TWC session 3

1st September 2014 Monday, I had my third TWC session.

The first part of the session was about sustainable technology and the second part was about innovation management.

What is sustainable technology? It is technology that benefit us without compromising the benefits of the future generation. Why is there a need to develop sustainable technology? The reason is that we are living on a finite planet.

In the past, the economy works in a system such that there was a trade-off between economical well-being and ecological well-being. The system used was linear; it started from production and ended at consumption. This system was destructive as we live in a finite planet where resources are scarce and eventually one day the resources will be depleted. There was a need to change the system from a linear model to cyclical model which means after consumption, it goes back to the production stage. However, the model should be cost competitive at the same time as well. No companies would want to invest in a business that is a guarantee loss.

The first presentation by Shi Wei was on modular devices. It was an interesting topic as modular devices help to preserve the environment by eliminating wastage. The only problem is whether it is feasible for companies to embark on the idea of modular devices. Sustainability should be cost competitive and ecologically sound. Shi Wei only brings up the example of phones. What about bulky items like television? Is it logical to keep upgrading a single television at the same time? Jian Sheng mentioned in his presentation that television actually went through multiple upgrades. Cheng En oral presentation was about sustainability in Jamaica. I was quite disheartened when his question for discussion was about challenges to achieve sustainability and people just regurgitate his points on Jamaica's solution to achieve sustainability. Will education be effective? Can the Jamaicans do anything about it after receiving the education?

The second part of the lesson was about innovation management. It literally means management of creating something new. There are a few interesting observations that I would like to highlight. Firstly is the pipeline of innovation by Dr Shahi. It described the process from research to application. In between will be the obstacles that companies have to overcome. Since there is so much obstacle to overcome during the development stage, there will be no point in innovating something which others can easily copy and compete with you. Hence, there is this model by Dr Shahi that shows the "hotspot" of innovation. Smart people will innovate in the "summit" areas as shown in the model because at "summit" there is a high barrier to entry for competitors to enter and has high return rates. Next Dr Shahi talks about the 4 "smarts" that results in a successful innovation. I like the idea how all these link with one another to show what is a successful innovation. Jian Sheng presentation was basically about a description of how television has evolved while Nigel topic is on acquisition. I would like to address one of Nigel question on "Does acquisition stifles or drives innovation". I take the stand that it drives innovation. With acquisition, companies are able to take over ideas and refined it with their own ideas to come up with something new. It can be argued that with acquisition, companies now have larger global shares and may be more lazy to innovate but they should have this fear of competitors coming into the market. Look at the "hotspot" of innovation. Everybody wants to be at the "summit" but it is just difficult to reach.

Overall session was meaningful with many key take away lesson. Time was well manage and session did not end extremely late despite so many presentation. Rating of session 8/10