View source for Scenario 1 - Innovation for the Greater Good

==Overview==
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<b>5 words define this world:</b><br>
* Collaborative Innovation<br>
* Government participation <br>
* Enviornmental Regulations <br>
* Sustainability <br>
* High Investment <br>
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'''2030''' - The world is going green. Last two decades have witnessed phenomenal changes in the lifestyle of humans. People are adapting to a sustainable way of living throughout the globe, after witnessing the fury of our planet against what can rightly be termed as brutal exploitation of its resources by humans. Climate change has been claiming over 500,000 lives every year and millions more are affected severely. The oil prices have sky rocketed over the last two decades and especially since no new discoveries have being announced since 2025. The world is unable to satiate the appetite of 8.5 billion people. Many countries have joined hands in combating climate change and energy crisis. [http://www.ipcc.ch IPCC] is playing a vital role in assessing climate change and providing the governments with significant information for decision making. The fair successor of Kyoto protocol, Shanghai protocol devised in 2021 is now being followed and implemented by a large number of countries around the globe. Post the end of first commitment of Kyoto protocol in 2021, a new international framework was negotiated which imparted more power to UN in persuading the countries to follow the stringent environmental regulations. One of the most successful UN initiatives, [http://www.unglobalcompact.org United Nations Global Compact] is aligning the need of society with business. Alongside, large investments in energy projects for solar, air, nuclear and XTL technology are assuring that the future energy needs of the world will be met. Companies in the same or even varied industry domains are getting together to participate in evolutionary innovation. The phenomena of cooperative networking and joint effort towards sustainability took off after the great success of [http://www.wbcsd.org �World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)�], [http://www.wri.org �World Resources Institute�], [http://www.gesi.org �Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI)"]and [http://www.itrs.net �International Technology Roadmap for semiconductors (ITRS)�]. The aim of these organizations is to bring the resources from organizations and individuals together, share expertise and participate in devising innovative solution for products, technology and processes that align with sustainability. The innovative solutions devised in the joined effort are open innovations available for every participant within the organization. Similar organizations have sprung across the globe bringing companies and individual expertise together. Governments are participating in these organizations and supporting them in their quest for sustainability. The aim is to innovate in every aspect of business model and meet the carbon emission requirement. Reducing waste and increasing efficiency is the name of the game. The green collar army is invading the world.<br>

==2010 - 2015==
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In the beginning of 2011, the emotion across the world markets was gloomy. The second dip had hit the market and the fear was that Japanese episode of deflation and continued recession will recreate itself in the developed world. Governments in USA and EU were struggling to get the economy back on track. While the focus of the governments was on reviving the economy, on the other hand, the world was facing climate change disasters which were getting worst year on year. To curb emissions, US government deployed programs through the "Recovery Act" and Germany announced its plans of investing heavily in wind energy. This was the beginning of government intervention in kicking of green projects that triggered the wave of green innovation. Many whistleblowers were drawing attention towards the nearing peak oil situation.  Amidst these crisis situations, China was the new sun rising on the horizon. The Chinese government was disposing its vast reserves of dollars in return of investments all around the globe and yuan was appreciating steadily. China was transforming itself from low cost manufacturer to global innovation test bed. The innovation in Chinese companies was focussed on re-engineering products to cut costs and finding novel ways to manage supply chain. Meanwhile, the governments in US and European countries were discussing and debating the new reforms and regulation that needed to be put in place for sustainable economic growth in future. After heated debates and protests by banking heavyweights, the governments in the developed world initiated re-regulation of the financial markets, demerging of huge banks into its specialized components of retail banking, merchant banking and securities. The taxation laws and accounting rules were altered to clamp down on tax havens and transfer mispricing. This was a reforming movement in the business models of financial institution. <br>

==2015 - 2020==
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The recession was long over. The beginning of a new era was marked with stable financial market and a healthy business environment for slow yet stable growth. But the oil prices were rising steadily without any future hope of stabilizing. The fact that the peak oil was closing in, which could lead to another wave of instability in the global market, was a growing cause of sleepless nights for many. New companies in the field of alternate energy had emerged in the due course and the existing energy giants were investing heavily in innovation of new fuels for the future generation. Governments contributed by ensuring the availability of infrastructure for these companies. In many countries, governments led the initiative of installing new alternate energy industry like wind, solar, nuclear, biofuels etc. The problem of nuclear waste dumping was solved by a collaborative effort of nuclear power plant companies combining their expertise together along with government funded research institutes participating in this effort and also ensuring that the environmental and safety norms are strictly followed. The collaborative effort was due to the common goal of the industry to find a resolution for waste dumping that had slowed its growth for past many decades.<br>
The digital advancements like cloud computing revolutionized access to resources and helped companies accelerate innovation. The introduction of [http://www.memristor.org memristor] technology was all set to change the fate of computing and communication industry. The memristor would shrink the size of all memory and computing devices after the chip makers hit the glass ceiling with traditional transistor technology. It was also two times more power efficient and was likely to improve further. The technology invented by HP in 2008 was later opened to the industry for R&D. The current technology was saturated and memristor offered a solution for sustainable and revolutionizing future. The memristor technology could be copied easily by competitors in future and hence it was in the best interest of HP, the industry, and the society at large if the technology was developed in collaboration. Hence, the research was conducted jointly by all the major competing players in an industry collaborating to tap the enormous potential of the technology that would be one of the biggest leaps in the digital revolution. This collaborative innovation widened the playing field for innovation in other industries and was vital for going green.<br>
Parallely, the intensity of natural disasters were increasing continuously. The governments and organizations were geared to take a big step in combating the effects of climate change by investing in development of innovative technology that helped reduce emissions. <br>

==2020 - 2025==
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The beginning of 2021 was marked by the historic Shanghai protocol that was meant to succeed Kyoto protocol. The new protocol was developed and approved to be implemented by all [http://unfccc.int/2860.php UNFCCC] countries. The protocol incorporated ambitious agenda for carbon emissions and environment conservation that was required to be rolled out in the next 5 years by all the member states. The first ones to act as a result were the multi-national organizations since the guidelines were being rolled out in many countries that these organizations operated in. They also had resources and expertise to build the action plan for future compliance. The strict environmental regulations required inventing new ways of conducting business. The time-line was sufficient yet challenging. There was consensus between mega companies about collaborative innovation since every company going through the same process by itself without a guarantee of being successful at the end of 5 years was not ideal. The combined expertise of mega corporations working towards the same goal was a more promising and viable option which was exercised within many industries. The new environmental regulations were however a bane for many small industries who did not have the resources and expertise to transform the way they conduct business. This created an upheaval within the business society in many countries.<br> At the same time, new entrepreneurial ventures emerged who built up their businesses playing by new rules in the game. These ventures also took advantage of the collaborative innovation that was conducted within the industry. The industry allowed these businesses to tap in the resources of the collaborative organization and thrive, since they often brought with themselves, fresh perspective and new ideas that proved beneficial to these organizations. Some new ventures eventually became the potential acquisition targets for the mega companies. The acquisition helped the mega companies strengthen themselves and gain momentum in their quest for achieving "nine sigma" operational excellence.<br>
The catalyst in the quest to sustainability and compliance was provided by advancement in digital technology such as evolution of smarter way of conducting business through cloud computing, use of [http://www.elsevierscitech.com/emails/physics/The_present_and_the_future_of_spintronics.pdf spintronics] technology, evolution of smarter grids and most importantly memristor that was taking the generation beyond transistors. <br>

==2025 - 2030==
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The world was going green! The Shanghai protocol was being implemented throughout the UNFCCC member states. The time line provided of 5 years to comply with the environmental regulations was over and it was time for the litmus test. The collaborative innovation initiatives within many industries were a great success. However, there were many organizations formed by companies who failed to achieve the desired results. The failure was attributed to too many loud voices within the organization. The non-compliant companies were either asked to shut down or pay fines till they adhered to the environmental norms. The revenues generated by these penalties were partially diverted for welfare of climate change refugees and partially to further invest in innovative projects that were focussed towards sustainability. Companies over the years had realized that even if the capital expenditure to adopt sustainable business process were sometimes high, in the long run the reduction in operational expenditure benefited the balance sheets. <br>
The UNFCCC countries had imposed heavy carbon taxation and penalties for any other pollutants being released in the environment. The government�s role was to assist with easy financing for the companies who were investing in ground breaking innovative projects. Many countries were not equipped to implement these reforms and hence were assisted by stronger and more equipped nations. The innovative capabilities were formed and shared collectively leading to borderless innovation for the greater good of the society.<br>


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