The Challenge of Applying New Tech to Social Innovation

This is an era of challenges and opportunities. Things are changing in an unprecedented speed. Different from the First and the Second Industrial Revolution which took decades and centuries to put new findings into practice, new technologies and scientific breakthroughs in recent years are emerging every day. Along those disruptive technologies are opportunities that no one wants to miss.

The report Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy released by McKinsey listed twelve potentially economically disruptive technologies, which are Mobile Internet, Automation of knowledge work, The Internet of Things, Cloud technology, Advanced robotics, Autonomous and near-autonomous vehicles, Next-generation genomics, Energy storage, 3D printing, Advanced materials, Advanced oil and gas exploration and recovery and Renewable energy. It is estimated that those technologies will generate trillions of value in next twenty years.

Besides economic impacts, it is also important for us to think about the changes that the whole society would make. It is stressed in the report that policy makers should firstly have a clear understanding of the impact of disruptive technologies, then make investment decisions in education and infrastructure, and also create or adjust the environment for citizens to prosper despite potential risks that may be brought by new techs[i].

For organizations and individuals who take actual social innovation practices, however, the path seems less obvious. Although fancy technologies seem indicating bright future, it is hard to apply new techs to real world problems. In the real world practice, especially in developing countries, there may be some obstacles for social innovators to connect technologies to problems that they want to solve.

The lack of budget and human resource may be one of the most noticeable problems. As a capital intensive industry, the innovation in technology calls for a large mount of money, which cannot be afforded by most non-profit organizations. The budget for practice is also limited, which is a constraint for people to take the advantage of technology breakthroughs. Besides, outstanding graduates are easily attracted by internet titans or investment banks. It should not be ignored that many social innovation organizations are facing problems of the lack of human resource and the high personnel mobility.

 So the most important problem for social innovators is not how to catch up with latest tech breakthroughs, but how to make the full use of limited resources and new technologies to generate public fare. The focus should be fancy advances, but social issues themselves.

This reality makes think of my friend Richard Li, who is a financial advisor for startup companies. In a team building activity, Richard described his dream of change the education condition in poor areas of China. In his blueprint, VR (Virtual Reality) is the key to reducing cost and improving education quality. The idea is inspiring. Considering all the constraints, however, this is still not a good time to take practice.

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[i] Disruptive Technologies: Advances That Will Transform Life, Business, and the Global Economy (McKinsey Quarterly, May 2013); http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/business-technology/our-insights/disruptive-technologies