Prof defined sustainability as ensuring that the options available now will still be available for our future generations. We were showed a video clip 'The Story of Stuff' but due to time constraint, we were unable to view the entire video but I suppose most of us got the gist of the video and its point - it appears that we consume too much and too quickly and with reckless abandon in regards to the natural resources we have left. We seem to be existing in a society where we operate without thought for the future and in addition of using up precious natural resources, we add to environmental issues with our excessive consumerism. The passage of time and technology advances have created wants which has resulted in the over taxation of Earth. This brings us to the need of ensuring sustainable development and cue the raised eyebrows from big corporations. Do economic profits and environmental control go hand in hand or do they have an inverse relationship? I suppose with the current investments in green technology, being green and conscious may not be a (large) economic expense. However, corporations may be reluctant to engage in clean up activities or invest in ensuring its production of goods and services are green and clean right now as we tend to do what hurts our pockets least. In any case, sustainable development is definitely not a fad and it would be sad if it was.
Innovation Management
How do we translate creativity into ideas that are practical and applicable? As a result of the discussion, we can see that innovation isn't complete until it has been applied in the real world and as Prof's friend (another professor from Japan) said - the stage from research to application is a nightmare! Another question posed to the class was if innovation should be technology or market driven? Maybe people think technology driven innovations are true innovations but that's debatable. In any case, innovation should be market driven as there is a need to translate ideas into applicable forms. Companies need to achieve profitability through market driven innovations before setting their sights on cloud opportunities.
Key Messages
The session on sustainability helped to highlight and ring warning bells in our heads on the reality of business and consumerism. Although Annie Leonard from the Story of Stuff may appear extreme but through the discussion of our class, no one can ignore the fact that sustainable development is a high priority. Moreover, economic growth and environment control needs to go hand in hand in order to ensure sustainability. Another take away message drawn from our discussion is the issue on what's stopping innovation in organizations. Prof briefly touched on this topic and he has shared that hierarchy and structure within the organization plays important role in facilitating creativity and innovation. This is pretty much true and besides, from what I recalled in my human resource management module in Poly, we understand that employees need an open and flat structure in order to be motivated enough to offer what's more than required.
I would rate the session 7/10. Once again I really enjoyed all the presentations and the one on 3M, the company seemed like such a 'wallflower' player compared to Apple when it comes to innovation but 3M products are more than just scotch tape.
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