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Editor’s Column

Colloquy

Nina M Rach

Energy and innovation intersect in the cloud “Innovation isn’t about new & technology director, said we need was the same as Exxon’s rate after products, it’s about changing “competitive energy innovation . . . the Valdez ran aground in Prince

I behavior,” explains Tom to deliver more affordable energy William Sound, March 1989 (1100

Koulopoulos, author of eight with less environmental stress.” gal/min). What it would take to business books on the intersection Bichsel pointed out that Shell is the increase our cleaning capability of business and technology, only international oil company in to 2500 gal/min? In an incentive including Cloud Sur? ng (2012) and MIT Technology Review’s list of the competition, seven of 10 teams

The Innovation Zone (2011). world’s most innovative companies, doubled the rate to 2200 gal/min, The cloud is more than a simple and the winning team showed a network of computers, he says. Its 600-fold increase.

Innovation will the beginning of an era that focuses Diamandis said the current on the innovation of “behavioral rate of innovation growth is accelerate in the business models,” and Koulopoulos unfathomable – most of today’s cloud, facilitated by positions it as the “killer app” technologies didn’t exist 10 years for doing business in real-time. ago. He characterized a ‘magical cloud-based idea

Innovation will accelerate in the partnership’ as having a platforms.

cloud, facilitated by cloud-based cross-pollination of ideas, bringing idea platforms. Cloud sourcing together government, corporate, and creates a “new type of elastic and spends “over a billion dollars a philanthropic strengths. organization” that can handle year on researching and developing Shell’s Gerald Schotman, volatility and uncertainty – cloud new technologies – more than any executive vice president of computing is on the rise because it of our peers.” innovation and research & enables mobility and networking. Peter Diamandis, chairman and development, and chief technology

Public cloud offerings offer bene? ts CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, of? cer, said: “Differentiation is not (reduced costs, increased business said that real innovation comes the hardware, but how you process agility), but being connected carries from absolute persistence, tied and use all this data. It’s how you risks (security, outages, regulatory to passion, a sense of purpose, ? lter it, to visualize better.” He used hurdles). a mission in life to make things Shell’s GameChanger program as happen, and an inner belief that an example. The program turns

Innovation Summit it’s do-able. X PRIZE looks at creative ideas into innovations, and

In early January, Royal Dutch market failures, then partners with invests in novel, early stage ideas to

Shell hosted a two-day Innovation companies to launch incentive get them to “proof of concept.”

Summit at its recently expanded competitions. “You can incentivize Ubiquitous iPads facilitated

Houston Technology Center, which non-traditional plays and come audience responses to questions brought together Shell technology up with unexpected success.” posed intermittently throughout leaders and experts from other He pointed out that BP’s oil the summit, taking the pulse sectors to explore how collaboration spill cleanup rate, following the of participants. When asked can generate innovative thinking. Deepwater Horizon disaster in “In the next 30 years, where do Shell’s Matthias Bichsel, projects the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, you think the most meaningful oedigital.com February 2013 | OE 17 oe_Colloquy.indd 17 01/02/2013 17:42