Technology has definitely brought about beneficial changes to our lives. However, should we gearing towards harnessing its power for sustaining our planet? Too many times technology has helped us speed up many processes, however at a great cost.
Brief Overview of Week 3 class
Technology and Industrial Development: Toward Sustainability
We first started the lesson with a light introduction from a video about linear system of production processes.
Though we were only shown the first 9 minutes, it was obvious that the main focus was on how the linear system is a crisis for a planet like ours with finite resources. Therefore, a cyclical system is a must to prevent more damages to Mother Earth.
We then had our first presentation on moving towards sustainable development. The presenter had shared about how the current sustainability plans only reflect the ignorance of the history of resource exploitation. She pointed out that the prospects of wealth had generated a certain extent of social and political power that led to the promotion of extensive usage of resources.
The 2nd presenter then shared with us on Walmart’s sustainability plans, where it focused more about the interaction between the business and its consumers, as compared to revenue generated. The plans includes all of its supplying process, from material sourcing, manufacturing, distribution. The controversy comes where Walmart is known to be “money minded”, and thus the hypocrisy and ethical concerns that comes with adopting such sustainable plans.
Technology and Innovation Management
The class then proceeded into the realm of innovation. The prof brought up the concept of the valley, summit and cloud opportunities as one type of assessment for technology management.
- Valley Opportunities refer to having many competitors, low barriers to entry and low profit margins
- Summit Opportunities refer to having fw competitors, high barriers to entry and high profit margins with well-developed business case
- Cloud Opportunities refer to having few competitors, high barriers to entry, high profit margin, but undeveloped business case
Prof’s take is to put people, technologies and resources together at “summit opportunities to capture the best value.
We then had an brief introduction on the R-D-A Translation Process.
We then continued with the 3rd presentation, that shared about Apple’s strategy as a master in innovation and marketer. She brought on about the concept about technology push and market pull during the innovation process, where many companies fail to achieve the balance. Apple on the hand, managed this balance well, which is reflected by its success in the world market.
The last presentation the innovation management in P&G, in particular the market pull strategies. She brought out the culture of P&G to think in customer’s perspectives, and kept to the 4Cs and 1O: Connectedness, Collaborative, Curious, Courageous and Openness. This brings about a more creative platform to spur the innovative thinking within the corporation.
Interesting Observations
Externalizing the true cost of production
The video “How Things Work, About Stuff” was a very intriguing video for me personally, after watching the entire 20minutes.
The visual statistics of needing 5 planets worth of resources if the world population consumes like an average American is appalling. The country contains 5% of the world’s population, yet they are consuming 30% of the world’s resources.
The current linear system is producing at such an alarming rate due to the booming demand, that negative externalities are kept out of the cost to fit the demand.
She brought out the concept of the “Golden Arrow of Consumption”, where the primary identity of Americans have become consumers. The value of each person has now degraded towards one self’s contribution to this golden arrow. 99% of the stuff they buy are thrown away after 6 months of purchase.
Quote: Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate. – Victor Lebow, Retail analyst
The author believes this has caused the average consumption of an American, due to Planned Obsolescence and Perceived Obsolescence. Planned Obsolescence refers to producing stuff that will render useless very quickly, to encourage more consumption. Perceived Obsolescence refers to the influence by the media of your “contribution” to the golden arrow to prevent any embarrassments.
I agree with the media being a huge catalyst for consumerism for perceived obsolescence, as seen by the marketing strategies of Apple. It makes people want to BUY a new one, even though you have a similar gadget that works pretty much the same. The vicious cycle of the work-watch-spend treadmill (as mentioned in the video) is a very apt description of the way the world works, not just in America. I believe many Singaporeans would be as guilty too.
Recycling has also been discussed. Firstly, recycling does not answer the core problem of this epic consumption rates, as it will still produce lots of waste collectively. Next, most stuff are now unrecyclable, as they contains too many toxins due to mixture of contents, or designed to be un-recyclable.
What we really need to do is to change our old way of thinking, and to shift a cyclical system where it doesn’t destroy the resources or people.
Also, the 1st presentation was also deeply etched in my mind, where the proposals were made in 1993, but it doesn’t mean we can’t apply it to the world’s current state. It’s all about having the desire to make the change, and to admit that we did allocate and utilize our resources in a very wrong and bad way.
Also something random, but I realize a very big difference in the way of thinking between the Asian culture and American culture. Prof Arai referred the development process in the RDA Translation Process as a nightmare, while Prof Shahi (having been in America for awhile) merely related it to diamond prospecting & mining. Does this perhaps showcase the negativity in Asians where we tend to over think and worry ourselves unnecessarily? Maybe it would be a good thing for the Asians to learn from the Caucasians in some way, to be more positive and open minded. This can perhaps help create a more creative and innovative mind flow?
Key Takeaways
From all the topics discussed today, I felt that the government appears to have a pivotal role in ensuring the country’s sustainability through the use of effective and innovative technology. They are the ones who have the political power to create laws to ensure a better world for us all, and to spur on more inventions for green technology.
Another key takeaway I have would be from the video, where the degradation of the Earth’s environment state is pretty disturbing. One person is not enough to make a change, as we have to do it collectively. However, it is not an excuse to not have a good habit to separate your wants and desires, so as not to over-consume. A change in mindset is needed to ensure the survival of future generations, and this cannot happen without the balance between the economic and human well being that is to be factored by many production industries.
Further Discussions
Many countries are slowly adopting greener technologies and resource saving plans to do their bit for Mother Earth. I am wondering why Singapore isn’t exactly very pro-active in such areas.
Take supermarkets for example, where shoppers are encouraged to bring their own shopping bags to obtain certain discounts. It is however, not mandatory. Many countries in Europe I know of charge consumers for EACH plastic bag used. Why isn’t such methods employed to deter wastage in Singapore? Are there more cons to it than pros in Singapore’s context? Green technology is also not as commonly found here. Are there perhaps more disadvantages right now?
Conclusion
Despite being pretty clueless about the readings, I felt more in touch with this week’s topic as it concerned with the environmental damage we’re doing; something which I feel very greatly for. It’s really hard to keep up environmentally friendly habits due to its inconvenience and low receptivity in Singapore, however it is encouraging to know that the world is starting to be more aware of the wreckage we have done. I hope more of my peers are now more aware of the dangers posed from such continuous acts of environmental degradation, and perhaps inspire them to be creative thinkers for greener innovative technology.
Rating: 8/10
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