Session 3

First half of the lesson

The Prof started off with giving examples as of why sustainable development is so important. It is a key factor that determines if a country can continue staying as a dominant player or a rising star. For example, the Philippines are facing the problem of brain drain due to stagnant economy and jobs are not adequately created for its people. Hence, it is essential that there should be sustainable development as in the long run the country can still stay competitive.

What is sustainable development? Sustainable development is about meeting the needs of this generation but not compromising on the needs of future generations. To do so, we need to change the process of businesses.

The situation now is that processes are done in a linear cycle as what Prof mentioned it. There is no consideration about the impact on the environment. The strains on the finite resources are starting to show. Natural endowment like forest has been chopped down to made way for urbanisation. Crude oil resources have been depleting hence many researches are done to look for alternative energy sources.

As the number of people moving from the rural areas to cities is increasing exponentially, there is great importance to maximise available resources to full use. Companies are now moving on to a more cyclical approach. Prof has also mentioned that in an effort to move to more sustainable methods, opportunities are being created for innovation, growth and value creation.

For the past decade, recycling have been a trend and showed that the recycling business is a good investment towards creating a sustainable world.

The problem is that due to the increasing number of people entering the middle class income due to economic growth in countries such as China and India, it causes an increase in the consumption of goods and services. Hence, more waste is generated. Businesses started to see waste as a valuable resource. See the article

Prof also mentioned that countries are unwilling to invest heavily in new technologies for the fear that it would fail and would have no economic benefit to the country.  Nations (China, India) who came in later found to have benefited greatly as all they have to do was to purchase the technology and use them to create new products. There is no need for them to pay large sums of money for research and development of the product.

However, this trend is slowly changing as now there are laws like patent rights. People who invest heavily in research and development (R&D) can have the confidence to be a leader in R&D as the law will protect their innovation.     

There may be problems arising when developing countries rely on investments from developed countries. Developed countries may exploit these developing countries and strip them of their natural resources and leave behind pollution. For example, in Bangladesh, workers are paid poorly and made to work in precarious environment to produce cheap clothing for exports. If the country does not move up the value chain and produce higher valued products, the living standard of its people would not improve. Hence, developing countries need to be focus on what they want to achieve.

Presentations

The presentations this week were really interesting. One of the presentations is about how the fashion industry is making changes to their processes to contribute to creating a more sustainable world. I feel that there are many benefits for companies to do so as they can attract a new group of consumers- mainly those who care for the environment. Moreover, they can brand themselves as a company who is passionate about the environment and this can help distinguish them from the numerous companies. However to ensure that this is successful, education of the consumers is very important. The consumers need to know why is it so essential that they need to support “green” companies. Since demand of a good reflected by consumers, there needs to be a substantial number of consumers who are willing to purchase such goods before the companies are willing to invest in them.

Second Half of the lesson

Prof also introduced us the innovative creative pipeline. Although there is high risk involved, there are also huge benefits to be reaped if the innovation is successful. The Silicon Valley in California houses tech giants like Google and Facebook. Why is it that the Silicon Valley still remains as a dominant player and despite countries trying to replicate such success in places elsewhere it’s not as successful as the Silicon Valley?

 Singapore is trying hard to do so by encouraging entrepreneurship. I read this article where the author feels that the success of Silicon Valley is largely due to the “magic ingredient” which is smart people.

The diversity where people from all around the world come together and brainstorm together about ideas helped boost innovation. “The understanding of global markets that immigrants bring with them, the knowledge they have of different disciplines, and the links that they provide to their home countries have given the Valley an unassailable competitive advantage as it has evolved from making radios and computer chips to producing search engine, social media, medical devices, and clean energy technology.” (Quoted from the author) If that’s the case, why is it that Singapore has not seen much success in trying to promote innovation?

The last question of the question posted to us in class was “How innovative is Singapore’s population?” Personally, I feel that the education system limits innovation. Students are awarded based on merits hence they are afraid to take risks for fear of compromising on their grades. This fear of taking risks prevents them from developing an idea that may have the potential to be the next big thing.

Prof also talked about the diagram consisting of valleys, summits and clouds. Companies should focus on the summit opportunities. By bringing together development, resources, people and idea, the company is able to reaped the benefits and become a dominant player.  

A question raised in class was “Should technology driven or market driven?” Market driven innovation refers to the development of vaccines for example to treat dengue, HIV. There is already an available market for such goods if they are produced. Technology driven innovation is where a product is created but there might not be a market for it and companies have to invest and convince people that this product is what people need. Prof gave an example which is the Sony Walkman and the iPhone. This is usually more a more difficult proposition as companies need to invest heavily in the production and may break even after a long time.  

    

Key takeaways

1.       Companies/Countries need to ensure that the processes they adopt are sustainable in the long run to allow them to stay dominant.

2.       The 4 key factors to ensure successful innovation: People, idea, money and partnerships.

Personal Ratings

8/10. Really interesting discussion and I learnt more about innovation management and sustainability. J