An unforgettable lesson on the need to avoid protectionism, told by Joe Atikian in the Globe and Mail, USA Competition in an advanced economy leads to more science, more advanced engineering and better products. That lesson should have been fully ingrained in the 1950s, when Russia beat the United States into space and permanently retained the …
Tag: Innovation
May 22
CBI rides to the rescue
Having exchanged pleasant words about my new book Productivity Knowhow with the CBI’s Director General, Carolyn Fairbairn, and members of her team, I chanced upon a report they had written, entitled: FROM OSTRICH TO MAGPIE In it, they: “Set out to find new ways to tackle the striking variation in productivity that exists between UK firms …
Jan 13
Japan falls down productivity ladder
Back in the 80s, the West was besotted by the miracle performance levels of Japan’s manufacturing sector and mistakenly concluded that TQM – Total Quality Management – and ‘culture change’ was their secret Actually, it was mostly due to good performance measures, use of basic statistics and common sense in finding best ways to meet …
Nov 20
Has innovation really peaked?
US economist Robert Gordon gets a lot of publicity these days for his dismal view that ‘technological innovation is declining in pace and impact compared to those of the 20th century’ – all set out in his book ‘The Rise and Fall of American Growth’ His whole thesis is based on economic growth statistics, GDP …
Nov 19
AI to spark a new productivity boom?
A new productivity boom could be sparked by AI – Artificial Intelligence? Who says so? No less than two UK government ministers Culture Secretary Karen Bradley says: “AI has the potential to improve our everyday lives” – precisely what productivity improvement is all about And Business Secretary Greg Clark claims: “Huge social and economic benefits AI …
Sep 15
The coming productivity boom
Why is the American economy not as productive as it used to be? Why is US GDP growth below 2% per annum, well short of the 3.5% it averaged before the Great Recession of 2008? Bret Swanson, President of Entropy Economics, and Michael Mandel, an economist, believe ‘the long productivity drought is almost over, as …
Jul 13
AI becoming mainstream in Retail
Expert systems to aid human and plant maintenance and clever OR (Operations Research) computer models (aka apps) to find optimum solutions to complex business problems have been around for over 50 years now AI (Artificial Intelligence) is just the latest moniker for much the same, albeit more powerful Retail Week recently published an article about …
Jul 12
The Fourth Industrial Revolution
The following sweeping pearls of wisdom are 100% from Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum I could not, indeed would not dare, try to improve on them but they surely deserve to be widely read We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way …
Jul 11
Digital investment benefits need time
An interesting article from IoT Agenda explores why digital investment in increasingly capable devices/ things/ solutions are empowering businesses to transform their processes and workflows but not yet showing up in real productivity gains One theory is ‘the metrics used are suspect’ – however, the author sides with another The rapid evolution in transformative technologies …
Jul 11
Five forces to reshape civilisation by 2030
Peter Morici, economics professor at the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, USA, recently published some interesting views on changes he expects world-wide by 2030: A reworking of democracy – Democratic societies outperformed all others in the 20th century – however, recent populism (ideas which appeal to ordinary people) has led their governments to …
May 12
CEOs rate potential of new technology ‘very low’!
A new Gartner survey of 388 CEOs/ senior executives found they rated as “very low” the potential for productivity improvement from new breakthrough technologies such as IoT, AI, blockchain (secure databases) and 3D printing In particular, when asked for their ‘top enabling technology for improving productivity’: Only 2% chose IoT – and only 1% picked either …
Mar 20
The capitalist’s dilemma
N.B. The following are extracts from an article published in the Harvard Business Review in June, 2014 – it remains highly relevant today Professor Clayton Christensen and Derek van Bever of Harvard Business School have embarked on a fascinating study into what may be holding back growth in the USA and elsewhere given ‘corporations are …
Full AI impact may take time
Erik Brynjolfson, an MIT economics professor, says: “We are optimistic about the ultimate productivity growth fuelled by AI and complementary technologies The real issue is that it takes time to implement changes in processes, skills and organisational structures to fully harness AI’s potential as a GPT (General Purpose Technology)” Benefits from specific applications are …