#innovation imperative

[ap-architecturememories]

'Tetra’ hotel - by WSP & Innovation Imperative ____

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[techguru2010]

Over the past few years, the tough economy has made survival seem like business success. However, survival just won’t cut it anymore.

[strategicsoup]

Innovation Imperative Part 3

Following this part 3 of the innovation imperative blog, I will turn my attention to solutioning but for now, let me opine on the specific challenges and opportunity presented in Aisa. 

Nov 2010: Chinese supercomputer named world’s fastest. http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-11-chinese-supercomputer-world-fastest.html

Feb 14 2011:  China overtakes Japan to become the world’s second largest economy by GDP. 

I have been inspired to start my new business based here in Asia-Pacific primarily because of the significant economic opportunity and what I have been calling the “untapped potential” that I see in the workforce across Asia.  When I first arrived here eight years ago people told me “it’s great here but don’t expect people to think out of the box”. Today I would simply respond by saying “look around you!” Singapore, China, India, to name but a few are on growth and change trajectories that we can only dream of from a Western/Anglo viewpoint.    Progress in the Tiger economies is happening at a rate of change far greater than the world experienced between the industrial revolution and today. Passage through the global economic downturn has to some extent allowed these economies to shed some of the baggage implied in the label “emerging”. Domestic consumption in addition to strong export performance is allowing countries like Singapore, China and India to demonstrate some decoupling from the US and Europe and together with a good deal of economic independence.  Multinational and domestic companies are wrestling with the complexities of fast changing demographics, maturing/complex regulatory environments, and above all the wants and needs of this increasingly important population of consumers.

I also see a highly educated workforce with a very strong work ethic, strong values and a high degree of patriotism.  People here know they are part of something big. In this part of the world, young people demonstrate an insatiable ambition for something great and they are not afraid to work for it.

Imagine… You have been kept in a single room for many decades. All the windows closed. One day somebody opens the door and says “It’s your turn now”. How would you feel?

Is it time to be fearful of your life? Or time to be overcome with joy?

Then the shutters of all the windows are opened. Light floods into the room.

How do your senses respond?

Any human being would be temporarily blinded by the light and somewhat confused under the circumstances.  Perhaps that is what Asian workers and leaders are going through?...

I can speak from a position of deep experience relative to the workforce in China and Singapore. The very people that have until recently been labeled as “uncreative” can indeed become part of the innovation process.  First and foremost they need to be given permission to do so. Being creative is nothing more than a decision. The rest is education, training, and experience. 

Innovation should be top of the agenda for every single commercial organisation; yet we find time and time again that companies measure their employees based upon traditional notions of performance. Very few companies achieve the appropriate balance between measuring performance and opportunity; that is so desperately needed, particularly in these emerging markets. 

While I do not personally agree with everything in their document, this paper from the Korn Ferry Institute does a very good job of articulating many of the leadership/human resource issues relevant in this part of the world.

Asia 2.0: Leading the next wave of growth in Asia

http://www.kornferryinstitute.com/sustain/talent_management/publication/2612/Asia_2.0 

Creating and Innovation culture within your organisation requires so much more than a mere passing assertion that you wish to innovate.  I doubt if there is a C-level  executive anywhere in the world that would not claim his company sees innovation has been important.  That is not the point! If you have read my innovation imperative parts one and two you will understand what I am driving at.

Please stay tuned to this blog site for discussion around solutions.  We have many of the ideas and access to folks who have even better suggestions than we do.

[strategicsoup]

The Innovation Imperative Pt 1

We live in exciting times. The acceleration of mankind’s evolution and the threads of innovation that go hand-in-hand with that process are fast approaching another historic vertex; potentially of far grater significance than the invention of the printing press, the industrial revolution or the communications revolution of the past 20 years.

All evolutionary processes are characterised by the formation of a paradigm that; having been realised in nature or technology; facilitates and drives the subsequent evolutionary phase. This is as true for the dawn of life arising from the beginnings of raw organic chemistry on our very own planet; as it is today with the social, economic and political changes playing out following the explosion of communications and the internet over the past 20 years.

Within the next 10 to 20 years several dominant trends will together change almost every aspect of life as we think of it today.  Ray Kurzweil calls this “The Singularity”.

$1,000 will soon purchase a unit of computational power (calculations per second) and memory that is equivalent to the power and retention capacity of a single human brain. Some few years after that, this will buy us a computer roughly equivalent to the aggregated power of every single human brain in existence on earth today. Neurological and computer sciences are rapidly approaching complete reverse engineering of the human brain/mind/memory. The combination of these two events will give rise to seamless extension of human intelligence with artificial intelligence.

The intersections of biology, chemistry, engineering and computer sciences are progressing at an astonishing rate towards mankind’s mastery over its own physiology, life expectancy and the physical environment in which he/she continues to live and evolve. Nanotechnology will soon be working inside of us and ubiquitous in the environment around us.

In his book (The Medici Effect) Frans Johansson also points out to us that the sciences are converging. In most if not all fields of science we are finding that our basic understanding of things is close to complete.  The significant majority of new developments arise from intersections across scientific disciplines.

The movement and mixing of people globally resulting in the dissolution of cultural boundaries.

While the fundamental laws of economics remain unchanged we are likely to see a dramatic shift in the relationship between business and consumers. For six decades, big business and government have benefited from the relative luxury of maintaining a high degree of control over their consumers.  The communications revolution is shifting the balance of power in this equation. Traditional controllers of media and content are also losing their ability to control their markets and consumers.  Social frameworks are no longer constrained by the socio-economic boundaries of the past. Nor are they limited by proximity and geography. The new consumer is essentially taking significantly greater control over their choices in every aspect of their lives – including the products, commodities and services they wish to consume.  They are now living within an extended neural network empowered by the connected anywhere/anytime experience and the emerging social fabric of the network.  Whilst that network touches the people, corporations and governments who are ‘selling’ something, the balance of power (control) is shifting dramatically towards those who consume and away from those who produce.

There has never been a more important time for organizations to embrace the emergence of these emerging social and economic trends as they work to identify strategies that will create sustainable enterprises for the future.

Part 2 to follow

P.S. Dec 13th. Just saw this excellent article on TechCrunch all about "Singularity University" which is well worth the investment of your attention: maybe-there-is-hope-for-silicon-valley-and-the-world-after-all