How 7 billion people could still work

Ben Verwaayen is chief executive officer of Alcatel-Lucent and a Member of the World Economic Forum’s Foundation Board. He will be speaking on Tuesday 11 September on the topic “The 7 Billion Challenge” at the Annual Meeting of New Champions 2012 in Tianjin, China

We have achieved a population of over seven billion on a resource-constrained planet. And it is clear that seven billion is too big to be a problem. I think it is a tremendous opportunity for new ideas on innovation, particularly for today’s youth.

Imagine: seven billion people with billions of ideas for innovation. And the most meaningful innovation is that which improves human lives.

So, how do you do it?

First of all, innovation has to be about a smarter way of doing things: assembling existing technologies into easy-to-use applications that enable citizens to improve their communities, for example.

Digital literacy is being addressed through ‘mLearning’. And with today’s digital revolution being embraced by millions around the world – some six billion people for mobile alone – incredible new applications are being created instantly.

What I find most fascinating is that those who have understood this new innovation opportunity the most are young people. The rise of social media in China is being driven by its youth.

Take “green issues” as another example. For today’s young people, being “green” is not an option; they are raising the bar and not waiting for anyone to invite them to do it.

I think green is the single biggest innovation opportunity of this century. There are many ways of tackling it, but Greentouch™ is one model which works across public and private research. It aims to increase network (internet) energy efficiency by a factor of 1000 by 2015.

Innovation in this case is about going beyond a single company and reaching out to new stakeholders, public and private, and across countries to achieve a common target, fast.

And for the telecommunications industry, experiencing an explosion in the use of digital devices around the world, we have realized that we absolutely must be green to grow.

Another innovation model is ‘co-creation’. It is about bringing customers and different members of an ecosystem together as partners at the forefront of the innovation process, thereby helping to create revolutionary, life-changing technologies, such as lightRadio™.

I am very optimistic. Each time I come to China, I am incredibly impressed by the innovation happening across society. I believe China has understood the importance of green for growth and innovation for society as long-term strategies.

The “Seven Billion Challenge” is therefore an opportunity for communities around the world. Innovation will play a massive role. But it will not happen without setting audacious goals.

We need to cross countries and boundaries to create common agendas and a better understanding of the opportunity before us. We need to place innovation at the forefront of all our decision making.

And with seven billion of us around the globe today, generating billions of ideas, what an incredible opportunity that presents.

The goal is simple: put innovation first to improve human lives.

About the author: Ben Verwaayen is chief executive officer of Alcatel-Lucent and a Member of the World Economic Forum’s Foundation Board. He will be speaking on Tuesday 11 September on the topic “The 7 Billion Challenge” at the Annual Meeting of New Champions 2012 in Tianjin, China.

Photo: A farmer works on the roof of a greenhouse near a power plant in Changzhi, Shanxi province. China is still pushing for cleaner development and may step up efforts to tackle climate change. REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA)