Did you know the largest American industry in 1856 was the Ice industry
Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation – James Utterback ISBN 087584-342-5
The picture below taken from a 2004 presentation by Hunter Lovins www.natcap.org shows the generally waves of innovation over the past 200 years or so.
Established organisatons in each wave. like those involved in the Americam Ice Industry, rarely survived innovation in and through sucessive waves.
My reading of the picture is that the 6th wave will be the one where organisations will either innovation and transform to keep ahead of the net energy curve or die. The opportunities for innovation given are Hunter Lovins’s suggestions at the time but are inlikely to be definitive or critical to the organisations that survive.
October 16, 2009 at 5:00 am
In what Wave of Innovation do we limit the population to a sustainable level in a world of finite resources?