SAMPE Journal - March/April 2017 - 46
Perspectives
Steven Rodgers
Consultant, EmergenTek LLC
Steven.R@EmergenTek.com
Continuous Improvement
"The electric light did not come from the continuous
improvement of candles." - Oren Harari
The popular quote cited above has been making the rounds on social media for a while now. It has become popular because it
clearly illustrates the power of disruptive change over incremental improvement.
Or does it?
What do candles and the electric light have in common? They both produce light, but do so by very different means.
Innovation speaker Matt Shore contends that the electric light was indeed invented by a process of continuous improvement. And,
as is the case with many inventions there was a bit of serendipity involved as well.
Shore begins his narrative in 1880 with the Italian inventor Alessandro Volta. By interspersing alternating discs of copper and zinc
with saltwater-soaked card boards he created the predecessor to the modern-day battery. When a copper wire was connected to
each end, the "voltaic stack" conducted electricity, causing the wire to glow. Volta's glowing wire is widely considered the first
electric incandescent light source.
Shortly after Volta's discovery was presented, Sir Humphrey Davy created the first "electric lamp". By connecting two carbon
rods to voltaic stacks and jumping a spark, Davy invented the carbon arc lamp. He demonstrated his carbon arc lamp powered
by 2,000 batteries in 1807 but development limped along until Charles Brush developed a practical direct current dynamo in 1878.
Through a series of incremental steps far too numerous to list here, the carbon arc technology led directly to a number or electric
lighting approaches including fluorescent lights, sodium vapor lamps and the incandescent light bulb. In 1878 British inventor
Joseph Wilson Swan patented the first incandescent electric lamp. One year later Thomas Edison received his patent.
The line of development included a large number of incremental steps (including those that led to a reliable power source) but it
all began with Sir Humphrey Davy making the connection between Volta's glowing copper wires and the need for a better source
of lighting that did not smell, create soot or burn down buildings as candles often did.
When I think of disruptive technologies, I cannot think of one that did not involve incremental improvement upon existing
foundational work of some kind.
What defines a truly disruptive technology? Had nobody developed a practical way to generate electricity, the incandescent light
would have simply been a lab curiosity. Even today, one of the largest hurdles for alternative fuel vehicles is that of infrastructure.
Natural gas, electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles are all limited by the number and locations of refueling stations.
This is one of the observations I have made with technology development: The farther we move on the continuum from incremental
improvements toward disruptive technologies, the greater the risk involved in the investment of time and capital. That risk can
come from any of several quarters.
As already noted the risk can be one of having to create or access appropriate infrastructure to support it. Hybrid vehicles have
been more easily accepted than electric vehicles largely because although the benefits may not be as great, there are already lots
of existing places to fill the fuel tank.
Another risk is simply public perception. The more radical the idea, the slower the public may be to accept it. It is hard to imagine
now, but in 1997 hybrid cars were so new and unorthodox that the public required extra assurances. One hybrid automobile
offered an 8-year, 100,000 mile (161,000 km) full battery replacement warranty and a four-hour repair guarantee.
Sometimes the risk is simply economic. The technology is too expensive, the return on investment too lengthy or the business case
too unwieldy for serious consideration.
Occasionally a new technology has an "irreducible complexity" that renders it impractical to produce on a mass scale. This often
impacts the business case described above.
There are times when the legislative or regulatory landscape becomes a hurdle to the introduction, acceptance or utilization of a
new technology. At those times decisions must be made about whether to fight for change or wait for the legislators to catch up
with the technology.
So what is truly disruptive technology? Often what we see today as disruptive represents large improvements in technology
but instead they are the result of dozens of incremental improvements made over the period of development. Truly disruptive
technologies irrevocably change the landscape, pointing one to the future in a way that makes it difficult to look back.
Is it a risky endeavor to pursue? Absolutely. Is it worth the pursuit? You tell me.
46
SAMPE Journal, Volume 53, No. 2, March/April 2017
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SAMPE Journal - March/April 2017
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