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Singaporeans must discard old industrial thinking and adopt an innovator mindset in the new dynamic landscapeCharlie Ang Hwa LeongCEO, founder & principal trainerFutureCraftIN THE recent National Day Rally, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong outlined the challenging environment that Singapore is operating in.迷你倉 Citing 3D printing, artificial intelligence and robots as examples, he believes that technology may one day replace highly skilled, white-collar professionals. I strongly share PM Lee's sentiments and wish to caution Singapore enterprises and professionals against sticking to the status quo given the growing risk of technological and market disruptions. Instead, Singaporeans must discard old industrial thinking and adopt an innovator mindset to succeed in this new dynamic landscape.In this article, I hope to excite everyone to become innovators and exploit the growing opportunities in three clusters of innovation which I shall elaborate on.Re-invention of everythingAlmost everything that we know and do today is based on industrial thinking. How the economy operates, governments function, corporations grow, societies behave, and individuals think are based on industrial constructs. At present, the global collective mentality is to adapt the industrial way of life to the knowledge model (that is, innovation economy). Unfortunately, this is an incremental and dysfunctional perspective. Instead, we need to invent new constructs of the knowledge model afresh.Let's consider how some constructs may be re-imagined:Business modelThere are only two business models in the industrial economy: 1) value-adding to raw inputs and selling it at a higher price, and 2) developing and/or investing in an asset for rental. Most businesses apply a hybrid model. In the innovation economy, there are at least five business models, all of which support supernormal profits.One such model is the Platform Model, where a "mothership" company co-creates value with its partners through business or technology platforms. UK-based chip design company ARM is the perfect archetype of this model. Its chip design technologies power an astonishing 95 per cent of the world's processors for smartphones and tablets. Yet, it does not manufacture a single chip. Instead, ARM licenses its designs to more than 1,000 partners, including Samsung, AMD and NVIDIA, to manufacture its processors that are custom-fitted to the disparate mobile devices.Education systemThe education system of today is inherently industrial. In its current form for over 100 years, its primary purpose is to load students with content and equip them for their first jobs. Rigid and inefficient, the system does not maximise individual talent nor prepare students to excel in a hyper-speed world.The education systems we need for the innovation economy should have 5C Outcomes (Critical Thinking, Creativity, Curiosity, Cross-cultural Communication and Collaborative Skills) as key goals. Such capabilities are necessary for the 5E (Entrepreneur, Executive, Engineer, Entertainer, Educator) types of knowledge workers to succeed in the very near future. Education should be on-demand, learner-centric, individually designed, self-paced, trans-disciplinary, problem-oriented, and gaming-like.I will leave you to re-imagine other facets of business and life, such as the new factors of production, competitive advantages, and ways that we live, work, and play. These re-imaginations are the inspiration for breakthrough business opportunities and re-inventionmini storageof personal careers.Digital disruption of industriesThe digital disruption of industries occurs when new players apply cutting-edge technologies and business models to "game-change" traditional industries. In the last 15 years, we have seen industries, such as photography, music, news and retail, succumb to the digital conquerors.The worst-case scenario was the extermination of the chemical photography industry. Within a decade, the market shrank by 98 per cent, forcing the venerable 122-year-old Eastman Kodak and Polaroid into bankruptcy. In their wake, Canon, Flickr, Instagram and Pinterest quickly dominated new niches in the digital photography landscape.Next on the digital conquerors' warpath are the education, media, automotive, healthcare, defence and manufacturing sectors. Thankfully, digital disruptions almost always create new e-cosystems and supporting industries. Advertising disruption spun off the digital marketing industry, while retail disruption is supported by a booming sector of e-commerce platforms, fulfilment services and payment gateways. McKinsey Global Institute's report titled Disruptive Technologies: Advances that Will Transform Life, Business predicts that the top 12 disruptive technologies will create economic impact to the scale of US$14 trillion to US$33 trillion per year in 2025. We should all get ready for this bounty.Long tail of everythingWe are now in the midst of a radical market transformation called the Long Tail effect, which former Wired magazine editor-in-chief Chris Andersen elucidated in his 2006 book The Long Tail. Previously, most of the products, entertainment, and information we consumed were developed via a top-down approach to create "hits" (product selections that sell huge volumes). The traditional media (for example, television, cinemas) and physical channels (stores, warehouses) have limited bandwidth or shelf-space and can accommodate only the most popular consumer desires.The digital revolution changed everything. An Internet store such as Amazon and Netflix has no constraint on the number of titles it can digitally stock. YouTube and Pandora have no physical limit on the channels or tracks they can store. The economics of scarcity has been superseded by the economics of abundance.These enabled niche product sellers to satisfy niche consumer demands. These niches, known as Long Tails, were previously un-served as they were uneconomic. The Long Tail of things (powered by 3D printing), education (Massive Open Online Courses), investment (crowdfunding), and skills (e-contracting) are well on their way. Each of them has the potential to create billion dollar markets for entrepreneurs.Only the innovator survivesWith these breathtaking opportunities on offer, I urge fellow Singaporeans to step up innovation in their work, careers and businesses. Collectively, we can transform from a nation of operators to a global epicentre for innovators and scale greater heights. We need to get ready for a world where accelerating change will forever render "business as usual" a thing of the past, and where imaginative and innovative capabilities will be the new competitive advantages.The past is owned by those who know. The present is controlled by those who think. The future belongs to those who can imagine. Can you?The writer is an entrepreneur, speaker, futures thinker, and innovation evangelist. He is also the chief innovation officer of First Media Group, a regional communications, design and education group based in Singapore迷你倉