The Blue Ocean Has Dried Up. Who Will Do The Refill?

February 28th, 2009

This post is a response to Nico Macdonald’s Innovation Forum, and the upcoming theme: Beyond the Crisis: Debating the role of innovation

The roots of the current crunch are crystal clear: Consumers running amok with borrowed money, banks on a risky lending spree and governments all around the world who didnt dare to spoil the party.

Now that fresh debt has finally dried up, and the free markets subsequently going into seizure, Governments are hastily turning to good old Keynesian Stimulation. Many economists believe that this will automatically lead to wasteful support of zombie-industries.

Or will it?

It could also start a whole new era of enlightenment that connects the global financial, industrial and environmental challenges into one forward looking vision, sparking a wave of innovation not seen since World War II.
One company that has already realised such a vision is Better Place in Israel, an electric car-pool that is ticking a number of interesting boxes. Building the electric cars is a great opportunity for Renault Nissan, building the recharging network is a large scale infrastructure project, drivers will benefit from lower fuel costs and the Israeli society will be less dependent on hated oil. Even better, the energy companies will have a vast distributed network of batteries living on their grid that can store the volatile energy from solar and wind farms.
Denmark and California have already signed up too.

This genius project is connecting classic infrastructure spent with cutting edge technology and service innovation. Now is the time for creatives and designers to help imagine, built and communicate these meaningful futures. Let’s inspire the big picture!

Entry Filed under: Research and Insights, Sustainability