VALIMET, Inc. was proud to participate into the meeting organized by Red Thread X in DC, during the Association of the United States Army – AUSA gathering. Takeaways captured by our VP of Sales and Marketing Luigi Alzati:
- Focused Think Tanks like this one deliver the highest return per hour invested. Trade shows can’t match it.
- Logistics: challenging common assumptions. Is complacency after past successes a risk? How far can software refine requirement formulation for industry? Powerful panel with David Tuttle, Duane A. Gamble, Ted Banta, moderated by Chris Morales.
- AI Agents: immense potential, yet a thin line between progress and chaos. Rachel (Kuhr) Conn, Mack Ohlinger, Clint Alanis moderated by Chris Budihas.
- Ethics in War and Technology: humans remain accountable, but will they always stay in control? From ‘Prometheus Unbound’ to what the next War will be like. Joe Byerly, George M Dougherty, Bob Underwood, Todd Hughes discussing the the trade off between Good and Right.
- What arsenal to Budget for, after what we learnt in the Ukraine war? Are we in a “Midway moment”? Provoking and data-supported thoughts by Kevin Landtroop – from Austin’s Capital Factory.
- Trend Identification: beyond startups — patents, academic output, and market realism. The Fitness Device Case, by Lux Research.
- Cognitive AI for Defense: step-by-step reasoning that allow Human validation or modification at any time and help the decision making process. The Xtractis case, by the wave momentum.
- An appeal to be Non-Obvious™, with the Non-Obvious Company, by Marketing and Innovation guru Rohit Bhargava.
It was a valuable and forward-looking event; the real deal of the week for insight-seekers, as Brian Cook said.
Congratulations to Jay Miseli and Barry McGeough, co-founders of Red Thread X, and the entire team. (Actually, it’s a tribe).
An aggregated report from the event will be made available. Check: https://lnkd.in/gcewi2pd
THE CONTEXT:
Both cars were drawn by the late Tom Tjaarda for Ghia – see his personal website to get accustomed with this great designer and his design.
American from the Mid-West, Italian by marriage and professional choice.
Some observers trace the Longchamp back to his 1969 Lancia Flaminia Marica prototype (Hagerty UK, CarrozzieriItaliani.com).
That parallel is too simple, in our opinion.
Tjaarda himself recalled the actual briefing from Alejandro DeTomaso: design a grand tourer to echo the recently released Mercedes-Benz SL (C107).
The use of Ford Granada headlamps nod in that direction, but the architecture differed significantly:
Tjaarda steepened the A and C pillars, setting the Longchamp between a GT and a sports car. That tension defined the car’s character—and gave DeTomaso a car that went beyond Imitation.
A wannabe-Mercedes became something unique.
That’s probably what the IRONSTONE jury wanted to proclaim and celebrate.
THE NON-OBVIOUS™ LESSON:
French philosopher Rene Girard wrote that Imitation is a path to Innovation, despite conventional thinking casts them as opposites:
Early in the process we tend to stick to a model, but later, more or less consciously, Innovation begins.
“At that moment, it may—or may not—generate some additional improvement which will seem insignificant at first, because it is not suggested by the model, but which really is the genuine Innovation that will turn things around.”
In other words: leave Innovation-from-scratch to the wannabees and build on top of what’s been done before: follow Tom Tjaarda.
An essential step is to abandon the over-abused, over-praised terminology of ‘revolutionary’, ‘disruptive’. Leave them to the commentators of your work, after you’ve completed it.
We’d like to congratulate Gail Kautz and all of the organizers of this very special event.
Murphy’s vines, cars and sunshine are a truly special mix and we at VALIMET are glad to be part of it.