The Applications Of Technology In The First — страница 3

years. We will be combining global position system with the traffic management infrastructure to help manage traffic flow. So, our dashboard map will show us where traffic problems are, and it will plot the best rout around them. We will also be using global positioning systems to help stop crime by giving us the power to monitor the location of our cars and other valuables. And we will be able to follow the exact location of our most precious valuable. Parents will be able to follow the location of their children as they walk home from school. The eighth product on my list is also one we might have in our cars, and we might also have it our office buildings, pipelines, airplanes, and even our sports equipments. These are new, smart materials that will give off warnings when they

detect excessive stress. Materials in bridges or airplanes, for instance, could send a signal to a central operator when they detect stress, and that operator could send a return signal for the materials to respond to the stress. Automobile parts could give us a similar warning when they are approaching the point of breakdown. What is really amazing is that these materials will be designed with sensors built into the molecular structure of material. And, not too far in the future, they will be inexpensive enough to be in products all around us. Ninth on my list are anti-aging and weight-control products. That is something we would like to see. Over the next decade, we will see the development of a host of high-tech weight-control and anti-aging products for all the aging baby

boomers. Unfortunately, no Fountain of Youth is on the horizon. If it was, I would be back in the lab working on it myself. Nevertheless, new products will make aging a little less traumatic. In fact, we think technology will allow us to look forward to active and comfortable retirements well into our 80s. These new products may include: weight-control drugs that use the body’s natural weight-control mechanism, wrinkle creams that actually work foods with enhanced nutrients, and an effective cure for baldness. The final item on my list is not technically a single, specific product. It is more a trend that will change the way we obtain many products, especially computers and major household appliances. Within the next decade, we will begin to lease these products rather than buy

them. Already, some utilities are developing programs that would allow you to lease expensive appliances (like water heaters) that use their respective sources of power. The trend for utilities is that over the next several years they will transform into “comfort companies.” Instead of selling you a furnace, for instance, they well sell you the comfort of maintaining the proper temperature in every room in your house. Those are my predictions. But what may be even more important are the lessons we have learned as we’ve put together the forecasts. Three of those lessons are particularly noteworthy. They apply to business decisions that leaders in any industry make in this race to the 21st century. The first lesson we learned is that we have to be more aggressive than ever in

tracking technology. Technology is growing and spreading around the world faster than zebra muscles in the Great Lakes. Historically, the United States has taken the entrepreneurial lead in developing new technologies. Biotechnology is a good example. But today, that entrepreneurial spirit is spreading around the global, and hot new technologies are growing everywhere. But here is the problem: That makes our jobs even more challenging, because: one more technology means increased competitive pressure. And two more technology means it will become harder and harder and harder to identify and keep track of the specific developments they can make a real difference for us, or our competitor. I mention that the increased emphasis on time-to-market has been one of the big competitive

change in the R & D (Research and Development) over the pass twenty years. We see it every day in the United States. Just recently, a new toothbrush was developed for Teledyne Waterpik five times faster than any other one of the market. Another example is Battlle company, developed the coating that was the key ingredient for the next-generation interactive globe. These were completely new developments, but the company had to take them from the idea stage to the store shelf in a year or less-and, of course, in time for the Christmas buying reason. Therefore, time-to-market is the key competitive factor. Of course, to get new products out on the market quickly, we have to be able to identify and acquire the key developments in today’s widespread sea of technology. The second