No one can argue the fact that America is a country of innovators. American engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs invented the computer, created the internet, sent a man to the moon, and envisioned the smartphone.
But, don’t make the mistake of believing that innovation is reserved just for white lab coat scientists working in state-of-the-art facilities. More often than not, it’s the nation’s ordinary, self-taught folks who drive the motor of innovation. They fiddle with repurposed parts from scavenged goods in an attempt to perfect their homespun gadgets or create new ones.
Thomas Jefferson, who was a self-taught scientist and engineer in his spare time, signed the Declaration of Independence in a chair that he invented, and that became the direct ancestor of today’s office chairs. Great inventors, such as the Wright brother, Thomas Edison or Henry Ford had little academic education, but enough ingenuity and an avid curiosity to come up with brilliant ideas that changed the world forever.
U.S. ingenuity has opened up the door for many countries, helping local businesses develop and become more competitive in their sectors.
Examples of Positive Ingenuity Today
Ingenuity is essential in today’s highly technological, highly-competitive world. The successful companies of the future will be the ones that make more money than their competition by creating products or services that address social and environmental needs. Their efforts will be an inspiration for businesses across the world.
Here’s an example of how U.S. ingenuity is currently impacting other nations. Steelcase Furniture is a well-known manufacturer of furniture for offices, classrooms, and hospitals. They are currently involved in a program designed to improve the manufacturing supply chain process. By focusing on becoming more efficient and environmentally sustainable, they’ve managed to earn $1 million plus annual savings for several of their powder coating lines. Now, they are taking these key lessons and applying them to their operations in France, Germany, China, and Mexico.
Coca-Cola is another example of how openness to new ideas is driving innovation worldwide. Their water conservation efforts are triggering corporate social responsibility regarding water preservation in countries like India and Brazil.
How Ingenuity In Industries Such As Printing Can Impact Different Nations
As mentioned above, we can see that leveraging U.S. ingenuity and exporting it to other countries can be a catalyst for developing their overall economy. While many countries are still slightly behind, they can still realize tremendous value based on the knowledge we provide and hard goods such as machinery that we export.
While this machinery may feel “dated” to us, the reality is that it still ends up in the hands of other countries. In fact, Printing Machinery is still one of the top 5 exports to Latin America. That’s not so surprising when, according to the data from IFABC, more than 2.5 billion people worldwide still consume their news via print form.
The reality is, all of the machinery still requires routine maintenance, knives, parts, and more. Leveraging these legacy pieces of equipment still require us (and many others) to supply these countries with the products they need to continue to operate.
Overtime, other countries will continue to learn from our ingenuity. By learning how to become more efficient, more innovative, and how to produce more by using less, countries that aren’t technologically strong will continue to witness a trickle-down effect.
The more knowledge we create, the more countries will have access to it and have the opportunity to use it to fuel their grand ideas. The great advances, whether technological, socio-political, or economic that come from openness to creative ideas are proof enough that American ingenuity has opened numerous doors for nations worldwide.