Futureprint

View Original

Our 2020 Vision? Industrial Inkjet Enters the Bowling Alley

In this article, we ask has inkjet finally crossed the chasm in new industrial markets?

Maybe it has, but to successfully grow then the inkjet community need to adapt strategy in line with today’s commercial challenges.

Right now, throughout the commercialised western world, trust is at a premium. We no longer trust our leaders, our institutions, our media, our brands and the established order of things. We rarely trust what we are told! In fact, I recently read that many prefer to trust machines as opposed to people. This isn’t surprising really given how divisive elements of the world have become. But it’s a sorry state.

We live in a world where a 16-year-old girl who has the temerity to challenge the establishment commands a greater degree of respect and trust than our elected leaders!  And this is in part as trust in the old paradigm is a slowly but surely decaying entity.  So it is against this backdrop that any decision to do anything new tends to weigh heavier on anybody. 

This collective fear should be set against the fact that mainstream media is to blame for much of this fear. Hijacking our collective amygdala to get us addicted to the sugary stress to the uncertainty of change. In the media, bad news outweighs good by 9 to 1, mostly as it gets our attention by triggering our concern and anxiety. Gaining attention has become hard to achieve in the vortex of noise and general confusion that is enveloping us all.

A Changing Society

Society continues to change and always will do. Alongside this shift is the enabling power of technology. But the much less trumpeted fact is that despite all of the uncertainty in the world, it is actually the best time in history to be alive. We have greater wealth, health, literacy, lifespan, equality and so on. There is a lot to be very positive about. Smart technology, AI, Machine Learning, Robotics and automation is already making changes to how our society works, how our families interact while redefining roles, and the kind of work we humans will be doing in the future. And the second big discovery is that this isn’t something that may happen in the future. It is not science fiction, it is science fact. It is happening now. 

So what about Inkjet? Full article here.