World-renowned economist Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran provides a deeply insightful, brilliantly informed guide to the innovation revolution now transforming the world. With echoes of Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma, Tim Brown’s Change by Design, and Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel, Vaitheeswaran’s Need, Speed, and Greed introduces readers to the go-getters, imagineers, and visionaries now reshaping the global economy. Along the way, Vaitheeswaran teaches readers the skills they must develop to unleash their own inner innovator and reveals why America and other wealthy, privileged societies must embrace a path of inclusive growth and sustainability—or risk being left behind by history.
Need, Speed, and Greed
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“Need, Speed, and Greed is an absorbing and deeply insightful guide to the wild new landscape of global innovation. It is a must-read for strategists and entrepreneurs alike. (Paul Saffo, Managing Director of Foresight at Discen Analytics)
“A great Atlas for worlds known and unknown” (Juan Enriquez, Managing Director of Excel Venture Management, author of Homo Evolutis and As the Future Catches You)
“The perfect primer for the postindustrial age….an insightful assessment of the changing global economy, complete with recommendations for how companies can thrive in a perpetually disruptive environment….[An] exemplary narrative.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“A great Atlas for worlds known and unknown” (Juan Enriquez, Managing Director of Excel Venture Management, author of Homo Evolutis and As the Future Catches You)
“The perfect primer for the postindustrial age….an insightful assessment of the changing global economy, complete with recommendations for how companies can thrive in a perpetually disruptive environment….[An] exemplary narrative.” (Kirkus Reviews)
From the Back Cover
Over the past few decades, globalization and Googlization have kicked off the first phase of an innovation revolution more profound and more powerful than any economic force since the arrival of Europeans on North American shores half a millennium ago. These developments have brought us such advances as the Web, social networking, 24/7 connectivity, and global markets.
But the benefits of all this progress have not been shared fairly among all. It is true that the elites of Mumbai are closer today to the elites of Manhattan than they were two decades ago, but what about Kansas? The hard-working salarymen of the developed world are not getting wealthier, but the economic elites who have mastered the new rules of global innovation are. Even as rural women in Africa and Asia have seen their lives transformed by mobile phones and the Internet, the middle classes and blue-collar workers in prosperous countries everywhere have been squeezed by the new global realities. And as the first phase of the innovation revolution gives way to a much greater transformation, America and other rich societies must find a path to inclusive growth or else risk being left behind by history.
All this leads to the central political and economic question of our age: How can the extraordinary benefits of the innovation revolution be shared more equitably among all of society? In Need, Speed, and Greed, global correspondent for the Economist Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran answers that question, offering the essential insider’s guide to this new world of innovation. Drawing on the best of the academic and field work in this emerging area, Need, Speed, and Greed inspires and empowers readers to improve their lives, their work, and perhaps even the world.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant examination of "the new paradigm for sustainable economic development in the twenty-first century"
June 7, 2012
Format:Hardcover
How innovation happens is rapidly changing. The result is the emergence of what Vijay Vaitheeswaran characterizes as a global "Ideas Economy." For example, after winning a contest Trevor Rose learned about when visiting the website of InnoCentive (a spin-off from the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly), Rose articulates the essence of the Ideas Economy: "I like the idea of being an InnoCentive solver because for me it's like a little billboard that will say to those who doubted me in life that [having finally overcome a `lifetime' of frustrated attempts at innovation'] maybe they are wrong and I am a lot cleverer than I look." There is also the motivation to make a difference: "I do like the possibility that something I thought of might help someone in a country where the economy is very tough already, and perhaps make their lives easier in some way...I hope so."
To me, Rose demonstrates the power of what Vaitheeswaran characterizes as "fresh thinking that creates something valuable, whether for individuals, firms, or society at large." Almost anyone anywhere, whatever the given circumstances (especially resources) can take full advantage of the more democratic models of innovation that stress inclusion, collaboration, transparency, and social benefit. As Clayton Christensen has so eloquently explained in several books (notably in The Innovator's Dilemma), "sustaining technologies" produce incremental, evolutionary improvement where as "disruptive technologies that challenge traditional thinking and the models that thinking produces.... Read more ›
To me, Rose demonstrates the power of what Vaitheeswaran characterizes as "fresh thinking that creates something valuable, whether for individuals, firms, or society at large." Almost anyone anywhere, whatever the given circumstances (especially resources) can take full advantage of the more democratic models of innovation that stress inclusion, collaboration, transparency, and social benefit. As Clayton Christensen has so eloquently explained in several books (notably in The Innovator's Dilemma), "sustaining technologies" produce incremental, evolutionary improvement where as "disruptive technologies that challenge traditional thinking and the models that thinking produces.... Read more ›
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
read this book recently and the basic story line is so true, how technilogy and its modern day rapid changing ways and the manner it is on display constantly evolves and moves at lightening speed and yet it is leaving certain sectors of the population behind. this book explores the power and the effects of that and so much more into greater detail and context. what is considered Innovative and how it changes and turns into something completely different and the impact it has on so many lives around the entire world. very engaging book to say the least.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
We all know that innovation is important; without it, raising standards of living would be a zero-sum game. But how much do we know about the actual mechanisms of innovation, the ways we might encourage it, and the risks it could entail? These are the pivotal topics of Vaitheeswaran's excellent new book.
Innovation is an inescapable byword of the global market for ideas, that great cacophony fueled by Twitter, the blogosphere, and endlessly proliferating conferences such as TED, SXSW, Pop Tech, and The Economist's "Ideas Economy" series, which Vaitheeswaran has led. And Vaitheeswaran dutifully touches on dozens of the theories and stories of innovation that have made the rounds in these circles. Importantly, however, his book is not just a summary. Rather, it is a critical appraisal that does not take the merits of these ideas, no matter how famous their proponents, for granted. In this, the book may be the first of its kind, and much overdue at that.
Vaitheeswaran writes in bite-size passages, each with vivid examples and a clear point. He takes apart a basket of myths about innovation, some more believable than others, and leaves the reader with realistic strategies for pursuing a more innovative future. For those hoping not just to stay abreast of the TED set but also to see where its fads have gone wrong, this is an engaging and practical reference.
Innovation is an inescapable byword of the global market for ideas, that great cacophony fueled by Twitter, the blogosphere, and endlessly proliferating conferences such as TED, SXSW, Pop Tech, and The Economist's "Ideas Economy" series, which Vaitheeswaran has led. And Vaitheeswaran dutifully touches on dozens of the theories and stories of innovation that have made the rounds in these circles. Importantly, however, his book is not just a summary. Rather, it is a critical appraisal that does not take the merits of these ideas, no matter how famous their proponents, for granted. In this, the book may be the first of its kind, and much overdue at that.
Vaitheeswaran writes in bite-size passages, each with vivid examples and a clear point. He takes apart a basket of myths about innovation, some more believable than others, and leaves the reader with realistic strategies for pursuing a more innovative future. For those hoping not just to stay abreast of the TED set but also to see where its fads have gone wrong, this is an engaging and practical reference.
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Very well thought out estimation of coming events based on historical trends and facts. I found it inspiring and highly educational. It reinforces the dynamic nature of the world and human evolution both on a personal and world-wide scope.
By LadyGlorious
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is an excellent book to read. It is very informative and enlightening! I highly recommend reading this book.
Format:Hardcover
Zoom co-author Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran blends the old and the new to produce something striking in his latest examination of innovation. Vaitheeswaran, The Economist's China business editor, mixes familiar points - the world is globalizing, innovation is essential - with surprising insights - innovation has innate dangers. The book's title refers to three key aspects of innovation: the need to innovate now, the speed of approaching singularity and the direction of innovation, and greed for what success looks like today, though the author actually warns against greediness. However, perhaps because portions of the text already appeared in The Economist as distinct articles, the various sections don't always fully integrate. That caveat aside, every reader is sure to find something new and useful. getAbstract recommends this smart, interesting exegesis to innovators, those managing innovators and anyone who wants to prepare for a changing world.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By David
Format:Hardcover
An excellent book. The only thing missing from the China analysis is the indisputable relationship between the government and Chinese "partners". While the writer warns about knowing who to be in partnership with which is true of any relationship, but probably more so in China, what he fails to recognize is the difference between the taming of the American west and the taming of China. The American west, he claims, was tamed by barbed wire and therefore we must assume that China will eventually be tamed as well to produce a business environment which has more effective property protections. Thus, invest in China understanding it is like the American west and eventually, if you pay attention to your partners, you will be successful beyond your wildest dreams. The Communist Party Central Committee could not have written a better script for the writer. To look at China as merely a place to do business is to put your head in the sand and ignore all that is relevant to all things China. This is a country who in the past 25 years has massacred its own citizens in Tianamen Square, which I am sure business leaders really don't care about so long as they can sell hamburgers and assemble computers, and which in the aftermath of that massacre began an education policy which emphasized, repeat that again "emphasized", nationalism. And the focus of that education was the typical enemy...the west. I love innovation and I love the Chinese people...but don't ever think you are just doing business in the equivalent of the old American west. There are real designs there and they aren't about business.... Read more ›
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
