Finding Gaps

This weekend will mark the inaugural running of the Detroit-Windsor International Film Festival. As with many non-profit undertakings, organizing the festival has been an exercise in building a network of participants and contributors. Scott Dunham, the festival manager, provides the highlights of getting this year's festival together:

• From the beginning, the commitment was to develop the festival with "Detroit style" using resources from Michigan and Windsor. The organizing committee specifically ruled out using one of the canned approaches available for purchase so as to maximize the contribution from local Michigan groups.
• Significant contributions have come from two academic institutions whose missions coincide with the goals of the festival: Wayne State University and the College for Creative Studies.
• Windsor has provided an important link into the Canadian film industry and into the Toronto Film Festival, a major North American festival.
• While the festival has been a coalition effort, John Kelly's leadership as festival director has been the glue that holds it together.

Often business problems present with one set of symptoms but have an entirely different cause. Further, in the larger analysis, the symptoms may not even be worth treating. In this segment, Anil Menawat and Adam Garfein of Menawat & Company discuss how they use techniques from Profit Mapping to help their clients discern problems' root causes and what if anything they might do. A few highlights:

• Discerning the root cause of the problem is really about defining the true prolem the company faces.
• Like Root Learning, Menawat takes a holistic, collaborative approach to problem definition.
• Once the problem is defined, future scenarios can be explored to determine its potential impact on the business.
• Anil and Adam provide two concrete examples from the automobile industry and manufacturing to illustrate their points.

MicroMax developed MxVDev as a response to the demands of software project management in a global economy.  MxVDev is MicroMax's product for testing embedded software systems.  As mentioned in an earlier segment, embedded software systems are those where software enhances an already existing function. For instance, embedded software is what enables anti-lock braking systems.

Given the importance of embedded systems like anti-lock braking, testing is critical. MxVDev attacks testing differently in a few ways:

• It eliminates communication overhead by expressing the requirements into software tests that are either passed or not. Both parties agree that the requirements are met when the tests are passed.
• It emulates the embedded system itself in software eliminating the need to ship expensive equipment around the world for testing.
• It allows multiple tests to occur at once, thereby accelerating the testing process.

As described in our last segment on Wagner Design Associates, the firm started as a print design shop. However, by the late 1990's, it was clear that the web would play a more significant role, at least partially displacing print, so Jill Wagner began the move toward the web. Some highlights from this segment:

• Shortly after the start of the current decade, Jill approached Kathy Roeser because she felt she needed more web expertise.
• Much like Carrie Hensel at Inner Circle Media, Kathy had become a self-taught web guru with a grounding in design and she was actively engaged in teaching others.
• Kathy's design background also fit well with the culture of Wagner Design, smoothing the firm's transition from print to web.
• Wagner Design Associates now does about 50/50 print and web work.