The Gist & Key Takeaways
We discussed about technology and sustainability, as well as innovation management in this session.
The video on "How Stuff Works" aptly describes the need for industries to more from linear to cyclical development. With the growing middle-income class, the demand for goods and services greatly exceeds the supply- there is a problem of SCARCITY. We do not have enough natural resources to satisfy all our wants at the rate we are consuming today. And although developed countries had used resource-exhaustive methods of industrialization in the past, industrialization today requires a different model- One that is green and sustainable.
Innovation plays a huge role in ensuring sustainability. Capturing the "summit" opportunities, or in some cases the "cloud opportunities", and using the RDA process, interesting ideas or dreams can turn into great innovation in reality. I was amused by what comes in between dreams and reality- nightmare. That is indeed very true!
For instance, YouTube creators Steve Chen, Chad Hurley And Jawed Karim captured a "summit opportunity" - the market demand of a common platform for video sharing, to turn their dreams into reality. The dream: According to Jawed Karim the inspiration for YouTube came from the halftime faux pas committed by Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, when Janet’s breast was accidently exposed. Karim could not easily find that video clip online and which leads to the dream of having a common video-sharing platform. Nightmare: Imagine the incredible amount of effort and time put in by them to come out with codes to make Youtube work. Reality: 48.2 million Youtube users benefit from watching and sharing videos with the world- YouTube has become the most popular video-sharing website.
Interesting Concepts
This session complements what I have learnt in Economics and even in Leadership & Team-building (LTB) module.
Going back to the video on "How Stuff Works", like Annie Leonard, I also find it queer that how, sometimes, i can find stuff that are unreasonably cheap in the market. I never thought that is is due to the externalization of costs! For consuming the product, we probably would have indirectly supported cheap labour and environmental degradation, both which are negative externalities of production. In economics, I learnt that negative externalities are a type of market failure and therefore there is a need for government intervention. Since the price of the goods are solely determined by demand and supply in the market, negative externalities are not reflected in it. Hence, relevant authorities can implement policies such as tradable pollution permits that limits the amount of pollution an industry can emit (eg. the EU emission trading scheme). However, the limitation of such policy will be that pollution will only be reduced if companies can do it cheaply. If the cost of green technology is more than the cost of trading permits, pollution is not reduced! Which defeats the purpose of the policy...
One of the key elements for successful innovation is culture and Prof mentioned about the effects of different work culture on the performance of people. This sounds so familiar to me! Because a few days ago, in LTB, we learnt about Leadership Behavior Theory that predicts how different leadership styles lead to different performances of followers. Basically, a democratic leader who is motivating and encouraging will find that the productivity of followers is high and innovations will be spurred. For instance, the founder of local MNC Creative, Mr Sim Wong Hoo, has an inquisitive approach to technology - his approach that often asked 'Why?', 'How?', 'What if..?'. He also takes note of the inputs of his employees and curiosity and innovation have become the core values permeating their work culture. As a result, their mp3 player 'Zen' has been well received in many countries. Evidently, there is a strong correlation between work environment and innovation.
Issues for Further Discussion
Invention VS Innovation
As mentioned in class, invention is the coming out of ideas while innovation is making it into reality. Is there an importance of one over the other? Or are they mutually dependent on each other, meaning to say that both are equally important? According to Cheryl who presented on Apple, Apple did not invent tablets, but re-invented it by coming out with the iPad. So why is the iPad so successful as compared to other tablets? Brand loyalty could be one reason. But what drives this brand loyalty is the ability of Apple to re-invent technology in such a way that is not only looks better but is also more consumer-friendly. This is innovation. Hence, although invention is necessary before innovation can occur, innovation is still the key to success in this era.
Rating
I rate this lesson 8/10. Amused by Prof's "Valley, Summit, Cloud" drawing using Paint. Although I have learnt some of these concepts before, I gained new insights in this lesson.
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