Huge Opportunities for Innovation — Corporate intangible capital is ready and waiting
November 22, 2009 by Mary Adams
Although the economic recovery is slowly building up steam, there is still a lot of work to do. For one thing, we need the economic recovery to turn into a jobs recovery. To do that, we need to start doing things differently. Solve new problems. In a word, innovate.
That’s why I am thankful that Ken Jarboe just revisited Business Week’s piece entitled Obama’s 25 Ways to Rebuild America. When I read this list, I get excited because it shows how many opportunities we have to fundamentally innovate and rebuild our economy:
- Supercharged batteries
- Green biofuels
- Cheap solar cells
- Cheaper anti-malaria drugs
- Cognitive ratio
- Massive memory
- Content-rich, mobile libraries
- Earlier disease diagnosis
- DNA sequencing of cancer
- Immersive teaching software
- Faster computers
- Online learning for all
- High-speed rail
- Vaccines for every flu strain
- Innovation contests and prizes
- Brain-powered prosthetics
- Personalized prescriptions
- Rid the world of toxic and radioactive waste
- Real-time language translation
- Build bionic man
- Revamp air traffic control
- Self-sufficient buildings
- Discerning medicines
- Turn sunlight into fuel
- Build tougher armor
It’s worth flipping through this slide show. The work already underway for each of these concepts is highlighted. These are specific examples that really just skim the surface of the possibilities that exist at the intersection of energy, agriculture, education, transportation, healthcare and construction.
To us at ICA, innovation is the strategic challenge of the knowledge era. We must–and more importantly–we can solve the huge problems facing our global society.
The answer is in learning apply the knowledge we already have in a disciplined and determined way. Business is a great tool for solving this kind of problem. Business can optimize itself for innovation by paying attention to its knowledge assets, its corporate intangible capital.
Here’s how to build your own innovation machine.
Most, if not all, of these will require engineers. I just see don’t the narrative out there for building engineers. The list should have only one entry.
I hear you Dan. I think that education needs as much innovation as other sectors. My message is that there are great opportunities if we can find the will to step up to the challenge….
Mary;
I do agree absolutely. Part of the problem may in part be that of the engineering profession. What has always astonished me was how engineers never could get together and organize as a profession. Architects have done a much better job at this often securing payment as a percentage of productivity. Why don’t engineers demand royalties? Bankers do - but what do they produce?
Enough of my rants. Here’s an interesting article about other structural problems related to our 20th century measurement tools for 21st century intangibles - maybe you’ve seen it.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_45/b4154034724383.htm
Dan- My response via Twitter: @ingenesist Here’s an answer to your comments http://bit.ly/595nR2 about the need for engineers to fuel innovation http://bit.ly/8Znum5
On the BW article, I wrote about it in the IC Knowledge Center http://icrating.com/blog/2009/10/31/gdp-without-intangibles-greatly-overstates-the-economys-strength/
and in this post on goodwill (which basically says that the macro problem BW describes with GDP is just as bad at the corporate level) http://www.i-capitaladvisors.com/2009/11/04/goodwill-is-a-metric-of-the-failure-of-the-accounting-model/