INGENIEUR
that may appear unattractive or inconsequential
to industry incumbents, but eventually the new
product or idea completely redefines the industry.
It’s important to remember that disruption
is a positive force. Disruptive innovations are
not breakthrough technologies that make good
products better; rather they are innovations that
make products and services more accessible and
affordable, thereby making them available to a
much larger population.
The DIPLOMAT - Asia’s Great Innovation
Leap Forward
Asian countries are moving on up in the latest
innovation ratings. Can the region sustain its
progress?
China has joined the ranks of the world’s top
25 most innovative economies for the first time in
the latest global survey. Can Asia sustain its rise
up the rankings?
Western nations topped the leader board in
the 2016 Global Innovation Index, with Switzerland
placing first for the second straight year, followed
by Sweden, Britain, and the United States.
However, the Asia-Pacific region also featured,
with Singapore moving up one place from the
2015 survey to sixth, South Korea gaining three
spots to 11th, Hong Kong down three spots to 14th,
Japan up three places to 16th and neighbours
New Zealand and Australia placing 17th and 19th,
respectively.
Japan was among four economies that stood
out in “innovation quality” – “a top-level indicator
that looks at the calibre of universities, number
of scientific publications, and international patent
fillings,” said the report compiled by Cornell
University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual
Property Organisation.
Elsewhere in Asia, Malaysia ranked 35th and
Thailand 52nd among the region’s upper middle
income economies, while Vietnam (59th) led the
lower middle income economies, followed by
the Philippines (74th) and Indonesia (88th). Lowincome economy Cambodia placed 95th , with
every economy within East and Southeast Asia
and Oceania ranking within the top 100, unlike in
2015.
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Digital Mckinsey - Digital innovation in
Asia: What the world can learn
Companies in the region are transforming their
digital operations to great effect and building
some of the world’s most successful tech giants.
In Asia, a few factors make the impact of digital
more pronounced than in other markets, including
social penetration, consumers’ openness to new
technologies, the mobile Internet, and willingness
by companies to innovate.
Report from the Harvard Business School
(HBS) Asia Business Conference
Asian countries are no longer just a place to get
cheap labour or programming skills. Innovation is
on the rise.
Although Asian countries have been able to use
cost advantages and software coding prowess to
attract outsource business from around the world,
the region is quickly moving up the value chain to
challenge America’s leadership in innovation.
A recent survey of 200 mostly Fortune 500
companies found an “irreversible process” of
traditional white-collar jobs being sent to Asia.
Among the preliminary findings is that most
companies are not deterred by security or
intellectual property concerns when considering
outsourcing moves to Asia, Lewin said. The survey
also found that the factors driving offshoring
started with the need to find software smarts to
prepare for Y2K, but now include a shortage of
qualified, technically trained people. Respondents
said they are likely to send work to the following
countries: India (69%); China (8%); the Philippines
(5%); Latin America (5%); Eastern Europe (4%); and
the Caribbean/Mexico (2%) i.e. in the States.
HBS professor McFarlan said it is clear that
Asia has benefited from the Internet’s ability to
send work—including highly-skilled work—easily
around the globe. “Asia is competing in the global
technology-enabled game,” he said. That means
U.S. researchers will soon have as much to fear
from this trend as call center employees have in
the recent past.