or present—and to study them in operational and measurable terms. Armed with insights from this analysis, we can generate new images of exemplary performance in the future.

In my many voyages discovering these exemplars, I have been blessed by some of the most important people in my life and my work. I would like to take you, the listener, on one of these discovery voyages and introduce you to my guide.

Our voyage is into the marketplace. Our guide is John T. Kelly, D.Sci., or “Doctor Jack,” perennial winner of “Salesman of the Year” and former director of The Office of The Future at IBM, Inc.

When we first met, Jack was a project director at Advanced Systems Design, which helped define IBM’s R & D effort: The Watson Center directed research and A.S.D., Advanced Systems Design, directed development.

Jack’s project at A.S.D. was The Educational and Career Exploration System, or ECES, a computer-based career development system.

When we began our voyage with Jack, we discovered the critical ingredients in the dissemination of all information—Human Processing: information depresses performance if the user does not know how to process it.

When we continued our voyage, we designed the first Interactive Software System—interactive between humans and information, that is: Creating a matrix of human values and career requirements which enabled the user to maximize meeting both at the highest levels.

Now as we conclude our voyage together, we have discovered the secrets of the marketplace and, thus, the secrets to positioning in the marketplace.

Any senior executive will tell you, “Positioning in the marketplace is 99% of the success in the market.”

All honest senior executives will also tell you how much training they have in marketplace positioning: “Nothing! Absolutely nothing!”

Market strategists illustrate the marketplace with a bell-shaped curve. The biggest market secret revealed to us on our journey is this: there is no such thing.

The truth is, the market curve is not a “normal curve.” Indeed, nothing in the universes is linear, normal, and symmetrical. To be sure, the so-called market curve is comprised of multiple market curves: it is “multi-modal.” Each curve, in turn, is itself multidimensional as well as asymmetrical and changeable. We may describe these market curves as follows:

• Generator—Stimulating markets through scientific breakthroughs;
• Innovator—Initiating markets through technology transfers;
• Commercializer—Culminating markets through consumer-responsive products and services;
• Commoditizer—Draining markets through producing more for less;
• Attenuator—Breaking markets through product “dumping.”

Figure 1. The GICCA Market Curves Carkhuff, R. R., et al. The Freedom Wars. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2004

For our purposes, we label these market phases with the acronym “GICCA.” Generator, Innovator, Commercializer, Commoditizer, Attenuator. Placement in these curves has profound implications for nations, cultures, businesses, people, and products. The multi-modal curves dominate The Global Market, as do “mini”-multi-modal curves within these curves.

Clearly, it is most attractive to be driving the markets from the Generator’s positioning. This means you define the marketplace. If you mobilize the resources of innovation in technology development and commercialization in marketing and sales, you will be positioned for comparative advantage or competitive edge in the marketplace.

However, if you do not mobilize the follow-through resources of innovation and commercialization, your breakthroughs will be exploited by others. Moreover, the costs of research may be prohibitive and the delays in benefits protracted.

Signing off for Freedomblog, this is Bob Carkhuff.

Remember, We the People, that the GICCA Curve best represents the market—Generator, Innovator, Commercializer, Commoditizer, Attenuator. Think about it!

We invite your comments. Send to Bob@Freedomblog.com.

“May the road rise to meet you
And the wind be at your back.”

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Thanks for signing on. I’m Bob Carkhuff, and this is Freedomblog.

The theme for today is Secrets of Positioning in the Market.

For thinking people, this means that Generative-driven Innovation is the most powerful positioning in the marketplace.

One of the secrets that Jack Kelly, who was head of Development in IBM’s R & D system, told over and over was about the relationships among the Watson Center, the Advanced Systems Design, and the Marketing arm; e.g., the relationships between the Generators, Innovators, and Commercializers which we labeled “The GIC System.”

The relationships between the Generators at the Watson Center and the Innovators at Advanced Systems Design were antagonistic. The Generators viewed themselves as the ruling “thinkers” who had no real responsibility for creating the market. The Innovators, in turn, viewed their roles as making the transfers of generative breakthrough ideas into the real world technological needs which create the market. In the vision of the Generator, the Innovators were “Hijackers” of the ideas of others. In the vision of the Innovators, the Generators were “Lords of the Ideal and Peasants of the Real.”

As antagonistic as were the relations between the Generators and Innovators, the relations between Innovators and Commercializers were still more adversarial—nearly violent. Once the Innovators had ownership of technological transfers, they shepherded them like their children. The Marketers, in turn, were interested only in consumer responsiveness: did the customers embrace the product? Did the customers use the product effectively? The Marketers were tuned-in to the customers, while the Innovators were thrilled with the technologies.

It was a simple step from developing the “GIC System—Generators, Innovators and Commercializers” to positioning in the marketplace (Figure 2). IBM positioned itself as Generative Innovator. This means that they applied and commercialized the breakthroughs that they generated. Basically, they “owned” the customer base that was oriented toward immediate innovation with the prospect of long-term generativity.

The real genius of Tom Watson, Sr., was to relate these otherwise mutually exclusive entities into one system—“The GIC System.” Watson defined the “cellular bonding tissue” for the essential secrets of success. Through continuous interdependent processing, the resolution of technological crises became the foundation for generating new technologies.

During the three decades of the “Golden Age of IBM,” Watson applied his international trade perspective of ongoing “GIC Relations” to his business: “Internal productivity through operational relatedness!”

Sadly, this principle of relatedness is, itself, no longer in operation!

Figure 2. Generative Innovator Positioning in the Global Market Carkhuff, R. R., et al. The Freedom Wars. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2004.

The issues of globalization, jobs, and education for the 21st century Global Economy converge upon the phases of The GICCA Curve. Succinctly, America resolved all of these issues in continuous and interdependent processing for a bountiful and expanding future with “GIC Systems.”

• Generative or “breakthrough” research by the likes of IBM’s Watson Center and the old AT&T Bell Labs;
• Innovative contextual “transfers” of these breakthroughs by laboratory-based industries such as Microsoft and Intel;
• Commercial applications of these innovations by consumer-responsive businesses such as General Electric and Westinghouse.

These “GIC Systems” sustained and grew the American economy throughout the second half of the 20th century. In this context, the U.S. was the hope—not only for its citizenry—but for the peoples of the world. Indeed, the U.S. is The Multicultural “Experiment for the World:” if things work here, they can work anywhere.

Signing off for Freedomblog, this is Bob Carkhuff.

Remember, We the People, Generative Innovators is the most powerful positioning in the marketplace. Think about it!

We invite your comments. Send to Bob@Freedomblog.com.

“May the road rise to meet you
And the wind be at your back.”

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Thanks for signing on. I’m Bob Carkhuff, and this is Freedomblog.

The theme for today is Default in Positioning.

For thinking people, this means retreat to Innovative Commercializer positioning.

Unfortunately, the historical “GIC Relationships,” Generator, Innovator, Commercializer relationships, no longer relate, let alone process collaboratively. This is due in large part to the American business reaction to the Japanese “blind-siding” of the 1980’s. In order to defeat imitating, American businesses retreated from generating to innovating. There are no longer any R & D centers of any consequence: there is little scientific search, let alone any research, to explicate the unknown; only developmental trials and focus groups to prepare “pilots” for commercialization.

Moreover, by abdicating systematic “GIC” leadership, the U.S.A. has slowed world Generativity down to a random trickle. Not only has the U.S. suffered from short-term stasis, but the nations of the world will now suffer from long-term paralysis as the wheels of Generativity grind to a halt. Concurrently, both leader and followers are surrendering to Multinational Corporations that sponsor no Generativity and have no alignment with American Civilization other than capitalistic profitability.

Indeed, the Multinational Corporations have dropped the “R” in “R&D.” For them, generativity is a huge expense that places burdens upon dividends to stockholders. They assume no social responsibility and are dedicated only to development which translates directly into capitalistic profitability.

In this context, the Multinational Corporations are “dead-set enemies” of the Entrepreneurial-Driven Capitalism of the Watson era. To be sure, they have adopted the philosophy of Microsoft, Inc. and its leaders: “The only thing that we are afraid of is two guys in a garage.” (Think, Wright Brothers!) Accordingly, they have huge staffs of scientists and engineers scouring the garages of the world to discover the Generators who might create new markets and the Innovators who might create new “playing fields” for the applications and transfers of technologies.

Japan, Inc., has long held the Innovative Commercializer Positioning in the marketplace (see Figure 3). In this positioning, Innovative Initiatives are “nested” in the Commercializer Phase. This is the positioning which Multinational Corporations find most profitable and, therefore, most attractive: it emphasizes legacy contributions modified or customized by innovative technological initiatives.

Figure 3. The Innovative Commercializer Positioning Carkhuff, R. R., et al. The Freedom Wars. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2004.

This is “The Microsoft Model:” to appear “slightly innovative” while becoming maximally profitable. The long-term problem is that this apparently “risk-free” course is very vulnerable to both Generators and Innovators as when the U.S. retaliated against Japan, Inc. for “dumping” in the 1990s by pitting “True Innovation versus False Imitation.”

Most important, America has abandoned the source of its dominance throughout the 20th century: “Free Enterprise through Generative Innovation!” Historically, we have dominated by generating R & D “breakthroughs” and discovering new markets and servicing them.

It is uncomfortable for a nation of builders to chant “Second to the market and proud of it.”

We are a people who are committed to the front of the market curve: “First to the market and free!”

In transition, American Free Enterprise has dropped from its pre-potent leadership of Generative Innovation to a “Slightly Innovative Commercializer Positioning” which places her “back-in-the-pack” with all of the other “Wannabe Commercializers.” The U.S. has done this in large part due to her deference to the Multinational Corporations which satisfy stockholder demands on profitability and fail on creative leadership values.

Signing off for Freedomblog, this is Bob Carkhuff.

Remember, We the People, we must not retreat from Generative Innovator positioning in the marketplace. Think about it!

We invite your comments. Send to Bob@Freedomblog.com.

“May the road rise to meet you
And the wind be at your back.”

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Thanks for signing on. I’m Bob Carkhuff, and this is Freedomblog.

The theme for today is Roadmap to Freedom.

For thinking people, this means that the current model of American Enterprise must implement Generative Innovator positioning.

The march of civilization is the march of freedom. Free enterprise has brought us free markets and global trade. Participative governance has given us democratic governments and individual rights. Cultural relating has yielded human rights, meritocracy and social security. The human benefits are hard to calculate.

And yet the march of civilization is not without costs to its promulgators. The treatment of the U.S. in the global marketplace is consistent with the adage, “No good deed goes unpunished!” Until the 21st century, America has been the source of more than 90% of the generative breakthroughs in science and the innovative variations in technologies. Still, they are not necessarily the beneficiaries of their intellectual processing.

Take the case of Intel’s $2.5 billion semiconductor chip fabrication plant to be built in China. “Innovated in America—Commercialized Elsewhere!” is the new trade paradigm. There are as many possible manipulations to ensure the benefits of creativity as there are criminal machinations to steal intellectual property. But there is only one enduring leadership paradigm: Generativity! This is the fuel for “The Roadmap to Freedom.”

American Enterprise leads in the GICCA Marketplace. In other terms, Generativity drives Free Enterprise Economics, requires Free Democratic Governance, and is enabled by Interdependent Cultural Relating.

Figure 4. The American Enterprise Model Implementing Generative Innovator Positioning in the Marketplace (click image for larger version)

If we create, we can drive future markets. This means that we are continuously changing the marketing paradigm and the playing field on which it is enacted. Remember, Generators are aligned with change! We can “Reverse any ‘U-Turn’.”

In order to continue to exercise Generative Leadership, we must follow the “Roadmap to the Freedom Functions—Peace, Prosperity and Participation:

• Interdependently-driven Cultural Relating to generate Peace;
• Entrepreneurial-driven Free Enterprise to generate Prosperity; and
• Electronically-driven Participative Governance to generate Participation.

The cost of “The Roadmap to Freedom” is high: Continuous generative processing for continuous peace, prosperity, and participation requires “skilled, generative, thinking people.”

Our “Voyage of Discovery” has yielded our roadmap.

Our “Human Brainpower” will implement it.

We can create our own “Changeable Destinies.”

Freedom is thinking!

Signing off for Freedomblog, this is Bob Carkhuff.

Remember, We the People must implement Generative Innovator positioning. That is the “take-away” for everyone’s “Roadmap to Freedom.” Think about it!

We invite your comments. Send to Bob@Freedomblog.com.

Thank you Tom! Thank you Jack!

May the road rise to meet you
And the wind be at your back.