Disruptive Developments And Technologies During Recession

摘要

Some decades ago, studying at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, we studied History of Technology as part of our degree course. At that time, we all wondered why we should be taught irrelevant stuff that was in the past when a glorious future beckoned. How wrong we were! Those who do not learn from history go into the future without direction.rnI am sure that many, like myself, in these dark gloomy days of the recession have started analysing past historical trends in the development of technologies and companies to try and fathom where we are heading in the next few years. It's almost like dusting off old copies of the writings of Marx and Engels to see where the modern day financial sector is heading. Even the briefest study of the history of companies and the development of new innovations seems to bear out that such developments (loosely and collectively termed as 'disruptive developments') by and large peak during times of recession.