3 Ways Europe is Out Innovating the United States and What That Means…
These are interesting times in Europe. On the one hand, the old guard of design & engineering innovation in Europe, Germany, has fallen into a crisis of national identity thanks to Volkswagen (meaning “People’s car” in German). The pinnacle of engineering for design, auto and mechanical engineering disciplines, German have been known for decades for producing meticulously great products. But…
Volkswagen “was forced to recall over half a million of its diesel passenger cars,” Techtimes, http://www.techtimes.com/articles/111953/20151130/top-volkswagen-execs-knew-fuel-usage-figures-were-wrong-a-year-ago-report.htm
Despite this catastrophic crisis of identity for the German people, the rest of Europe is on a tear with new innovation:
1. On one hand, Great Britain leads the way in non-accredited crowdfunding of startups via equity fundraising and according to current figures:
“Equity and revenue crowd funding in the UK is worth £90 million now and could reach a £ billion by 2016,” Research and Markets, http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/3053129/uk-equity-and-revenue-crowd-funding-facts-and
2. And then there’s Denmark — setting a new standard for waste recycling for the rest of the world to follow:
“What do the world’s largest manufacturer of diabetes drugs, the biggest industrial enzymes producer and a leading offshore power company have in common?” asks NBC News in an article published yesterday (Sunday, December 20th, 2015):
“As pioneers of so-called industrial symbiosis, these companies swap waste and byproducts to cut costs and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions profitably,” NBC News, http://www.nbcnews.com/business/energy/danish-trial-symbiosis-one-business-waste-anothers-gold-n482521
3. But, possibly even more extraordinarily for the average startup technology entrepreneur, FIWARE, an open source toolkit initiated in Europe enables app developers to create new city solutions that can directly affect all of us where we live in the real world.
“A new generation of smart city apps is beginning to emerge based on the European-initiated FIWARE open API platform,” ProgrammableWeb, http://www.programmableweb.com/news/smart-city-apps-accelerate-under-fiware-platform/2015/12/21
That’s amazing! So, what you’re saying is that all kinds of crazy apps might be available for us to avoid potholes in real time? Yep. We might be able to find parking whenever and wherever we need it? Yep. We can know at the spur of the moment where the best food & parking combinations might be for that spontaneous date? Definitely! We will be able to plan our errands and purchases with the same awesome route optimization at our fingertips that UPS and FedEx have been using for years? Of course! There is so much more to it than that though — this is really just the beginning. Good show Europe!
But what does it all mean?
Well, first of all — this implies that Europeans can directly affect their financial situation. By putting heavy investment into training up the unemployed across Europe, it doesn’t take a genius to see a situation where the next 20 to 40 unicorn startups could be European. Moreover, the average european might have a direct investment via crowdfunding in some of those very same unicorns because of Britain’s less restrictive policies toward individual direct investment in equity based crowdfunding of startups. And heck, while we are at it — Europe might have the most competitive home-grown industrial businesses thanks to the green circle of symbiotic waste management that not only is good for the environment but is also good for the bottom line.
What’s up US — what are we going to do to respond?
