It is no mystery to me why Ebay bought Skype for 2.6 billion dollars. Ash Bhoopathy, one of my students at the Institute of Design, is doing an internship in Shanghai this summer. He’s thinking about doing a workshop that includes prototyping of services and wanted to chat about it. We had been trading emails. “I can Skype you.” “Oh…OK, Ash. Sure.” While I have, out of curiosity, research interest, and need set up accounts on MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others, I was a bit embarrassed I never tried Skype. Somewhat hesitant to go through the ordeal, I went to Skype’s site. I downloaded the app, started it up, created an account through the app, and called Ash. In a matter of three minutes I was talking with Ash in Shanghai, clear as day. The value to me was immediate, amazing, and profound. I can’t even count the number of other “services” that make you jump through hoops and provide a plethora of meaningless offers on the way to getting what you need. So, thank you Skype. Thank you Google. Thank you 37Signals. Now, what are the principles and values we can identify in these examples and teach to a new generation of innovation leaders?…

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