SNS: Predictions for 2015 Landscapes

SNS Subscriber Edition
Volume 18, Issue 7
Week of February 16, 2015
 
In This Issue

Feature: Predictions for 2015 Landscapes

• Economic Landscapes
• Technology Landscapes
• Q&A

Quotes Of The Week

Takeout Window

• FAA: 1, Amazon: 0
• Earth II Goes to Space
• The EPIC Camera

Upgrades And Numbers

• The Next Step in Earth II: SpaceX Delivers DSCOVR
• A New Way to Make Bulk Graphene?

Ethermail

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What I see is a conflict, or a contest, not between countries, but between business models. Just like companies are driven by their own – you know, if you take a look at any company: HP or Oracle, or whatever it is – you see people come and go as the president of that place. But the business model pretty much drives what happens there, and their success or their failure. This is true also for countries, [although] people don’t think of countries that way. They think of them as having these energetic, charismatic leaders, and they make all the difference? Bull.

What really happens, in my opinion, is that they have a business model just like companies do. If we looked at them from that perspective, we would have a deeper understanding of their potential future outcomes than considering them to be a political entity. Sure, they are. But this is money.

When we look at the world that way, we see, in fact, that there are now two business models. Forget the Cold War, forget Russia and America – all that stuff is just gone to me. What’s come in its place is one business model that you could call the “Inventing Nations” model. We’re all familiar with it, because everybody in this room is doing it. It’s all about innovation. It’s all about you invent something, you either patent it or you keep it as a trade secret, you try to make a profit by doing that, you roll it out in the global market, you get rich. We understand that model. That’s America’s model. That’s also Britain’s model, that’s Australia’s model, that’s the EU’s model, it’s Germany’s model, it’s Sweden’s model . . . Okay.