By Tom Bradley

Don Tapscott, the highly-regarded business thinker and writer wrote an article for Monday’s Report on Business (Note: David is taking me to hear him speak at University of Toronto next week). In it he previewed the annual mixer for the world’s business, political and media elite in Davos (Switzerland).

Mr. Tapscott quoted the forum’s founder and CEO, Klaus Schwab: “What we want to do in Davos this year … is push the reset button. The world is much too much still caught in a crisis management mode and we forget that we should take now into our hands and we should look for solutions for the really fundamental issues. We should look at our future in a much more constructive, in a much more strategic way.”

I couldn’t help but think that while the world’s leaders are discussing, networking, cocktailing and sound biting, the world around them has long since pushed the button. It’s been in solutions/growth mode for years now. Indeed, I hope one of the issues discussed at the forum is how governments and regulators can keep up.

In the last week, without even trying, I’ve been exposed to many of the new economic engines.

  • On the drive up to Whistler last Friday, my wife Lori was admiring a luxury sedan that passed us. It was a Tesla, which is a fully electric car that’s sold online (no dealer network). I’m told there’s a 3 month waiting list.
  • As we rolled into Squamish, Lori pulled out her iPhone and turned on the furnace at the cabin.
  • After arriving, we pretty quickly crashed on the couch and turned on Netflix. I won the battle this time … Lori was forced to watch an old episode of Family Guy that we hadn’t seen.
  • On the mountain the next day, we used the Whistler Live app on Lori’s phone to tell us how many runs we’d done and the number of kilometres and meters of elevation we’d skied. If I’d gotten lost, I’m not sure but I think the app would have helped Lori find me (if she chose to do so).
  • After skiing on Sunday, Lori sat down on the couch with her laptop and totally equipped a kitchen by ordering from a firm in Ohio. She filled in the gaps using Amazon. Our trial membership in ‘Amazon Prime’ means we get some special deals and 2-3 day guaranteed delivery. (While Canada is abuzz with the arrival of Target and Nordstrom, Amazon and others are redefining the shopping experience. WalMart’s big competitor isn’t Target anymore, it’s Amazon.)
  • Back in the office on Monday, I watched Chris head out to see a financial planner. He walked down the street, jumped in a Smart car from car2go and drove to the meeting.
  • While going through my pile, I read in The Economist Magazine (hard copy) that the cost of extracting natural gas from the ground in the U.S. has declined significantly. The balance of power in the energy arena is shifting dramatically.

I could go on all day. I haven’t even given an example of where the technology built into our tablets and smart phones is infiltrating business processes and the public service.

Maybe it’s my age, but I think the pace of innovation in the economy is accelerating, or maybe I should say, the impact of technology is accelerating. Either way, the changes have many objectives – efficiency, customer experience, sustainability – and take many forms, but there’s one common characteristic, the force is unyielding. And it’s happening whether the Davos speakers think it should or not.