We conceptualize, design, establish business models- and plans, before assembling the right team of skilled technicians, business- and design people to assist and develop. Orchestrating the process and the interdisciplinary integration, along with the involvement of end-users to ensure user-driven innovation, we keep taking care of the idea from the early stages to the finished end product. And the process don’t stop until the product’s fully matured and ready to leave our cozy lab on it’s own.”

Do you have an idea – or need advice on how to move along with your idea?

We have loads of good ideas but love to meet and listen to passionate people with interesting projects, so if you have an idea or need advice, feel free to contact us or drop by for a coffee.

Peter Just, Co-founder, Partner: Passionate, inventive, entrepreneurial.
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Peter has always been preoccupied with finding and exploring unknown spots, changing traditional perceptions and ways of thinking. Whether it is in art, film-making, inventions or communications, one of Peter’s key competencies is to connect his creative passion with the strategic perspective that will result in a disrupted business idea.
Email: peter@fourmation.dk
LinkedIn: http://dk.linkedin.com/in/justdrengen
Twitter: www.twitter.com/justdrengen

Hans Henrik H. Heming, Co-founder & Partner: Creative, structural, enthusiastic.
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Hans Henrik has relentlessly challenged the limits in large companies, particularly in the financial sector but also within the design industry. Hans Henrik has always been at the absolute forefront of developments within the Internet and technology – and how to apply these changes to businesses.

Email: hans.henrik@fourmation.dk
LinkedIn: http://dk.linkedin.com/in/hanshenrikheming
Twitter: www.twitter.com/publicmind
Blog: www.publicmind.dk

Per Feldthaus, Co-founder & Partner: Designer, innovator, strategist.
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Per is a passionate design thinker, merging a rational analytical approach with an intuitive co-creative approach to innovation. As a Honorary Professor at the Aarhus School of Architecture and Steering Committee member of the Beijing Tsinghua University MEGA-Master Programme he is our link to the latest international academic research.
Email: per@fourmation.dk
LinkedIn: http://cn.linkedin.com/pub/per-feldthaus/3/7b6/aa1

Martin Hartmann Jacobsen, Associated Partner: Communicator, conceptualizer, thinker.
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Martin is on a dedicated quest to merge his educational background in traditional offline communication with a digital approach to all things relating to communication – combining the better of the two worlds with a creative and skewed mindset.
Email: martin@fourmation.dk
LinkedIn: http://dk.linkedin.com/in/martinhartmannjacobsen
Twitter: www.twitter.com/martinjacobsen

Fourmation invents, designs and builds by creating, conceptualizing and executing ideas into new products and services. Operating from Copenhagen and with our office in Palo Alto, we are close to the technology and design-thinking epicenter in Silicon Valley – allowing Fourmation, our partners and our network to benefit from the newest research and development.

A lot of people talk but very few act. We don’t just talk – we do.  And what we do is basically pretty simple: we turn good ideas into profitable products.

These techniques are still very much in use. In the Western world, however, there is a tendency to consider these old-fashioned techniques as somewhat hippie-like and indeed very diverged from that of modern medicine studies and research. Fieldwork and product development within the medicine and pharmaceutical industry are mostly done in laboratories and involve highly skilled scientists, budgets and business plans. And though this is not necessarily a bad thing, there could perhaps be some valuable insights and possibilities out there in the nature?

An Australian weed field.

Australian pharmaceutical company Peplin (bought by Denmark-based Leo Pharma in December 2009) are currently working on the development of a new gel to treat Actinic Keratoses (AK), which is the most common pre-cancerous skin condition and caused by excessive sunbathing and use of solariums. And even if most pharmaceutical and medicine companies are constantly working on product development to ensure proper medicine for patients and steady revenue for the company, the story of Peplin’s work with the gel is extraordinary.

For years, Australian locals have used the white sap from a certain weed to cure warts, fight skin cancer and other face lesions. This plant, the Euphorbia Peplus or just Petty Spurge, is actually a common known weed, ruining gardens all over the world – including Denmark and Australia. It came to Peplin’s attention that the plant was worth a study. And the result: it turns out that the sap from the Petty Spurge is indeed very, very powerful and not just the result of a local wonder tale. Besides the gel to treat Actinic Keratoses, Peplin are now conducting heavy research into other products based on the Euphorbia Peplus.

PEP005 is the working title of the gel, which Peplin will launch in 2012 – to a market with a high level of potential: The direct costs for AK in the United States was $1.2 billion in 2004. 58 million people in the United States are living with AK, 11% to 25% of adults in the Northern hemisphere populations and 40% to 60% of adults in Australia have at least one AK lesion.

And the essence of this story? Besides the fact that Peplin’s gel will safe lives, it points towards the potential benefits of moving away from the office or the laboratory. When working with product development, design, manufacturing – in whatever business you are in – we need to realise that we cannot invent everything in the controlled, sterilized environment of our offices or laboratories. We need to get out into the nature, researching wonder tales, talk to people, listen to stories, local traditions and knowledge – in the very same way historic explorers embarked on adventurous scientific and exploratory expeditions.

(Sources: Peplin, Leo Pharma, Wikipedia and Medical News Today)

(Three of the most well-known Skunk Works-developed jet fighters: The F-35 Lightning II, the SR-71 Blackbird and the F-104 Starfighter).

In business, it is common use to leave the normal premises or offices when working with idea generation,  complex projects or conducting meetings. New surroundings can benefit your thoughts and work processes and can result in improved solutions. You may know this by the terms “process innovation”, “organisational innovation”, “organisational development” or similar, where key is to let go of the creative constraint. But the predecessor to these modern buzzwords was born in an allegedly foul-smelling factory floor in Burbank, California – hence the name, Skunk Works.

Skunk Works^©: “A term used in engineering and technical fields to describe a group within an organisation given a high degree of autonomy and unhampered by bureaucracy, tasked with working on advanced or secret projects.”

Today, the term is widely used in various businesses when describing agile development, production and innovation processes in offline and online environments. The Skunk Works term and story, however, is 67 years old:

In 1943, during the World War II, the allies were facing a rapidly growing German Jet threat. If the Germans would succeed in building a functioning fighter jet, they would gain a massive advantage over the Allies.
Well aware of this, the Air Tactical Service Command of the US Army Air Force, met with Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and expressed their need for a jet fighter. The Allied Forces had access to the British developed Goblin  jet engine, but the contemporary development and production time of new fighters meant that it could take years before a functional jet fighter would be ready.

A new approach was required.

Chief Research Engineer Clarence “Kelly” Johnson was the man for the job. In 1938, he had gathered a team of Lockheed-engineers who in secrecy, and in an isolated, walled-off building at the Lockheed-factory, had developed the world’s first 400 mph fighter – the P-38 Lightning.

Kelly assembled a similar team in June 1943 to begin the development of a jet fighter. Again, he separated the team from the rest of factory, and based on “Kelly’s 14 rules” the Skunk Works rules of operation was born.
Skunk Works was a team of highly skilled engineers, working closely together in a group based on massive autonomy and free of the normal production bureaucracy at the Lockheed Factory – ensuring an unprecedented short production time.

(The XP-80 prototype, aka. “Lulu Belle”, and the P-80 Shooting Star)

And the Skunk Works team proved their efficiency by designing and building the XP-80 prototype in only 143 days. Dubbed “Lulu Belle”, the XP-80 would later surface as the first-ever American jet fighter under the name of P-80 Shooting Star. The American jet fighter was born – and so was an all-new approach to rapid innovation and development.

And the meaning of all this? Today, much of the organisational- and process innovation seen in businesses, are centred around elements of the Skunk Works idea. The problem, however, is that bureaucracy and top-down management are often preventing the real Skunk Works-like development in taking place. This is where “Kelly’s 14 rules” can be applied. Though they originated in 1943, many of the rules are still considered valid today – even if they were invented around the creation of top-secret projects (three of the most interesting and still very much valid rules are listed below):

• 1. “The Skunk Works^® manager must be delegated practically complete control of his program in all aspects. He should report to a division president or higher.”
• 5. “There must be a minimum number of reports required, but important work must be recorded thoroughly.”
• 9. “The contractor must be delegated the authority to test his final product in flight. He can and must test it in the initial stages. If he doesn’t, he rapidly loses his competency to design other vehicles.”

Looking at these rules, it seems rather evident that they can be applied directly to many aspects of business life today. And why? Because the issues of dealing with complexity hasn’t changed. Working with complex projects, it is essential to establish a solid foundation or framework around the team. Within this framework, then, the team will have the time, resources and autonomy to succeed with their task(s). That is why “Kelly’s 14 rules” are still highly applicable to today’s business life.

At Fourmation, we are true believers in the “Skunk Works” approach when working with projects. But what do you think – and what techniques do you use in your company?

(Sources: Lockheedmartin.com and Wikipedia)

For years, NASA has been the primary force in exploring what’s above the sky. They have led countless spaceships into, well yes, space, been a leading force in the ISS Space Station, landed on the moon in 1969 and given us unseen footage and knowledge via the Hubble Telescope and satellites.

So, you would think that their near limitless budget would ensure their leading role in everything they do? Well, think again. British amateur enthusiast Robert Harrison wanted to take his own photos of space. Browsing through the Internet, Harrison found the recipe for what ended as an enormous success. With a $747 setup consisting of a helium balloon, a GPS tracking device, a small parachute and a camera programmed to sleep and reactivate every five minutes to take eight photos and record video. Dubbed “Icarus”, he launched the balloon and the camera rig – and the result is absolutely spectacular.

After posting the results on the Internet, the footage buzzed around the web, and caught the attention of mighty NASA. They phoned him up, curious to know how he had done it. Certain that he must have used an expensive (home made) rocket, they were amazed and bedazzled when they realised that it was a home made $747-camera rig that had outperformed their million dollar setups.

And the learning? NASA is a huge organisation with 17,900 highly skilled employees and a $17.7 billion budget. Still, one single amateur came up with a solution far superior to those of NASA. And why? Harrison didn’t have any managers to refer to, bureaucracy to fight or meetings to attend. He just had an idea and the curiosity to pursue it. So he did. That is a truly fascinating story about a single persons “Skunk Worked” project. And perhaps NASA should give that same “Skunk Works” model a go?

(Source: Gnews.com, Wikipedia, Robertharrison.org and Flickr)

What they also share is a long line of history and tradition. McDonald’s was founded in 1940, Hewlett Packard was founded in 1939, Disney was founded in 1923 and Coca Cola was founded in 1886. They’ve all been a part of the traditional business environment and used traditional and new elements of marketing to strenghthen their market position and sell their products. And they have succeded big time. Mildly put.

But it seems that the top of the Interbrand list, and similar lists, will soon be featuring a bunch of newcomers:

• Yahoo!, founded in 1995, is currently ranked 64.
• eBay, founded in 1995, is currently ranked 46.
• Amazon, founded in 1994, is currently ranked 43.
• Google, founded in 1998, is currently ranked 7.

And what do these companies have in common? Their businesses are created to serve the needs of (Internet) users and they provide easy-to-use services/products that everyone can quickly learn to use – and love. Additionally, they are, despite their very short existence, already among the 70 best-known and most valuable brands in the world. That’s impressive. And, based on their popularity it seems reasonable to argue that they will climb up the list in the future.

But what does this tell us? Has it become easier to not only create a business, but actually create a business that’ll mingle with the big brands within 12-15 years? The easy answer will be ‘yes’, it has become easier. The popularisation of the Internet means that no business are no longer restricted to a single country or economy – they can have a global appeal and reach from day one.

Looking at the Interbrand list from 2009 and the rankings of Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon and Google, I can’t help thinking how the very same list will look in a few years. Especially when you consider that Facebook is not even on the list. For now. The same applies to massively popular services, ‘Foursquare’, ‘Skype’ and ‘Twitter’. Oh. And then there’s ‘Gowalla’, ‘Spotify, ‘Orkut’ and a bunch of other increasingly popular services. We’re pretty certain that at least a couple of these brands will be featured on the list within five years. And even if they don’t find their way to the lists of ‘traditional’ brands, they’ll definitely find the way to the minds of the people – and alternative lists like the PFSK Best Brands list (http://www.psfk.com/psfk-good-brands-report-2010) – which we’ll discuss in a forthcoming blog post.

What do you think? And has the rules and settings for brands been changed forever due to the Internet? Any other comments?

Source: Wikipedia

We have made a list of 15 excellent books that we think everyone with an interest in business, networks, integrated thinking, management and business design owe it to themselves to read.

• “The Tipping Point – How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” by Malcolm Gladwell.
  Excerpt: “The premise of this facile piece of pop sociology has built-in appeal: little changes can have big effects; when small numbers of people start behaving differently, that behavior can ripple outward until a critical mass or “tipping point” is reached, changing the world.”
  Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/42WbUh

• “Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means” by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi.
  Excerpt: “There is a path between any two neurons in our brain, between any two companies in the world, between any two chemicals in our body. Nothing is excluded from this highly interconnected web of life.”
  Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/5wodM

• “The Strength of Weak Ties” by Mark Granovetter.
  Excerpt: “In marketing or politics, weak ties enable reaching populations and audiences that are not accessible via strong ties.”
  Link to Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/BJ1o link to PDF: http://bit.ly/cg0lqx

• “Dialogue Mapping: Building Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems” by Jeffrey Conklin.
  Excerpt: “In contrast to the use of agendas and restrictive structures, dialogue mapping is a facilitation technique that allows the intelligence and learning of the group to emerge naturally.”
  Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/GIaSz

• “The Wisdom of Crowds” by James Surowiecki.
  Excerpt: “While our culture generally trusts experts and distrusts the wisdom of the masses, New Yorker business columnist Surowiecki argues that “under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them.”
  Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/b7JljE

• “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell.
  Excerpt: “Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of “thin slices” of behavior.”
  Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/9GXkuk

• “The Opposable Mind” by Roger Martin.
  Excerpt: “In this primer on the problem-solving power of “integrative thinking,” Martin draws on more than 50 management success stories, including the masterminds behind The Four Seasons, Proctor & Gamble and eBay, to demonstrate how, like the opposable thumb…(…).”
  Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/c9psva

• “The Future of Management” by Gary Hamel.
  Excerpt: “Though this authoritative examination of today’s static corporate management systems reads like a business school treatise, it isn’t the same-old thing.”
  Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/bNHhlg

• “Wikinomics” by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams.
  Excerpt: “The word “wiki” means “quick” in Hawaiian, and here author and think tank CEO Tapscott (The Naked Corporation), along with research director Williams, paint in vibrant colors the quickly changing world of Internet togetherness, also known as mass or global collaboration, and what those changes mean for business and technology.”
  Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/9nLl8O

• “The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More” by Chris Anderson.
  Excerpt: ”Wired editor Anderson declares the death of “common culture”—and insists that it’s for the best. Why don’t we all watch the same TV shows, like we used to?”
  Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/b7j1oi

• “Groundswell” by Charlene Li & Josh Bernhoff
  Excerpt: “Corporate executives are struggling with a new trend: people using online social technologies (blogs, social networking sites, YouTube, podcasts) to discuss products and companies, write their own news, and find their own deals. This groundswell is global, it s unstoppable, it affects every industry and it s utterly foreign to the powerful companies running things now.”
  Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/9D0hYs

• “Good To Great” by Jim Collins.
  Excerpt: ”Five years ago, Jim Collins asked the question, “Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?
  Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/8X1jhc

• “Teori U” by C. Otto Scharmer.
  Excerpt: “In a world burdened with too much information, we are occasionally blessed with a genuinely new idea about how to perceive, think about, and act on our overly complex world.”
  Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/9BrNxn

• “Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics: The Challenge of Complexity to Ways of Thinking About Organisations” by Ralph D. Stacey.
  Excerpt: ”Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics by Ralph D Stacey is renowned for its unconventional thinking and it continues to be a refreshing alternative for those teaching and studying strategic management who are looking for ‘something different.”
  Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/a4gyMU

• “Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity” by Etienne Wenger.
  Excerpt: “This book presents a theory of learning that starts with the assumption that engagement in social practice is the fundamental process by which we get to know what we know and by which we become who we are.”
  Link to Amazon: http://bit.ly/azRogJ

So, this is our list of recommended reading – and it’ll be followed by a series of blog posts where each book will be more thoroughly reviewed. We hope our recommendations can inspire you.

Do you think we miss any essential works? If so, please let us know!

Quite interesting stuff.

I agree with JP, but I also think that the number in the different circles of intimacy will differ a lot. Some relations expects a real-life-meeting, others don’t.

What is the new Dunbar number for you?