The Counter-Revolutionary Industrial Revolution Ahead

By 2025, the majority of the world’s population is expected to belong to the consumer class, with disposable incomes of at least $10 a day. This new majority would represent a dramatic improvement in quality of life for many, and should be welcomed. An industrial revolution must accompany this transformation, however, in order to serve the many unmet needs of the rising consumer class. This industrial revolution, unlike previous ones, will happen without any big technological breakthroughs as its anchors. Instead, innovative firms have to combine many small, mutually reinforcing business practices developed in recent decades to serve consumers in the emerging world. The article concludes with the caveat that the coming industrial revolution and economic transformation cannot ignore the contextual factors that could trump innovation or make further growth unsustainable. Innovators and consumers will need to develop their contextual intelligence even as they lead this transformation.