Cities to rise above Nations as the building block of innovation

More than half of humanity now lives in cities, a proportion that is expected to rise to three-quarters within the next 30 years. Squeezed between the critical mass of cities and the realities of the global economy, the traditional power of Nation-States is waning. Nationalists and protectionists of all kinds may not like it, but there is no way back. Nations are becoming ineffective at driving change, as politicians on any national stage are increasingly perceived as out-of-touch and their now structural inability to mobilize capital makes them irrelevant. Conversely, cities are rapidly appearing as the right perimeter to implement change. This is why this year’s MIT Europe conference “a blueprint to the future” is so heavily focused on urbanism.

Innovation ecosystems: everyone willing is at the centre of the universe

All companies that are aware of the innovation potential of their network of partners, suppliers, customers, users, specifiers, influencers, legislators, helpers, and other stakeholders, represent themselves at the centre of what is now commonly named an innovation ecosystem. But if all organisations connected as part of an ecosystem see themselves at the centre of the ecosystem, the centre becomes rapidly overcrowded!