S CUBE Trans Continental Group

By Svettlana Chatterjee, 2019

Business is the force of change. It is essential in solving world problems today because that is what its best at: innovating, changing, addressing risks, and searching for opportunities. It’s an interesting dichotomy: business leaders have the power to paint a bridge in the gaps of the world the imminent resources they harbour. To take advantage of this pivotal stint in business is crucial in turning economies. But clearly many have not embraced the full extent of their own capacity – and responsibility – to deliver consequential impact, which then births a question. 

Why shall we innovate? Is it to challenge preexisting concepts or to expand those concepts? 

To date, there is a clear lack of philosophical reflection on the concept of innovation. Innovation is all-pervasive in this day and age. Innovative companies like Apple and Google are heralded, like scientists and artists in previous ages, and inspire a lifestyle in which the status quo is challenged and no limits are accepted upfront. Apart from the limitation of conditioning within the business climate.  Primarily, it is the understanding that, by their very nature, businesses have the entrepreneurial soul, operational capacity, and deep bench of talent to help change the world. Regardless of the label, the idea is centred around creating a shared value between the business and for society, and with society the interconnectedness of it. Many businesses, large and small, are assessing their impact on society and evaluating their individual responsibilities in the areas of community and environment to be able to expand their reach but to do so their driver is innovation.

Innovation is seen as a driver for development on a global scale and leads to all kinds of efforts to bend the norms. How can we expect a shift in influence within people and countries with the existence of conditioned and communal ideas? The idea is that the long-term growth of ideas stems from the ability to continually develop and produce innovative products and services. Thus I shall discuss with you today the stunt in ideas within a global scale that puts a pause to the innovation we desperately need for markets and ideas to thrive. 

Now we are all contributors towards this massive magical mysterious innovation market. Some ideas go forth and some don’t. Why? Innovation capital. Innovation capital is an intangible capital, like political capital, that helps you win resources to commercialise novel ideas.  Now this isn’t something only the “chosen ones” are gifted with, it can be built. It comes from who you are (innovation-specific human capital), what you are known for (your innovation-specific reputation capital), and specific actions you can take to amplify the impressions others get of you and your ideas, or impression amplifiers. 

Innovation capital begins with innovation skills. If you can’t figure out how to successfully lead an innovation initiative, you will never build a track record for innovation among your social connections or a broader community. So it starts with you—and what we can call your “human capital.”

Then how is it that this intangible innovation capital has only decreased in the past few decades? The problem is that everyone thinks the same, or at least they are taught to. In some aspects an imminent contributor to this is media. When we as humans are all being fed the same ideas, we are being psychologically conditioned. Now even the thought that we perceive these ideas put out in our individual ways is conditioned by norms. And due to how narrow these are everyone believes they are different. 

Such is the case with business communities as well. An example would be Uber. The company didn’t invent the idea of transport or even online communication. They simply merged them. Now they aren’t different, but they’re different enough to be considered a pioneering idea. By no means is this me calling Uber stale because I can assure you I will take an Uber sometime within the next week. This application must move away from just the corporate field and into a more global market of development.  

To bridge the gap within countries we must delve into the field of business that in its literal sense makes the world go around. Logistics. Today, there are adversaries for accessibility in our communities. Leaders win through logistics. Vision is what we need to fuel it. Strategy is what we need to plan it. Logistics is what you need to be in the right place at the right time. Accessibility, defines the quality of being able to be reached or entered. Do we truly reach those developed countries in agony? Do we allow them to enter development? 

By creating platforms for movement to and from developing countries, we open a route for not only greater reach but greater access. Market access is scarce, in the homes of those that are impoverished. What determines the ability of governments from developing countries to access international credit markets? The probability of market access is not influenced by a country’s frequency of defaults, and that a default, if resolved quickly, does not reduce significantly the probability of tapping the markets. Trade openness, a standard measure of a country’s links with the rest of the world, and traditional liquidity and macroeconomic indicators are what will help evaluate the way these ports can be created. However, a country’s vulnerability to shocks and the perceived quality of economic policies and institutions appear to influence the government’s ability to tap the markets, an obstacle that is stifled by the promise of economic access to more developed countries that contributes to globalisation. Through the opening of multiple logistics agencies in these countries, we would be providing them with an opportunity to expand their reach and increase the accessibility that they so grievously need.

We are still playing on conditioned ideas instead of pioneering new methods. The ability to think is a capacity to be developed. That’s simply because we aren’t attempting to create but rather fix. You cannot discover new oceans of opportunities and ideas unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.Today, on the brink of a tectonic shift in how we evaluate depths of issues—and, indeed, how we perceive our own humanity— we must all take a leap in movement to aid those we neighbour by reaching them. Not simply in order to survive the shift to what is now known as the fourth industrial revolution, but to prosper and create meaningful work for all the world’s people well into the 21st Century and beyond.