Author Archives: Peter Cochrane
Business has been static or regressive while the commercial environment has been really tough. For those still standing there is good news – innovation is back on the agenda big time. Continue reading
Here we are. It’s early in 2012 and the tech prophets are hard at it, making their predictions for the coming year. Among their “more of the same, but faster, smaller, and cheaper” prognostications, it’s their forecasts for social networking that have particularly caught my eye.
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One trend was highlighted again today. Of eight people sunbathing and reading around the pool, only two had paper books – and one of those was me. My excuse is that I had been running a conference in Miami and was given a book on quantum mechanics. Otherwise there would have only been one paper book in evidence. Continue reading
How can firms manage with so many bosses? Societies have never been good at moving from one big tech-induced change to another. The industrial revolution wrought havoc on populations. Production lines were thought to dehumanise people, and modern agriculture is still vilified, instead of being celebrated. And people now worry that technology will drive us towards some singularity where people are no longer required. Continue reading
For some time now I’ve been convinced that education will go the same way as the music industry. The similarities are profound. They both charge more and more for a product of reducing quality by a means that’s out of touch with modern needs. A few weeks ago I was at an education event and was introduced to a professor of entrepreneurship. During our conversation it turned out that she had never bought any company shares, had never invested in a startup, and had never worked for any kind of company. It struck me that it was a bit like having the Pope teach a course on sex, reproduction and parenting. What possible value could this professor possibly add, what insights and wisdoms? Continue reading
Do the iPad and iPhone revolutions forecast a deeper turmoil? Can this rate of tech change be sustained and exceeded? In my lifetime the rate of technological change has been very apparent. There’s no doubt it’s accelerating. More smartphones and tablets than PCs are being sold and 550,000 Android devices are activated every day. Those figures bear testament to an incredible feat of design, manufacture, logistics and support. Continue reading
