Word: concepts
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...attitude of the public and the efforts of the government are slowly changing Japan. Partly, that is because of the concept of mottainai, which literally means "what a waste" and is manifest in an almost reflexive desire to conserve and reuse. Centuries before there was an environmental movement, the Japanese embraced origami, an art form - originally from China - based on the notion of creation without cutting. Fashion designer Issey Miyake adapted the concept 30 years ago in apparel made with a single piece of cloth, cut so that no pieces wind up in the garbage...
...Mottainai is not an economical concept," says Hiroyuki Torigoe, a sociology professor at Waseda University in Tokyo. "It's a mentality." When Japan was a developing country enamored of American consumption and consumerism, Japanese people thought mottainai was outmoded, says Yukiko Kada, a former professor of environmental sociology who today is governor of Shiga prefecture. Now, Japanese people are rediscovering a desire to seek "spiritual and mental satisfaction" because their basic material needs are largely fulfilled, she says. "The environment has drastically changed," says Kada. "Twenty or 30 years ago there were many fish in lakes and rivers. But that...
...think of innovation as a creative, nonlinear concept. Yet you and Charan are saying it's a manageable process. Isn't there a conflict here? I don't think so, because first of all, we have a definition of innovation. For us there's a big difference between an idea or invention and innovation. And the main difference is, there has to be a consumer or a customer for innovation. We've got to close the sale. You have to part with your hard-earned money. An innovation business model is driven by trial generation and purchase generation and then...
...about opening up the innovation process across the company. We speak in jargon in the business world, and it's really horrible at a big company. But the whole idea of open architecture and open systems and open marketplace for ideas and innovations is really important. And this, this concept that we call "connect and develop," is really important because of what we're trying to do--connect is a really important word. We're trying to connect with the consumer and customer. We're trying to connect an early-stage innovation with a consumer and customer...
That's the trade in cap and trade, and it harnesses the power of the marketplace to fight warming, a concept that helped Republicans like McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, fall in love with the idea. What's more, it works. Cap and trade was used in the 1990s to limit sulfur dioxide emissions and help tame acid rain. The most promising piece of green legislation now on Capitol Hill, co-sponsored by independent Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Republican Senator John Warner of Virginia, is a cap-and-trade proposal. The bill is popular, but that doesn...