Over on the Harvard Business Review Editors' Blog, Gardiner Morris takes a look at the money that President Obama and US Energy Secretary Stephen Chu have been promising to spend on energy research projects and innovations in the energy sector. Morris argues that while this money is necessary, it's not sufficient to get the clean-tech economy up and moving. He cites the recent HBR article by Innosight's Mark Johnson and Josh Suskewicz, "How to Jump-Start the Clean-Tech Economy" as he discusses the need for the systems that will make this sector take off -- the "infrastructure, business models, and regulatory regimes that clean technologies will need.
In their article, Johnson and Suskewicz write:
Edison didn't just invent a light bulb. He created a coherent commercial system to support it. He designed a technical platform that included generators, meters, and transmission lines; he piloted the project in an ideal test market (lower Manhattan, teeming with enthusiastic early adopters); and he used his clout to get the regulatory support he needed, fighting off the lamplighters' union, among other things. In short, he imagined the business ecosystem his light bulb would need and set about methodically creating it.
The HBR article itself is still (as of this posting) free at the link above. We invite you to read it and join the conversation: what do you think it will take to get the clean-tech economy jump-started?
