February 2024

Welcome back to another edition of Inflexion Point.

Here, we look at TIME 100 most influential companies across the categories of pioneers and disrupters; the world's most innovative countries, with India ranking at #40; how to cultivate the four kinds of creativity; the worst technology failures of 2023; and why brains are not required to think, cells are enough. 

I hope you find this collection interesting.

TIME 100 most influential companies 2023

The list, spanning the categories of leaders, disrupters, innovators, titans and pioneers, presents a spectrum of old and new companies across industries, and offers insights on how technology meets purpose. Take for instance, Bristol Myers Squibb which has increased nonwhite-­patient recruitment by 22% to make medicines more inclusive, or Chipotle that helps farmers switch to organic produce, using renewable energy, composting, and directly tying executive bonuses to ESG goals. The list also features National Payments Corporation of India, which in 2021–22, clocked 45 billion transactions and accounted for 52% of India’s digital payments. (Source: TIME)

Which are the most innovative economies in 2023?

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently published the list of world's most innovative economies, among the 132 odd. The 16th edition of the ranking looks like this (top 10): Switzerland, Sweden, USA, UK, Singapore, Finland, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Korea. India is ranked 40th, while China stands at the 12th position. The factors that influence these rankings include R&D investments, scientific publications, patent activities, venture capital deals, technology adoption, and the overall socioeconomic impact of such activities. (Source: WIPO)

Cultivating the four kinds of creativity

In this HBR piece, author offer four typologies of creativity 1) Integration, or showing that two things that appear different are the same; 2) Splitting, or seeing how things that look the same are more usefully divided into parts; 3) Figure-ground reversal, or realizing that what is crucial is not in the foreground but in the background; and 4) Distal thinking, which involves imagining things that are very different from the here and now. I consider myself as more of an integration and distal thinking type. How about you? (Source: Harvard Business Review)

The worst technology failures of 2023

Here's a list of wishful thinking: innovations that didn't last. 1) The Titan submarine, designed by OceanGate, that imploded on its way to reaching Titanic, killing all on-board; 2) lab-grown meat, by Upside, which failed to scale economically and ethically; 3) GM's Cruise robotaxi which had already caused a lot a pedestrian damage; 4) Humane AiPin, plastic badges with camera, chips, and sensors, that could replace phones; 5) LK-99, a Korean developed superconductor, that wasn't; and 6) Geo-engineering to disperse sulphur dioxide to cool down the planet. (Source: MIT Tech Review)

Brains are not required when it comes to thinking and solving problems—simple cells can do it

Can there is intelligence outside brain? It seems even the humble flatworm is incredibly intelligent when it comes to its regenerating skills. If split in half, its head can grow a new tail, and a tail can grow a new head, perfectly and within days. Research suggests that regular cells have the ability to store information and act on it. The new field, called basal cognition, indicates differences between cell clumps and brains as ones of degree, not kind. There is surprisingly sophisticated intelligence at work across life's kingdoms, no brain required. (Source: Scientific American)