Innovation
Global Investor Focus, 02/2007 Credit Suisse
Global Investor Focus, 02/2007
Credit Suisse
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Why now?<br />
The World Wide Web The Internet is a means of communication,<br />
a knowledge platform, a trading exchange and a network all in one.<br />
Regardless of place and time, people meet and swap wishes and<br />
ideas almost instantaneously. One person may be looking for a<br />
solution to a specific problem. Someone else may have an idea, but<br />
not know a suitable application for it. Perhaps their virtual paths will<br />
cross. The result is a fresh product and, in some cases, an innovation.<br />
Many websites serve as platforms for ideas and then facilitate<br />
the process of innovation. Realizing the new used to be lonely,<br />
backroom work. Later, it became a more-or-less linear process in<br />
institutionalized research and development departments. Now, in<br />
the Internet age, it is often a chaotic interplay of disciplines.<br />
1790<br />
Photo: Ausloeser/zefa/Corbis<br />
1800<br />
1810<br />
1820<br />
1830<br />
1840<br />
Electric motor<br />
Conveyor-belt production<br />
Steamship<br />
Telegraph<br />
Fuel cell<br />
Rubber tyre