Changing our world through ideas

Technological advance is an enormous force for change and has become built into the fabric of western industrial society. The rate of advance has accelerated beyond recognition, and this acceleration seems to continue. Once, individual inventors made their marks, but now progress is achieved through large teams and by exploiting commercial infrastructure, such that the lives of millions of people can be affected in very few years. The speaker presents the viewpoint of a technology company, living in the eye of this ‘technology industrialisation' storm. He shows how the stages typically fit together, as ideas metamorphose into new products and services.