IBM’s Global Innovation Outlook [GIO] is the equivalent of IMF’s World Economic Outlook. GIO 2.0 (2006) focused on three areas: enterprise, transportation and the environment. This is a continuation of the yesterday’s post on 19 Innovation Insights from GIO 2.0 which expounded on the impact of innovation on the enterprise. After previously posting IBM and GIO based on an expanded version of a single paragraph on IBM’s strategy of innovation in my case analysis of the company as required by a management course in Business Policy, I believe the 19 GIO insights also deserved a lengthier discussion.
Transportation
Thanks to advances in transportation methods and the easing of geopolitical barriers, people and freight can now move over far greater distances, with far more frequently than ever before. The problems begin once they get there.
Grow, but with flow. “Cities that pursue progressive, hyper-efficient transportation systems are making perhaps the most prescient investments in long-term economic development. . . We might actually see the decline of the mega-urban model altogether, as people retreat instead to more sustainable and habitable places.”
Annotations: Almost all modern cities are burden by this problem. Probably, the most obvious reason why people move from rural and flock the cities is simply because opportunities abound in cities and some national governments lack the foresight to create equal and ample job opportunities in rural areas.
Headlights into the system. “Increasing road capacity tends to increase vehicular congestion. . . Lessons learned from the virtual transfer of information can be applied to aspects of physical movement.”
Annotations: Packs of people . . . packets of information? Sounds weird? You bet! But these two are basically synonymous in terms of physical movement. People and information travelling distances both need addresses, requires destinations from initial locations. The GIO, however, cautioned: “people, unlike individual packets of data, have minds and wills of their own. And therein may lie the crux of the challenge.”
Playing "leapfrog" to move forward. “There is a potential for a car-sharing model: customizing a shared vehicle. . . This kind of personalization might afford drivers a sense of ownership while still containing overall demand for private cars.”
Annotations: Mass transit, light train, e-Jeepney are clear contemporary alternatives.
New paths for public transportation. “Travelling on demand means that everything is interconnected. Two schools of thought: Integration of transportation information or the transit systems of a single city but also of an entire region or country; or Disaggregation of transportation systems might create swarms of smaller, more mobile, more flexible vehicles which would be able to dynamically re-route themselves base on need, while still connected to a larger networked infrastructure to track movements.”
Annotations: If world’s transport system could be standardized, a global body similar to the Internet consortium, W3C, should handle the same; and the technologies used for the Internet could then readily be applied to moving people. Looks like that mini-cars would be roaming the highways of the future.
Services on the go. “The adaption of a common platform for development of in-vehicle services through embedded technology would be essential to drive business-model innovation. . . Of course, where some saw risk, others saw economic opportunity.”
Annotations: Just consider the possibilities for content delivery: e-mail on the plane, voice-activated driving directions in the car, web surfing on the train, and probably blogging in a space shuttle? How swell would these be?
Shoring up shipping. “Nations may come to define themselves more on the basis of unique services and resources than on traditional notions of geography. . . The role of port authorities and custom bodies could shift from collecting tariffs to facilitating commerce and ensuring security. . . New inefficiencies and spiraling costs associated with shipping might reignite local manufacturing and intra-regional trade.”
Annotations: If land transport becomes standardized, why would sea transport be left behind? When every transport system—air, land, sea—becomes seamlessly integrated, domestic and foreign trade will flourish. . . and that would probably push more local production.
Notes:
IBM (2006). Global Innovation Outlook 2.0. New York: International Business Machines Corporation, 2006. 50pp. back to text
Disclaimer: The posts on this site does not necessarily represent any organization’s positions, strategies or opinions; and unless otherwise expressly stated, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Philippines License.
19 Innovation Insights from GIO 2.0, Part II
Tags: Business Policy, Car-Sharing, Case Analysis, Commerce, Custom Body, Embedded Technology, Enterprise, Environment, GIO 2.0, Global Innovation Outlook, IBM, Innovation, Insight, Intra-Regional Trade, Management, Manufacturing, Mega-Urban, Port Authority, Public Transport, Road Capacity, Shipping, Transportation, Vehicular Congestion
Transportation
Thanks to advances in transportation methods and the easing of geopolitical barriers, people and freight can now move over far greater distances, with far more frequently than ever before. The problems begin once they get there.
Annotations: Almost all modern cities are burden by this problem. Probably, the most obvious reason why people move from rural and flock the cities is simply because opportunities abound in cities and some national governments lack the foresight to create equal and ample job opportunities in rural areas.
Annotations: Packs of people . . . packets of information? Sounds weird? You bet! But these two are basically synonymous in terms of physical movement. People and information travelling distances both need addresses, requires destinations from initial locations. The GIO, however, cautioned: “people, unlike individual packets of data, have minds and wills of their own. And therein may lie the crux of the challenge.”
Annotations: Mass transit, light train, e-Jeepney are clear contemporary alternatives.
Annotations: If world’s transport system could be standardized, a global body similar to the Internet consortium, W3C, should handle the same; and the technologies used for the Internet could then readily be applied to moving people. Looks like that mini-cars would be roaming the highways of the future.
Annotations: Just consider the possibilities for content delivery: e-mail on the plane, voice-activated driving directions in the car, web surfing on the train, and probably blogging in a space shuttle? How swell would these be?
Annotations: If land transport becomes standardized, why would sea transport be left behind? When every transport system—air, land, sea—becomes seamlessly integrated, domestic and foreign trade will flourish. . . and that would probably push more local production.
Notes:
IBM (2006). Global Innovation Outlook 2.0. New York: International Business Machines Corporation, 2006. 50pp. back to text
Disclaimer: The posts on this site does not necessarily represent any organization’s positions, strategies or opinions; and unless otherwise expressly stated, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Philippines License.