What is the most contagious parasite?
"An idea" is what Mr Cobbs, the main character from the recent phenomenal movie 'Inception' claims the answer to this question is. An idea, he goes on to say, from the tiniest seed, spreads like a virus. How do we contain this virus? In our world where ideas are born every split of a second, what is the best way we can efficiently churn these ideas into realistic opportunities that bring world change?
Breakthroughs in technology have reached astronomical proportions, this drives customers expectations up which in turn drives the need for more innovation. Companies now have to shift from the 'technology' age to the 'innovation' age. They not only have to manage manpower, they have to manage brain power. Manufacturing not only goods, but ideas. Accounting for not only monetary capital but intellectual capital. There is always a gap between the R&D and the application in the R-D-A process, something we learnt in class today. If we were to cover that gap, we would accelerate innovation, taking advantage of more business opportunities. Translating 'dreams' to reality, again reminding us of the movie inception. However, we can really draw lessons from the movie:
Rapid growth, as we learnt from prof shahis value creation pipeline, always starts with a concept. If a concept, just remains a concept in our minds, then we are all stuck in 'limbo'. There is a process to take us there. This process includes technology validation, 'productization' and business case validation. As we can see, many different groups of people are needed to transform an idea into reality. In the movie, Inception needed the team effort of various different individuals: the extractor (I call in real life, the inventor), the architect (I call the designer), the chemist (I call the scientist or anyone involved in the technological creation aspect), the forger (I call the businessman!), the tourist (I call the investor). If you watched the movie and loved it, you'd probably be agreeing with me right now! But if you haven't, my point is, that for an idea to come to life, we need the collaboration of many (the inventor, the designers, the IT people, the salesman etc etc.).
As brought up by prof Shahi, we are in the age of collaboration, not competition. Alliances are the way to go, if you fear a competitor, get him on your side. Not that firms should encourage their employees not to rise above the competition. However, as learnt in last weeks topic of globalization, the interdependence of countries and economies are rising extra-ordinary levels, we are becoming a global village where we leech on a single idea, copy it, improve it and move on to the next. No one can survive alone. Also, as quoted in reading 3, "It is in the understanding of interdependance across all borders and a shared mission, that we can begin to view the global enterprise as an innovation system of expertise which promotes the collective wisdom unachievable by any entity individually"
I wish I had sat in class G8, where there was a presentation on "Goodbye to Google Wave". Something that has puzzled me recently, how something so brilliant could be ignored by the whole world, simply brushed aside. I would think that in this virtual age, something that could revolutionize email, would have spread like wild fire in the cyber world. I was quick to ride the wave when I first found out about it (Wow, finally time for a change in the way we do email, I thought) only to have the wave die out on me. I never really used my account at all, simply because no one else was signing up on Google Wave! I was not surprised when I heard the news of its closure. This is a classic example of how a concept with excellent technology validation, could not realize its market potential, without the proper business strategies. Or is this what we have been discussing about in previous lessons- People were simply to comfortable using their current email accounts that there was no need to enter the painful, yet necessary, process of change. The resistance to change of the people over-ruled the brilliance of the technology.
I'll end of with a small extract from my all-time favourite movies, V for Vendetta.
"We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught. He can be killed and forgotten. But four hundred years later an idea can still change the world. I've witnessed firsthand the power of ideas. I've seen people kill in the name of them; and die defending them." - Evey Hammond, in V for Vendetta
Class rating: 8
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