MaRS

Designing business models

Recently, Stuart L. Hart of Cornell University gave a talk as part of Rotman’s Wicked Problem series. Hart gained notoriety for his robust discussions on the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) originally made popular with author and professor C.K. Prahalad. BoP thinking explores models of sustainable business that serve non-tradition market segments – namely those overlooked by capitalists of past generations. In Hart’s latest thinking about Capitalism at the Crossroads the story has not changed much, but his call to develop new business models that profitably engage the under-served is still relevant today. However, are developing economies the only fertile ground for this line of thinking?

The advantages of technology

It’s no surprise that computers and technology have become an essential element of our lives. Technology has shifted our primary method of acquiring information and dispersing it, transforming how we interact with the world and how the world interacts with us. Accessible and intuitive, computers have literally connected us to the world. Now, at our fingertips we have the ability to learn a new language, educate ourselves on current events and global issues, and even find remedies to illnesses. Having access to this means education and technology is a privilege we take for granted.

Last month, I attended a speech by Harvard University Professor Calestous Juma outlining the dire need for improved economic development strategies and plans for survival in the global south. His solution: education with the integration of technology. So what does this mean for you?

It’s in the ocean. Its cargo: whiskey.

In 2006, economist Marc Levinson published The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, 50 years after the first shipping container sailed out of Newark, New Jersey.

Inspired by the book, the BBC has attached a GPS to a shipping container, and is following its path around the world for one year to tell the story of international trade and globalization. A live updating map will document its position as it travels around the world.  BBC-branded and painted red, and the public is being encouraged to photograph it along its journey.

Cape Farewell’s expedition to our vulnerable Arctic

Cape Farewell is an inspirational international project about climate change. Envisioned by British artist David Buckland, it brings together scientists, artists, educators and high school students from around the world on an Arctic voyage of discovery.

On September 28 young voyagers from Canada and six other countries will board a research vessel in Reykjavik, Iceland, to sail around the southern tip of Greenland to Iqaluit on Canada’s Baffin Island. As ambassadors of their schools and communities, they will observe and interpret the effects of climate change in the Arctic. What they see and experience will inspire them and those they touch to seek social and technological solutions to this huge global problem.