We started out this week’s session with a video entitled “The story of stuff” which talks about the general process of how resources are extracted and processed in factories, to the distribution of goods followed by the consumption and finally the disposal. The narrator of the video spent ten years studying the process and what actually goes on in between. She also talks about how big corporations are affecting the amount of resources on earth. It was mentioned that the U.S. , which comprises only 5% of the world’s population, is using up 30% of the earth’s resources and producing 30% of the earth’s waste. If everyone consumed at U.S. rates, we would need 3-5 more planet earths. This was an interesting video describing how limited the resources on our earth is. Unfortunately we were not able to watch the entire video as it was too long. I will definitely be checking out the rest of the video when I get the time to.
This got us discussing the sustainability of the resources we currently use. The natural resources which we currently employ, such as oil and trees for paper, are decreasing at significant rates and are in danger of being depleted completely. These days, we are looking to different forms of energy to support the people’s needs as well as to control the rate of consumption of these limited resources. It is predicted that in Dubai, oil would run out by or before 2015, in 4 years time! Hence it is important to look towards other sources of energy, such as solar energy or palm oil. Green technology is also very much encouraged these days and companies are being rewarded or offered subsidies for coming up with green products. A good example would be hybrid electric vehicles, which are partly electric or hydrogen-powered. This greatly reduces the reliance on fossil fuels and hence controls the rate of consumption. However, as some classmates pointed out, the refueling stations are limited and are not easily accessible, making it a deterrence for potential buyers. Also, the short lives and costs of these vehicles outweigh the energy savings made by these vehicles, which is why corporations are still unwilling to invest heavily in green technology. However, I feel that in a few years time, as technology continues to develop, this will no longer be a factor for producers and we will soon be able to see more and more green vehicles on our roads.
The second half of the lesson was on technology and innovation management. Prof showed us the Shahi Landscape Model for Technology and the R-D-A (Research -> Development -> Application) Translation Process. The landscape model is pretty interesting and I feel that there is too little focus on “Cloud” opportunities as the risk is high and the chances of failure is too unpredictable. However, those in this category stand to gain the most should they be successful. I feel that a very good example would be Apple, as they were willing to venture into untested markets with products such as the Ipod and Ipad. For the R-D-A translation process, we were introduced to Prof Arai’s perspective of the pipeline, who says that research is the dream, application is the reality and development, well, is the nightmare, which I thought was pretty interesting.
I would rate this lesson a 7.5/10, as the content was still interesting, but some of the class (me included) did not come well prepared for the lesson and could not bring up points for discussion for some of the readings. I will definitely prepare myself better for the following lessons in future and hopefully we can have more fruitful TWC sessions ahead.
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