I was disturbed by Martin Cassini's report on Newsnight proposing the abolition of traffic lights, which surely don't deserve such a fate.

Being fascinated by many forms of technology and their place in their world, traffic lights are often one of the first things I have seen when I go on business trips around the world.

Although most other people will not have spotted it I am sure (or be remotely interested), there is actually quite a variation between countries, and the style of lights can maybe even indicate something about the self image of the parent country.

For example, Paris has those pointlessly tall, rather haughty and arrogant faux-gold painted posts (so tall indeed that they need little repeaters at driver level), largely ignored by everybody.

In Dublin, I have seen a huge variety of different types from that looked like they had been bought in job-lots from the US and UK when they had some money to spend - a bit like the apparel of a deranged and eccentric old maiden-aunt.

US lights are for the thrill-seekers amongst us who love that random moment when the red light flicks to green.

In Sweden, lights are very logical and have a green-amber phase instead of a plain amber to bring balance to the coruscating display.

In Switzerland, the lights are totally prescriptive, every red and amber filter light has a simulacram of the green arrow carved on it in black. No confusion there then, unlike the UK, where modern installations leave you wondering just which red light you should be watching (usually the wrong one).

Actually racking my brains, I cannot remember much about the traffic lights I encountered in Australia as I was negotiating the notorious "Melbourne hook turns ".

And to Nigeria, where the only traffic lights I saw there in the glittering capital of Abuja were switched off...

In his seminal book "Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation", James Utterback described the seemingly inevitable process by which young, thrusting innovative organisations become sclerotic.  In particular, they are typified by:

• Mechanistic, functional hierarchical organisation
• Low level of innovation
• Low interaction with market place
• Not customer focused
• Fragmented processes (following Adam Smith and functional specialisation)

By happy coincidence, whilst reading Utterback, I was also reading  Hammer & Champy, "Reengineering the Corporation", which describes the consultants approach to taking these sclerotic old companies, and revitalising them and getting them fit for the 1990's...  The new pattern was a mix of process-orientation, supported by coaching from centres of competence.

As we now know with hindsight, this model is itself flawed, but it did offer a solution to the dead-hand of Adam Smith, and functional specialism, killing off innovation.

Here is the chart I drew for myself when I was originally puzzling through this conundrum...




Of course, the next question is (with 10 years hindsight), what should be the shape of organisations for the 21st and 22nd century?

"How does that work then?" is one of those phrases like "What's that all about, then?" used by stand-up comedians to punctuate their observations about life and "that".

One of the curses (and blessings) of my personality type is that I probably can tell you how "that" works, or have a very good guess at synthesising an answer. This ability derives from my encyclopaedic knowledge of how stuff does actually work, built up from lifelong study driven by unending curiosity.

Knowing how stuff works is very useful, but sometimes of course, the curosity can lead one into strange directions.

And so to the Single Retail Banana (SRB), which I have now observed in various motorway service areas, and wondered on how it came to be.

The Traditional Bunch Banana (TBB) is quite a good product with its own fully recyclable packaging, in multipack format (i.e., hands/bunches). The SRB is however an interesting development - somebody has managed to get bananas to grow as singletons, rather than in bunches with a little vestigial stalk, rather than the full monty torn off a bunch (see the picture below)


The SRB could of course be a variety of banana that just grows that way, but my guess is they stick a little band/ring on the stalk to restrict total growth and make the fruit drop off (just like farmers do with lambs tails)

So, imagine the excitement as the group of fruit design consultants and edible plant engineers got together and realised that they could make a banana that saves money by picking itself, requires no processing to tear the bunches and with less stalk, costs less to transport. What a thrill!

It would be a shame to pass by the death of Sir John Harvey-Jones without mentioning that he is possibly an unsung hero of Information Technology.

He will probably be more likely remembered for many other things, but I recall (dimly) that he experimented with building a live Company Board Operations Centre (akin to that of air traffic control, or military "war room") with real-time information feeds and graphics displays to display business intelligence on the state of health of ICI, and so direct the business.

Unfornately, the technology of the day was unlikely to be a match for the soaring ambition, and it was a step too far for the management too, so it came to nothing.

Now, with Xbox 360 and PS3 power, just think what you could build today...

Until I read XKCD this morning, I had never thought that blogging could in anyway be a risk to my or anybody else's life. But then I thought further, if it was true, who might be at risk, and what might make one more succumb when blogging?

Well, I don't know any better this evening than this morning, but a quick glimpse at the QDOS top 20 bloggers makes an interesting checklist...