The New Age of Illumination
By Deborah L. Wince-Smith
Disruption Comes to the Innovation Landscape
Humanity stands in the midst of the greatest revolutions in science and technology. A new age of unparalleled knowledge, vast technological power and inconceivable innovation is unfolding before our eyes. As new technologies and business models transform markets and industries, and rising competitors vie to take their places in the global economy, disruption is becoming the new normal. And we cannot expect ever to return to a steady competitive state.
For example, dramatic cost reductions in gene-sequencing are being leveraged for business, health and agriculture on a global scale. New gene-editing technology has delivered the power to cut and paste bits of DNA, theoretically, into the genome of any living thing with precision and efficiency. Some believe this technology could cure any genetic disease, and become a major force in ecology, conservation and enhancing the environment. In synthetic biology, researchers are modifying and creating novel biological organisms with functional properties such as producing medicine, fuel or textiles.
Autonomous systems are advancing rapidly. Drones have taken to the sky, capturing dramatic images of natural disasters, mapping crop fields, showcasing real estate and performing industrial inspections, while auto and tech companies are racing to get driverless vehicles on the road. The robot market is surging. Numerous industries face disruption by these technologies. They are likely to change the patterns of society. And with the combination of intelligent systems, virtual and augmented reality, and new knowledge from cognitive science, we are likely to reimagine reimagine how work gets done.
A new phase of the digital revolution is unfolding, as the physical world and the digital world converge across numerous dimensions through sensors, networks and a data tsunami. We are connecting things on a scale once unimaginable through the “Internet of Things,” creating complex webs of machines, facilities, fleets, objects and people connected to sensors, networks and controls. We are experiencing the datafication of how humans live and what we do. Big data miners now know more about human behavior and our lives than psychologists and sociologists. Sensing and computing across our natural, built and social environments are generating data at unprecedented scale and complexity — and at warp speed. Big data has not only transformed business management, marketing, advertising and finance, it is providing new insights in fields as diverse as sports and entertainment, transportation management, agriculture, astronomy, disaster management and historical research. Artificial intelligence could lead to an intelligent society, disrupting business, societal patterns and the workforce.
The march of technology has always been a major factor in societal progress. Change is nothing new. But what is new is the scale, scope and speed of the changes that are converging on humankind. These game-changing technologies will disrupt almost every industry in every country. They will shape the future — where economic activity will flourish, where wealth will emerge, how humans will progress and how society will advance. Since new technologies are driving the global market, they will be the crucial drivers of economic growth, and a country’s ability to leverage these technologies for economic impact will be fundamental to its economic success and social stability. As a result, countries around the world seek to build their science and technology capabilities, and to establish and grow innovation ecosystems.
A New Era of Partnerships
These new disruptors are driving changes in the innovation process. A key characteristic of the evolving innovation landscape involves partnerships and alliances, going outside of the company, sector or field — even outside the country — to form new technology ventures, new types of innovation teams, and new types of partnerships to mature technologies and bring them to market.
First, as many companies have moved away from exploratory research toward nearer-term applied research and technology development that supports business units, foundational technology breakthroughs increasingly come from universities, national laboratories and small start-up companies. For example, in a recent survey of U.S. manufacturing firms, of those firms that had innovated, 49 percent reported that the invention underlying their most important new product had originated from an outside source.
This wider scan for new opportunity opens the door for new partnerships between companies, universities and small businesses as well as cross-sector transfers of new technology. This includes collaboration with actors and sectors that may not even seem related to the business. For example, a key optical sensor technology used to analyze materials down well in the oil and gas industry, resulting in dramatic improvements in productivity, was originally invented to measure impurities in dog food.
Second, universities are increasingly expected to spur entrepreneurship, and contribute to economic growth and development in the communities and regions in which they reside. To carry out these roles, universities are engaging in a wide range of partnerships and alliances to move their science and new technology to the marketplace.
Third, new technologies are colliding, creating new multidisciplinary fields, and new potential for innovation at the intersection of disciplines such as nano-medicine, bioinformatics, agro-energy biotechnology, biomaterials, organic electronics, biomimetic robotics and the computational X fields. Scientists and engineers must come out of single discipline siloes to capture the opportunities for innovation that come from working with other disciplines. New platforms are needed where talented individuals from different disciplines can collaborate.
Fourth, many of the global challenges we face — global food, clean water, energy and sustainability — and many of today’s opportunities for innovation require multidisciplinary or socio-technical approaches. For example, developing new medical devices might require integration of biology, physics, mathematics, material science and software. The development of water purification systems for underdeveloped countries involves a multidisciplinary challenge to design solutions for the socio-economic systems in which they will be deployed: the cost required, available skills to guide its complexity of operation, and available power sources, if any. Design for the human element in service innovation may require experts in behavioral sciences, interface design, and business disciplines such as management and marketing. Most corporations have already moved to multidisciplinary research and innovation teams because the problems faced by their customers and opportunities in the marketplace require it.
Fifth, some challenges and opportunities are so grand — or require very costly facilities and instrumentation — that large-scale or extreme projects are needed to tackle them. These projects can deliver important new knowledge to the world, or make leap-frog advances in technology and engineering that later drive innovation. Multinational partnerships or new forms of alliances may be needed to drive discovery and progress.
As revolutionary technologies converge and collide, and the world tackles difficult challenges, we need new types of partnerships that bring together diverse perspectives and skills to innovate and solve complex problems. We need to think about new kinds of global conversations, global processes and global teams. We also need to examine their evolution to better understand how they can operate flexibly with agility that matches the pace of change, and what kinds of skill sets, processes and infrastructure will enable their success and provide mutually beneficial outcomes for their participants.
Contributions from the GFCC
The Global Federal of Competitiveness Councils is a key platform for assembling diverse knowledge and experience, stakeholders and agents of change for discussions, sharing perspectives, and developing high-level recommendations on technology, competitiveness and economic prosperity, for example, during the Global Innovation Summit on the future of production, consumption and work. Composed of leaders of the world’s competitiveness councils and other stakeholders, the GFCC is the first global network devoted to the exchange of knowledge and practices related to competitiveness policies and strategies.
The GFCC members have generated a rich base of knowledge, practice and experience from which businesses, universities and governments from around the world can learn, leverage, and build upon. Based on the principles of multidisciplinary cooperation, and global engagement and collaboration, the GFCC is contributing to the crucial debate on pathways for traversing this new era of technology disruption, transition and transformation.
Deborah L.Wince-Smith is the President & CEO of the Council on Competitiveness, the premiere competitiveness leadership organization in the United States, representing U.S. CEOs, university presidents, and labor leaders. She is also the Founder and President of the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils. She leads national and international initiatives that assess competitiveness challenges, convene leaders who can envision and implement solutions, and organize action to enhance U.S. competitiveness. For most of her career, Ms. Wince-Smith has worked on a wide range of science, technology, innovation, and competitiveness issues, advising top-level government policy-makers and business leaders.
