Innovation across the planet started in slow waves that could be measured in
millennia, spans of a thousand years. These waves have been speeding
up. Take a look at this chart I made of some of civilization’s most
far-reaching innovations:
| 200,000 – 150,000 BC |
Hunting & Gathering |
|
| 10,000 – 5,000 BC |
Agriculture | |
| 1400 – 1700 AD |
The Renaissance, printing press, patent law, gunpowder |
|
| 1600 – 1800 AD |
Closed field agriculture: mechanization, crop rotation, selective breeding & the resulting population explosion |
|
| 1750 – 1850 AD |
The Industrial Revolution and its impact on manufacturing, transportation, labor, interchangeable parts, petroleum, electrification, and mass production |
|
| 1945 – present | The Atomic Age including nuclear power |
|
| 1955 – present | The Jet Age makes global transportation accessible |
|
| 1960s – present | The Computer Age including space travel, large scale computation capacity, integrated circuit technology and microprocessors, data mining, redistribution of income, and the rise of the knowledge worker |
|
| 1990 – present | The Internet Age including the ubiquity of the World Wide Web, personal computers, smart phones, mass gaming, virtualization, practically unlimited storage, the cloud, and augmented realities |
The last four ages are still in process. They are piling up on and
interacting with each other. The resulting complex environment is often
rife with turbulence, a good description of today’s business world.
At the same time this chaos regularly gives birth to new orders, new
ways of organizing. With that come new capacities and
opportunities. As a result we have entered an era of innovation.
Where is the next frontier? Take a look at the models in your head!
Where can you bend the rules and create a new business model, a novel
service, or a radical product?
