3-D Printing a Bike as a Generative Topic
We often hear from board chairs wondering how to spark (and continue) generative discussions in the board room. This is the first in a series of intermittent posts about sample generative topics, ripped, as they say, from the pages of the news.The implications of this article on 3-D printing of a functional bicycle are far-reaching and suggest a profound change in the way the economy operates, global or not. A bike is a very complex device, let alone one that is carbon fiber and of sophisticated design. That one can be made with zero manufacturing employees tells us that even more profound changes are coming to the way goods are sourced, designed, and sold. Think fewer people involved, no shipping costs, and just-in-time production with a vengeance. And the technology has in no way begun to scale as yet. Imagine what will happen when it does!Two ideas for a generative board conversation (after sharing the article):
- Will private schools be forever immune to changes in how our product gets made; in other words, will we forever be the only part of the global economy that eschews leveraging technology to advance productivity?
- What does this sort of technology portend for educating today's students living in tomorrow's world?
We'd love to hear what you come up with!