Is this an innovation golden age? Two professors at Barcelona’s #MWC23 tech jamboree give #TRANSFORM Talks their views and tell us why future innovation success rests on one word. Watch now:
Be honest Innovation can it slightly Baffle you sometimes well all will be Explained because it's everywhere here At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Innovation is the lifeblood of Technological progress and it's coursing Through every one of these eight vast Halls So are we in a bit of an innovation Golden age that's the question that Transformed talks but to Professor Manuel DeSantis from the University of Alicante in Spain and also to Paul Chung A professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School Of public policy in Singapore so Innovation have we ever had it so good I Think we are building a very good Momentum for the future as well as you Know that many of the big companies Still invest in huge amount of money in Their RND programs and then we are only At the beginning stage of this fourth Industrial Revolution there's a lot of Opportunities for the tech firms to go For much much bigger Innovations equally Optimistic definitely yes when I look at What is happening in this mobile I get The conclusion that there are two Reasons for that the first one is that We you used to live in a culture where The point was the Novation Innovation is Something new in Latin now we have moved Simply to a culture of in Innovation so
Introducing something new into the Society This is the first and the second is that The history of mankin has been a history Who has been evolving arithmetically Always But since 30 years ago and we have seen It now the change is exponential and This change dramatically the way human Beings are perceive in the future so how Do we prioritize quality as well as Quality of innovation and ensure we're Getting public as well as business value Well my understanding is that time has Arrived where we have to think on terms Of quantity because the boom of Innovation will continue We change exponentially and Innovation Will flow exponentially so the question Is not quantity anymore the question is How much and until what extent this Innovation benefits human beings and This is a question of quality and Companies like Huawei should insist Again and again not in the numbers But in how Huawei and the others are Bringing added value to the society I think the market will decide whether It's quantity or quality we're looking At number of patents is still on the Outward Trend there's still a lot more Patents getting coming out in the market But increasingly those patents are Getting more and more accepted well
That's harder to be usable I think these Are dangerous Trend that you're going to Some really fine aspect of innovation And losing the market support then that Is a big problem so how does a city Amidst all this competition how does a City or region become a hub of Innovation what support does it need Well I would think that you first of all You need to have the market you need to Have the ecosystem in Singapore for Example we have evolved from a very Basically a secondary kind of a city Into our first three Innovation City the Government a lot of money into it and we Work with all the multinational Companies as well as homegrown companies To evolve r d culture Innovation program For example Huawei has set up a r d Center in Singapore and doing very well Every year they increase their r d Personnel by about 40 percent so now we Have about 400 over r d mostly phds very High end and every year uh now we have About 80 patents being filed by Huawei On this Center in Singapore alone so Huawei is only one of the players in the Larger r d ecosystem so you need a Government support you need a good Supply of r d personnel and you need to Have a larger ecosystem to support it so It's a conscious decision It is and my experience and my Perception is that you need for access
To To be successful the first one is the Governmental action you always need a Clear governmental action but it's not Enough The second one is Enterprises you need a Hub of Enterprises understanding that This is the very moment for this region Or for this city the third one is Universities both in terms of research And in terms of education and the fourth One is forgotten the fourth one is civil Society you need a critical mass of Civil Society because I have an Innovation hub goes not only top down But also bottom up when you get all These the four access then Innovation Florists so we're prioritizing that Enough are all four of those firing all Those Pillars are they all there and in place And do we prioritize Innovation Sufficiently as a society I have the feeling that my answer is no There are some places where it happens Singapore is one of them but today Either we do it globally or we will Create all sorts of discrepancies and Distinctions so there is a lot to do There we have to convince the Politicians that they have to invest More all over the world in Innovation And basically there is a word that for Me is Magic in this regard is the word
Education education and education here You have the three priorities to get the Future of human beings shaping really The way so that fractured International Order that's that's got to stop you need That Unity of purpose I think it's hard to say you know Um now given all these uh 10 Geopolitical relationship Each country may be forced to take on And be more aggressive into r d Activities for survival purposes so it's Hard to say during the member that the Space Race that Russia and U.S were Competing you know in the Cold War era So I don't know but to evolve an Innovation culture to move a successful Program of innovation an r d program is Not easy you can have a strong Government you can permanent a lot of Money but at the end of the day you need To have a good leadership to have Foresight and a lower luck r d you never Know whether the idea you're trying out Will win it or not but looking at the Pandemic looking at covet we through RND To Innovation we have the vaccine came Out really quickly saved a lot of lives We are at a stage of technical Competency that we are able to do a lot Of good but we just hope that the Government and the ecosystem will allow This r d activities to bear food to Benefit the humankind a very good
Positive way for transform talks to win Thank you very much thank you thank you So much thank you
