Dr Jeong H Kim, President of Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs ( http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/ ), spoke at the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore's Distinguished Infocomm Speaker series recently. Dr Kim heads a team of world-class researchers and scientists who are responsible for designing the products and services that are at the forefront of communications technology. In his talk on "Innovating Innovation in the Information Era", he shares his thoughts on:

The information swamp

Dr Kim: Sometimes, not knowing what cannot be done can be an advantage.

"We have moved from an information desert to an information swamp. Information is necessary to life - too little of it is a problem, but too much is a problem as well. That's why networks today must be far more insightful about where information is located, and be capable of connecting to it. Metcalfe's Law states that the value of a network increases with the square of its node. The goal of our industry is to transform potential value into actual value by meeting the needs of the market."

Creation and impact

"Innovation is about creating competitiveness in the market. There are two dimensions to innovation. The first is about creation - in search of something new. The second is about impact. Timing is also important - the timing of the creation process and the timing of the impact.

On the high impact plane, we have the entrepreneurs, who use known processes to solve problems. Entrepreneurship is all about problem solving. Take AT&T's invention of the transistor for example. AT&T wanted to build a national telephony network, and they needed to establish a PoP (point of presence), but the power requirements for the switch would have been too high. The transistor was invented to solve that problem."

The future of the network

Studies of the spider's web led to the idea of a self-configuring network.

"Have you ever asked yourself - how does a spider build a web? It's nearly blind, can't smell, can't count But we have a researcher who tried to understand this, and went on to work on the optimisation of networks in real time. What the spider does is to feel the tension when something hits the web. From this, the researcher worked on the idea of a self-configuring network. That will be the future of the network - it will be ad hoc, and self-configuring. It was a major breakthrough in design technology. It was truly a genius at work."

What's next?

"We have spent money and time and energy to build the backbone, and we've spent money and time and energy to build access. Now we're looking at applications because they will generate value. What's next? It'll be the man-machine interface. In the fourth wave, we will have sensor networks that interface with machines. Computers will take in sensor information. To process this, we will need quantum computers that can do calculations based on concurrent logic. The toughest encryption code today can be broken in about six months using silicon. With quantum computers, it will take seconds. It will be 10 million times faster. And we will need them for sensor networks. I believe this is about 10 years out. We will need such a computer and such networks to enhance our lives."

The Singapore scene

"You need to innovate to be competitive. You need to build up the knowledge and human capital In terms of supporting innovation with financial capital - investing in innovation and sustaining innovation with R&D - Singapore does well. When you talk about human capital, one way to measure how good you are is to look at how many research papers you publish, that other researchers can reference. We can also look at patents. Singapore is in good shape, and you have great leaders."

Quality matters

"Often people ask the question: How many people do you have in your labs? It seems to be a case of "the bigger the better", especially when you have countries like China and India. You can have 10,000 researchers, 100,000 researchers but I remind them, gently, that the transistor was invented by three people, and the laser was invented by two.

Quality really matters when it comes to innovation. You need to have a certain type of environment and culture, without which innovation will not happen. The government can help create an environment where people can be supported, an entrepreneurial environment"

Risk-taking

"Risk-taking is very important in order to be innovative. You have to create an environment where you can have some success. Success breeds success. Once someone achieves something, another person may say: If he can do it, I can do it too! Having some misses is okay. But of course if you miss 100 per cent then you're incompetent. If you do not miss at all, you're not really taking enough risk."

Asian culture

"Asian culture is a consensus culture. Cooperation is important. US culture is more of a maverick culture which values diversity. And diversity is actually good for innovation. Often researchers go against the organisational mainstream. At Bell Labs, we go out of our way to tolerate these people. They can be very stubborn, and they'll go against conventional thinking, but they may just be right."

Essential qualities in researchers

"Raw intelligence - people who have ability to think. Experience is good but it can also limit you. Sometimes, not knowing what cannot be done can be an advantage. Attitude is also important. With the right attitude, you can go far."

Motivating his researchers

"They motivate me . Nothing is more satisfying that working with other top grade researchers and seeing your research make an impact. What we do is to ensure that the research is properly transferred to a business unit. We have a couple of hundred researchers who, after they retire, come back to work day after day, without pay. They love what they do. They want to make a difference."

Developing an interest in science and technology amongst the youth

"I'm a father of two daughters, and they're not interested in science and technology at all. I've failed miserably. Maybe one day they will change. But that's why I spend time visiting universities and lecturing to the students there. I want to share my experiences and maybe motivate them."