The Growing Market for Innovation

According to WIPO, "...two to three billion people are projected to enter the middle class in the coming decades. This will constitute a new source of demand for goods and services tailored to the specific needs of this middle class emerging in less developed economies. Adapting products to emerging markets will henceforth be a core activity of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs), including for households with fewer resources that will demand low prices for robust products with basic functionality."

The market for new and interesting products and services will mean new ways of thinking about how to solve problems.  Adapting products for these markets will require a new perspective on manufacturing and product delivery pipelines - how will you make the product, how will you package it, how will you sell it, and how will you get it to your customer.  This is an area where sustainability and profitability are expected to take primary positions in design and inventive decision making.  Innovators will find opportunities to use resources in new ways.  Geography and technology will have opportunities to collide in new ways, like how wireless technology facilitated providing communications in mountainous regions that would have been unreachable by traditional land line solutions.  Visualize cowboys on horses on mobile phones where there was no phone service before and you have a sense of the power of innovation and the scope and size of future markets.   Three billion people on the hunt for new products and technologies is a powerful motivator for scientists, engineers, and researchers globally.