Although it is little recalled today, one of the 18th century’s most vexing problems—that of discerning the longitude of a ship—was solved in large part because the British government was willing to award cash prizes to those innovators who successfully tackled the issue. In a similar manner, the Orteig Prize also encouraged Charles Lindbergh to become the first man to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an airplane.
The awarding of prizes is a tradition that seems to be growing in popularity. Last year, NetFlix announced a $1 million prize to anyone who could design an algorithm that could help improve sales by recommending movies that more closely aligned with its customers’ preferences. Richard Branson is awarding a huge prize to anyone who can figure out how to remove copious amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and today, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is kicking-off a competition to award $200,000 to entrepreneurs in the green-energy field.
There are also now prizes to create robotic-driven cars; cars that get 100 miles to the gallon; and even a prize to sequence a person’s genome for less than $10,000.
My point is not only that prizes will spur people to new innovations, but that these new innovations will lead to a myraid of exciting new opportuntiies. Therefore, the exponential executive doesn’t necessarily have to be the one awarding the prize to benefit from the new innovation—they merely need to be poised to be “fast followers” and take advantage of the innovation after it occurs. (On the flip side, many of these new innovations will also disrupt existing businesses and business models and can thus put certain companies and people out of work.)
Therefore, if you want to keep your pulse on the future, I’d encourage you to follow the money—and the prize money that is.
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Jack Uldrich is a writer, futurist, public speaker and host of jumpthecurve.net. He is the author of seven books, including Jump the Curve and The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. He is also a frequent speaker on future technology and future trends, nanotechnology, innovation, change management and executive leadership to a variety of businesses, industries and non-profit organizations and trade associations.
