In 2017, being a lone genius is no longer possible.
Every innovator thinks he is Steve Jobs. He was arrogant, stubborn, piously believed in his vision, and rolled into a pancake everyone who got in his way. He knew both ups and downs, but no one denies that he had a strong influence on the world.
Doing research for my next book, “ Mapping Innovation, ” I was surprised to find that most of the great innovators with whom I spoke were not at all like Steve Jobs. These are not selfish people suffering from delusions of grandeur, but one of the most modest and cautious people you can imagine.
The idea of ​​a lonely genius has always been a myth. As Brian Arthur writes [W. Brian Arthur ] in “ The Nature of Technology ], innovation is a combination, so it’s unlikely that someone had all the pieces of the puzzle on their hands. Even Steve Jobs depended on a small group of loyal people. And thanks to digital technology, the ability to work together becomes a key competitive advantage .
In the twentieth century, the key business strategy was a linear value chain . The goal was to maximize contractual opportunities with customers and suppliers, and minimize the threats from firms entering the market and substitute goods. Therefore, the strategy was similar to a game of chess , and you had to arrange the necessary figures in the right places.
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Today, this linear world has collapsed, and we live and work in a semantic economy , in which everything is connected with each other and openness overcomes closeness . It doesn't matter what resources you control, it’s important what you have access to , and many resources are outside your organization. When everything is interconnected, shutting itself off from everyone, you will most likely lose access to valuable resources, rather than protect anything patented that cannot be reproduced elsewhere.
Therefore, platforms need to be used to access ecosystems containing talent, technology and information . No, even the most powerful organizations and governments, can no longer do this on their own. In the networked world, strategy cannot focus only on efficiency, which is increasingly based on automation, but must work with expanding and deepening ties.
Do not hesitate, today every business should become a platform . Try to manage the organization of the old linear method, and the resources necessary to compete with others, you will not be available.
On September 17, 1991, Linus Torvalds released the first version of the Linux OS . Unlike commercial options developed by companies such as Microsoft, Linux was free to use and change. Moreover, users were encouraged to do improvements and contribute their code.
The business did not like it. Microsoft Director Steve Ballmer called Linux a cancerous tumor , and said that everyone who uses open source software puts their business at risk. He urged the government to abandon support for open source projects. For companies like Microsoft, Linux has become a deadly threat.
But times have changed, and the industry has adopted open source. IBM made it one of the first. She began shipping equipment with a preinstalled Linux OS in the mid-90s, and periodically applied patents to protect the open source community. Tesla recently posted its patents in open access. Today, even Microsoft confesses its love for Linux .
To understand why open communities have become so important, take a look at the reasons why Google opened TensorFlow , its library of machine learning tools. Google doesn’t take up opportunities or experience, but opening the code allows it to gain access to the talents of tens of thousands of programmers from around the world. “Since we decided to open a project, the code is faster, it has acquired more features and has become more flexible and convenient,” one of the directors told me.
So if Google, one of the largest and most complex companies in the world, does not cope alone, who can it?
In the mid-1980s, it seemed that the US semiconductor industry was doomed. Although American companies created innovations and dominated technology for decades, they were suppressed by cheaper Japanese imports. Just like machines and electronics, microchips seemed to be another symbol of US decline.
This perspective had serious consequences for the competitiveness and security of the country. In 1986, the government created a SEMATECH consortium consisting of government services, research institutions and private companies. By the mid-90s, US companies have once again become industry leaders and continue to be.
In recent years, the SEMATECH model has been extended to programs that create a new generation of innovators , such as the JCESR in the Argonne National Laboratory, which creates new generation batteries, and the National Network of Industrial Innovations , which creates production nodes throughout the country.
And without government intervention, private companies create consortia to solve big problems. For example, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook have created a partnership for in-depth study and dissemination of the best approaches to the use of artificial intelligence. Others have created working groups to solve quantum encryption problems.
While the challenges facing us are increasing in size and complexity, it can be expected that consortia integrating the capabilities of government, industry, and scientific organizations will assume ever larger roles.
The years that followed the Second World War were marked by great technological transformations. We tamed the energy of the atom, built jet engines and overcame the speed of sound, revealed the principles of genetics, created transistors and microchips. Such fundamentally new paradigms led to unprecedented prosperity.
Since the 1970s, we have largely expanded our previous achievements. Air travel has become cheaper and more efficient. Computers have decreased, accelerated and integrated into the economy, but in fact the technologies remained the same as those used at the end of the twentieth century, and they are already approaching their limitations.
In the next decade, Moore's law will cease to be fulfilled , and the development of lithium-ion batteries, on which the power of our devices and electric vehicles depend, will slow down and then completely stop . The risks of climate change will increase, and chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease will threaten the bankruptcy of the economy.
But with all the increased demands, our capabilities may be even higher. New architectures like quantum computers and neuromorphic chips can lead to the creation of machines that surpass everything we saw earlier. They will serve as the basis for new technological paradigms, such as genomics, nanotechnology and robotics .
As Dr. Angel Diaz, IBM's vice president of cloud technology and architecture, said, “to actually change today's world, we need something more than just tricky code. We need programmers to work with cancer researchers, with climatologists, and with experts in many other areas, and solve great problems , having a significant impact on the world. ”
In the emerging business environment, the best way to become a dominant player is to become an indispensable partner. Collaboration becomes a competitive advantage.
Doing research for my next book, “ Mapping Innovation, ” I was surprised to find that most of the great innovators with whom I spoke were not at all like Steve Jobs. These are not selfish people suffering from delusions of grandeur, but one of the most modest and cautious people you can imagine.
The idea of ​​a lonely genius has always been a myth. As Brian Arthur writes [W. Brian Arthur ] in “ The Nature of Technology ], innovation is a combination, so it’s unlikely that someone had all the pieces of the puzzle on their hands. Even Steve Jobs depended on a small group of loyal people. And thanks to digital technology, the ability to work together becomes a key competitive advantage .
Platform Features
In the twentieth century, the key business strategy was a linear value chain . The goal was to maximize contractual opportunities with customers and suppliers, and minimize the threats from firms entering the market and substitute goods. Therefore, the strategy was similar to a game of chess , and you had to arrange the necessary figures in the right places.
')
Today, this linear world has collapsed, and we live and work in a semantic economy , in which everything is connected with each other and openness overcomes closeness . It doesn't matter what resources you control, it’s important what you have access to , and many resources are outside your organization. When everything is interconnected, shutting itself off from everyone, you will most likely lose access to valuable resources, rather than protect anything patented that cannot be reproduced elsewhere.
Therefore, platforms need to be used to access ecosystems containing talent, technology and information . No, even the most powerful organizations and governments, can no longer do this on their own. In the networked world, strategy cannot focus only on efficiency, which is increasingly based on automation, but must work with expanding and deepening ties.
Do not hesitate, today every business should become a platform . Try to manage the organization of the old linear method, and the resources necessary to compete with others, you will not be available.
Open source as a strategic imperative
On September 17, 1991, Linus Torvalds released the first version of the Linux OS . Unlike commercial options developed by companies such as Microsoft, Linux was free to use and change. Moreover, users were encouraged to do improvements and contribute their code.
The business did not like it. Microsoft Director Steve Ballmer called Linux a cancerous tumor , and said that everyone who uses open source software puts their business at risk. He urged the government to abandon support for open source projects. For companies like Microsoft, Linux has become a deadly threat.
But times have changed, and the industry has adopted open source. IBM made it one of the first. She began shipping equipment with a preinstalled Linux OS in the mid-90s, and periodically applied patents to protect the open source community. Tesla recently posted its patents in open access. Today, even Microsoft confesses its love for Linux .
To understand why open communities have become so important, take a look at the reasons why Google opened TensorFlow , its library of machine learning tools. Google doesn’t take up opportunities or experience, but opening the code allows it to gain access to the talents of tens of thousands of programmers from around the world. “Since we decided to open a project, the code is faster, it has acquired more features and has become more flexible and convenient,” one of the directors told me.
So if Google, one of the largest and most complex companies in the world, does not cope alone, who can it?
Creating consortia to solve complex problems
In the mid-1980s, it seemed that the US semiconductor industry was doomed. Although American companies created innovations and dominated technology for decades, they were suppressed by cheaper Japanese imports. Just like machines and electronics, microchips seemed to be another symbol of US decline.
This perspective had serious consequences for the competitiveness and security of the country. In 1986, the government created a SEMATECH consortium consisting of government services, research institutions and private companies. By the mid-90s, US companies have once again become industry leaders and continue to be.
In recent years, the SEMATECH model has been extended to programs that create a new generation of innovators , such as the JCESR in the Argonne National Laboratory, which creates new generation batteries, and the National Network of Industrial Innovations , which creates production nodes throughout the country.
And without government intervention, private companies create consortia to solve big problems. For example, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook have created a partnership for in-depth study and dissemination of the best approaches to the use of artificial intelligence. Others have created working groups to solve quantum encryption problems.
While the challenges facing us are increasing in size and complexity, it can be expected that consortia integrating the capabilities of government, industry, and scientific organizations will assume ever larger roles.
New era of innovation
The years that followed the Second World War were marked by great technological transformations. We tamed the energy of the atom, built jet engines and overcame the speed of sound, revealed the principles of genetics, created transistors and microchips. Such fundamentally new paradigms led to unprecedented prosperity.
Since the 1970s, we have largely expanded our previous achievements. Air travel has become cheaper and more efficient. Computers have decreased, accelerated and integrated into the economy, but in fact the technologies remained the same as those used at the end of the twentieth century, and they are already approaching their limitations.
In the next decade, Moore's law will cease to be fulfilled , and the development of lithium-ion batteries, on which the power of our devices and electric vehicles depend, will slow down and then completely stop . The risks of climate change will increase, and chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease will threaten the bankruptcy of the economy.
But with all the increased demands, our capabilities may be even higher. New architectures like quantum computers and neuromorphic chips can lead to the creation of machines that surpass everything we saw earlier. They will serve as the basis for new technological paradigms, such as genomics, nanotechnology and robotics .
As Dr. Angel Diaz, IBM's vice president of cloud technology and architecture, said, “to actually change today's world, we need something more than just tricky code. We need programmers to work with cancer researchers, with climatologists, and with experts in many other areas, and solve great problems , having a significant impact on the world. ”
In the emerging business environment, the best way to become a dominant player is to become an indispensable partner. Collaboration becomes a competitive advantage.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/400435/
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