Why We Need A New Revolution

Many companies like Facebook are results of disruption. But we need a new revolution. It’s not a war that some lawyers, friends and colleagues think the way it is.

Since U.S. President Obama was first elected, he mentioned several times that he wants manufacturing back to the U.S. We all know that the manufacturing industry is dominated by China. Many will think that it is impossible to pull out all those manufacturing-related jobs, move the plants back to the U.S., and quickly rebuild.

Europe and the U.S. are presently not in the impressive economic situation. Asian nations boast about the rapid development in the economy and infrastructure. It’s a matter of race among the nations. The country that swiftly responds will take advantage. It must hopefully get into the right direction to lead not only its citizens but to strengthen its relationship with the other prime movers in the region.

Today, the economic advantages are felt in Asia. Some tweets I have read that they have never seen America as poor as today. Even Wolfgang Grulke says that in 2020, youth unemployment in Europe will go from 17% in Germany to as high as 60% in Spain. Grulke also says that 50% of American college graduates will not have job unless they are engineers. And their only better option is to become entrepreneurs.

Are these the fall short promises of the free trade and globalization? Are we focusing too much on the covenant made by the digital world and the information age? Is disruption the only solution to start and explore new opportunities?

I’ve read the book Disruption by Jean-Marie Dru a few years ago. It was in those times that I was talking to some people who were also interested to hear about it – that disruption began or first happened in the early 90s. It’s nothing new! Only in the late 90s that I learned how the actual disruption occurred – the Silicon Valley way. A good example is the service of Fedex. Regardless of the situation, your item will surely be delivered to you. Its overnight delivery is a revolutionary idea.

The familiar transformation has been observed from the Agricultural Age to the Industrial Age. Those are the eras of production and reproduction. Name some successful products and brands from these ages. Then came the Information Age. It’s the generation where we talk about bits, the Internet and digital life. It’s the era of incubation. It is the new age of entrepreneurial thinking.

In the last 10 years or so, the Internet changed the way we live and the way we do business. The way to learn something has become technology-dependent. Hence, one-way focused to many, if I may say.

We have been enjoying the convenience of free space or digital transmission.  We’re now in the generation of many options (but not necessarily many opportunities).

I was one of those who evangelized the future of e-business in the late 90s. Then I was slapped with unjustifiable excuses that doing online business would be far from happening. Perhaps it was true to many old school laidback and reactive entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, it’s promising to the new generation of micro entrepreneurs.

Ten years later, some business advices have become myths. The discussion about all companies will become Internet companies has been differentiated to good-to-better and bad-to-worse.

The good-to-better provides this generation the access in the information of individuals, the transparency of human networks, the opportunity mindset, and the infinite disruptive of collaborating using the digital and mobile applications.

The bad-to-worse becomes a question. Are we producing the same physical value as we used to do during the agricultural and industrial ages?

Therefore, we are physically living in a digital world that needs more than good-to-better provision. It must not only be the result of disruption. We need a new revolution.

Revolution to me is when the mainframe computers that used to be available only in telecom and financial companies have metamorphosed to PC desktop of offices and small companies and then landed in every home with smart clones with the available computer kit. The same thing goes with the old transistor radios to electronic AM/FM hobbyist kit that even the primary level kids could assemble. Others include the expensive telex/telegraph to email, telephone to mobile phone, and analog to digital system.

The birth of Indie music is an example of revolution in the 1980s where the bands like Generation X (Billy Idol), Sex Pistols and other punk bands that were recognized to the success of the British or U.K. Invasion in the music industry. The British maverick Richard Branson who believed and supported some of these bands bravely bet to this era.

The 60s vinyl records were made popular by the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to the 80s vinyl having been sold with collaterals or catalogues and to eventually the sensation of music video or MTV which were available in Betamax tapes. The 90s contributed the extended/remixed versions of your favorite songs became popular yet hard to find and could only be heard in discos, bars and selected FM stations. Today, the MP3 has not been clearly replaced yet.

What’s happening now is a process transformation in business distribution, a new dimension of media and advertising, and redefining to sell. It’s an infrastructure or a virtual medium that helps many industries to become service-oriented. The development is inclined too much on the distribution of information and services. The web or mobile apps enterprises operate with the business model of either to sell the data generated or through advertising. 

The promises of the Information Age may be enough to satisfy the need of the people. Startup ideas can easily be noticed, learned and pitched.  It boosts the spirit of entrepreneurialism. Ideas turned startup turned a company is a product of either revolution or disruption. Jobs are available mostly to the advanced minds only.

The Information Age helps us reveal that life can be transparent and get connected. It provides us the courage to shout and face both the reality and virtual world. We learned how to collaborate and share instantly.

But what’s next after the Information Age?

We need a new revolution that will not limit the opportunities to thinking and pitching. It must create new industries, not only new companies. Those who have crafts will be given the hope to do their jobs locally. The grease monkeys will be motivated again to learn anew. Demand for a new cycle that will couple the Information Age applications and principle with the Industrial Age actions. It can be the fusion of the creative digital and personal manufacturing which we can call the personal digital manufacturing or new industrial-physical revolution.

When will the new revolution begin?

It is already happening.

When I see my teenager niece designing and stitching clothes and bags, I can see a revolution that someday many young people in the next generation will design its own clothes, shoes, bags, and accessories and produce them using a 3D printer.

When I learned that bums and housewives have the new passion to bake, I can see a revolution that in the near future, they will be able to design and bake their own cupcakes, cookies and chocolates by encoding the ingredients, color, size and quantity and 3D print them exactly what they want them to be.

What if you hear that a pregnant woman goes for an ultrasound check up and the result can be seen not only on display or print on paper but can also be replicated on 3D as if it’s the real one?

One time in a coffee shop, my business partner and I asked, “what if Foxconn is already using the advanced 3D printer to produce the body of iPhone?” Somehow it is unbelievably in perfect curve. It means that in the future, we can individually print our own mobile phone body and case and assemble it with the mobile phone kit just like the good old days of electronic and computer kits.

In the 90s, our team in Livewire Productions would take much effort to make real 3D figures we call diorama and present the actual model of event stage or exhibit booth to clients. I call it 3D + 1D. 3D for its physical replica to be fabricated and used for an event. 1D for the sing and dance pitch having allowed the audience to use their imagination. I call it, “physics”. Not far from the reality, the event agencies can already 3D print the stage or booth design based on its specifications. Honestly, 3D design on Keynote or Powerpoint is unsatisfactory if the event suppliers cannot produce the requirement with the exact specification.

Hence, the next revolution will promote personal digital manufacturing. It’s a new cycle that will amalgamate the Information Age and the new Industrial Age. It will also promote the digital manufacturing entrepreneurship.

It may be the answer to the manufacturing that President Obama is talking about. It may be the reason why and how the new concept of research and development is found in India where PhDs, engineers and scientists flock or somewhere else that the U.S. will be the first hand recipient of their ideas and breakthroughs. Or why Foxconn will build plants in the East Coast. It is going back to making a product both on a personal capability.

Since the information age teaches us to become creative and designers, it is in the next revolution to turn creativity into productivity. I mean the ability to make palpable products through digital manufacturing.

“We are all designers now”, said by the former editor-in-chief of Wired magazine Chris Anderson who stepped down to run Robotics to act, move and inspire the next generation.

It will be the generation of more action and production.