Innovation

Global markets T-shirts from China, roses from Ecuador, wine
from South Africa: faster communications and transport, simpler financial
systems and the political will to remove trade barriers are making
international commercial relations more interdependent. Production
takes place where costs are lowest or know-how is greatest. The
worldwide market offers opportunities: wider prosperity, bigger sales
and more resources. But international competition also creates insecurity
and fear. In Western countries, jobs for low-skilled employees
are scarce. Migration has brought additional labor on to the market,
and different cultures clash. The search is on for improved working
patterns and fair and even-handed terms of trade.
Why now?
The World Wide Web The Internet Logistics a means of In communication,
the past, trade routes lay along difficult and dangerous
tracks. and a This network meant all that in one. goods manufactured at a distance were
a knowledge platform, a trading exchange
Regardless of place and time, people rare meet and and precious. swap wishes Nowadays and a gigantic transport network spans
ideas almost instantaneously. One the person globe. may Every be looking day, tonnes for a of goods are conveyed in modular
solution to a specific problem. Someone containers else may by have air, an truck, idea, rail but and on container ships. Technical
not know a suitable application for it. progress Perhaps their makes virtual it possible paths will to increase the speed and efficiency of
cross. The result is a fresh product and, the flow in some of goods. cases, In an particular, innovation.
Many websites serve as platforms nization for ideas of processes and then facilitate at docks and depots. This not only saves
automation allows better synchro-
the process of innovation. Realizing time, the but new also used expensive to be lonely, storage. On the other hand, climate taxes
backroom work. Later, it became a more-or-less and increasingly linear scarce process fossil in fuel resources may well increase
institutionalized research and development transport departments. costs again. Now, Renewable in energy sources are therefore
the Internet age, it is often a chaotic vital interplay to the of logistics disciplines. sector.
Photo: image100/Corbis
NASA/Roger Ausloeser/zefa/Corbis Ressmeyer/Corbis
The radio
In 1896, Russian Alexander
Popov transmitted the
words “Heinrich Hertz” to
a receiving station 250
meters away. But Guglielmo
Marconi is generally credited
with inventing radio at
round the same time, while
the ground-breaking work
of Nikola Tesla also played a
vital part in this innovation.
The airplane
On 17 December 1903,
two American brothers,
Orville and Wilbur
Wright, made their first
successful machinepowered
flight over a
distance of 260 meters
at Kitty Hawk, North
Carolina.
The computer
1946 was the year ENIAC
was created — the first
Electronic Numerical Integrator
and Calculator. In
1947, IBM built the SSEC
(Selective Sequence
Electronic Calculator),
a hybrid computer featuring
vacuum tubes and
electromechanical relays.
1900 1790
1800 1910
Fluorescent tube
Superconductor
Tank
Conveyor-belt production
1920 1810
Steamship
Supermarket
Zip fastener
Television
Traffic light
1930 1820
Helicopter
Photocopier
Teflon
1830 1940
Atomic bomb
Transistor
Electric motor
Bar code
Telegraph
Scanner
Fuel cell
Rubber tyre
1840 1950