The Global Innovation Outlook: At The Intersection Of Business, Technology & Society

With innovation occurring at the intersection of technology, business and society, there is a fore of compulsion to look at the emerging trends in these three dimensions in a concerted way. For GIO 2.0, IBM assembled 248 thought leaders from nearly three dozen countries and regions, representing 178 organizations, gathered on four continents for 15 “deep dive” sessions to discuss three focus areas and the emerging trends, challenges and opportunities that affect business and society. This time the principal focus areas have been taken as future of the enterprise, transportation & environment. It answers some key questions on the focus areas like with the future of the enterprise centered on the new foundational structures and organizing principles and their impact on competition, management, research etc., On transportation – assessing the impact of mobility and balancing advances of conflicting forces and their impact on the growth of global economy and on the focus area of environment the report assesses sustainability issues , regulation and technological innovation. The complete report is available here and a summary of findings is available here.

Amongst Key Findings: Increasingly, the motivating force that brings people together for work is less the enterprise itself (a business organization) and more the collective “enterprise” (a joint endeavor or undertaking). If this trend accelerates, it will have profound implications for how companies think about everything from leadership to managing and motivating global talent. It will change the ways they approach innovation itself. The result : Forget about free enterprise.Think enterprise-free exhorts the report.
In the section of transportation, the report notes that increasingly planes, trains and automobiles are becoming intertwined with the Information Age. Rather than remaining relatively simple mechanical devices, they are increasingly imbued with sophisticated software, sensors and chips that turn them into complex mobile information technology devices. The real opportunity for innovation is tapping into these connected vehicles to deliver an entirely new breed of services built around information and technology. The A380 has billion lines of code and GM predicts that a car in 2010 would have 100 million lines of code. Concerns over security, and the inevitable rise of hacking and viruses once these vehicles go mainstream, also emerged. Of course, where some saw risk, others saw economic opportunity: In the same way that the Internet gave rise to the antivirus software industry, entirely new industries will likely emerge to maintain and protect the next generation of connected vehicles. In the focus area of environment, the report finds that while the discussions about the environment tend to place preservation on one side and business interests on the other. But in reality, notions of ecological responsibility and business responsibility are similar. It’s easier to imagine a world in which environmental protection and economic prosperity are not only compatible but simultaneously attainable. Irving has a detailed coverage on the evolution , coverage and findings of the report.The themes, conversations and insights are compelling – all the more so as it is based on deliberations across different parts of the world- what emanates out of this is like the wisdom of crowds pondering on the intersection of business, technology and society – an excellent report and a commendable effort from IBM.