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Mcleans Example of Innovation

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RETHINKING INNOVATION

Was McLean’s reconceptualization of cargo transportation an example of innovation? Why or why not?

In my opinion McLean’s reconceptualization of cargo transportation is not only an example of innovation, but also of a “successful innovation”. It is easy to identify innovation if we consider it something new, but in my opinion we should not only be able to identify innovation, but also to differentiate what I would call “successful innovation” from what I would call “plain innovation”.

By reading the first three chapters of the book “The Box: how the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger” I realized that the development of a new product, in this case the shipping container, although it was something new, was not necessarily a “successful innovation”. I believe a “successful innovation” must be measured by (i) the benefit it provides to its users, (ii) the intensity of its adoption, and (iii) the consequent impacts it generates.

After its invention, the shipping container was in the market for many years, but people didn’t seem to be convinced of its benefits, didn’t really adopt it, and the impacts it caused, in society and in the companies using it, were insignificant.

The true “successful innovation” came when Malcom McLean started using shipping containers in his company in 1956 as a way of reducing transportation costs. He didn’t develop a new product, but he redesigned entirely the shipping system, creating a context in which the shipping container (now a lot bigger than it’s initial versions, but not that different) was able to add value to its users. After that there was a huge drop in transportation costs, almost every product transporting company in the world adopted the use of shipping containers, and the global trading flow and economy changed

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