In some cases, innovation is a fortuitous accident, as it was when Patsy Sherman’s lab assistant spilled some liquid they were testing on her canvas shoes.
Green is in with technology companies and they’re responding to the very real environmental concerns posed by increasing numbers of computers-and myriad other electronic devices-being discarded because of obsolescence or failure.
We’ve all read the nursery rhyme, written in 1640 by George Herbert and repeated ad infinitum by innumerable writers, including Ben Franklin: “For want of a nail, the horse’s shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, the horse was lost. For want of a horse, the rider was lost. For want of a rider, the battle was lost. And for want of a battle, the kingdom was lost.”
Advances in technology are generally touted as harbingers of glorious new product opportunities. And indeed they are; but the challenges that manufacturers will face in bringing those products to market profitably are typically glossed over.
Three months ago we raised the question of whether our young people are being prepared to take best advantage of the impending labor shortfall. Specifically, we wondered whether the principal focus of our educational establishment is not on the real needs of American business.
The number of people belonging to a union fell by 326,000 in 2006, to 15.4 million, according to a report released in January 2007 by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. In fact, union membership has declined steadily from 20.1 percent of workers in 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, and it continues to shrink.
Beginning next year, the U.S. labor force will stop growing, marking the beginning of a generation-long trend, predicts Edward E. Gordon, author of The 2010 Meltdown: Solving the Impending Jobs Crisis.
On the one hand, manufacturers say they are unable to find and hire workers. On the other hand, people out in the “real world” are contradicting this view.
More than half of the small manufacturers responding to an operating survey from the National Association of Manufacturers expect their sales to grow more than 5 percent this year. Similarly, 41 percent of survey respondents expect they will increase capital investment in 2006 by more than 5 percent.