Speaking of the evolution of industries, I couldn't pass up this example of the upside-down flying goose. This is what innovation looks like in the wild. In this case, the (grey) goose was in mid-whiffle -- when geese come in to land from a great height they partake in a bout of whiffling, which involves the bird twisting and turning to spill air from their wings and thus lowering their speed prior to landing.

However, even veteran birdwatchers were surprised by this photo: "In 36 years of birdwatching I have seen this many times, particularly when watching pink-footed geese on the north Norfolk coast coming in to roost in the late afternoon and evening. I have, however, never seen a photograph of a bird in mid-whiffle like this. It is an amazing photograph."

[image: Grey Goose via Telegraph (U.K.)]

Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money is a first-rate historical study of the growth of the modern financial system -- and a look ahead at what might happen now that banks like Lehman Brothers, Northern Rock and Bear Stearns literally went to the brink. In a step-by-step, chapter-by-chapter approach, he outlines how different foundations of the modern financial system - like the credit markets and the housing market - "evolved" over time in response to certain needs and conditions. In fact, Ferguson suggests that the entire modern history of the world can be viewed in purely financial terms.

For me, perhaps the most interesting part of The Ascent of Money was the Afterword, in which he lays out the fundamental features shared by any industry and a truly "evolutionary" system:

(1) Genes in the form of certain business practices that can be passed on to successive generations

(2) The potential for spontaneous mutation (i.e. innovation)

(3) Competition for scarce resources, leading to a survival of the fittest scenario

(4) A mechanism for natural selection (i.e. how the market allocates resources based on over- or under-performance)

(5) The potential for speciation, leading to new "species" of financial institutions

(6) The ever-present threat of extinction, as species die out altogether

If you'd rather not dig through (a best-selling) 350 pages of financial history, you can also watch a four-hour video series over at PBS. Or buy a DVD for $24.99... These days, Niall Ferguson is just about everywhere.

In the current issue of strategy + business magazine, Christopher Vollmer, a partner with Booz & Company in New York City, comments on the "digital Darwinism" that is reshaping the world of media and marketing:

The marketing and media ecosystem has arrived at an evolutionary threshold. Old structures and ways of working persist but are fundamentally challenged by newer, more dynamic, more innovative alternatives. Numerous developments have brought the industry to this transition point. Consumers have more control and choice. Their media usage has fragmented. Many more advertising platforms exist. And marketers are insisting on greater precision in targeting and accounting for their ad spend.

The recent economic turmoil only accelerates this evolutionary transition. Companies across the ecosystem have to acquire or develop three dominant traits to survive: relevance, interactivity, and accountability."

According to Vollmer, companies adapting well to this new environment include Dell, Nike, HP and P&G. The Marketing & Media Ecosystem 2010 study is available as a free PDF download on the Booz & Co. site.

For anyone interested in learning "what's next," Paul Saffo's keynote address at the World Innovation Forum in New York City earlier this week presented a number of tantalizing previews. According to Saffo, "What's Next" is not a souped-up "semantic Web" -- instead, it's the wide-scale distribution of sensor technology and RFID chips and the emergence of biology as the dominant scientific paradigm of our time. According to Saffo, sensor technology is ready to disrupt the world in unknown and fascinating ways -- and not just if you happen to own a pair of Nike running shoes and an iPod nano. "Put RFID chips and sensors on wheels, and you have a robot."

Photo courtesy of Dov Friedmann - PhotographybyDov.com

At the World Innovation Forum in New York City, Harvard's Clayton Christensen delighted the audience with his classic story of the "milkshake" (as seen at the top right of the picture) to illustrate the following question that all marketers face: What do customers really want from your products? As Christensen explains, customers "hire" products to do "jobs" for them -- it is up to companies to create the right types of products to fill these jobs appropriately. Rather than segmenting by customer demographics or by product category, companies instead should consider "the job to be done."

Photo courtesy of Dov Friedmann - PhotographybyDov.com

Fred Krupp will be speaking on the topic, "How Innovators Can Win the Race for the Future: The Climate Challenge."

Fred Krupp is a pioneer in the use of market forces to attain ambitious environmental goals. His achievements run from strengthening the Clean Air Act to making the biggest corporate buyout in history (Texas utility TXU), contingent on climate action. He has advised presidents and partnered with DuPont, FedEx, GE, McDonald's and Wal-Mart. His optimistic book, Earth: The Sequel - The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming, has recently been named one of Fast Company's "Best Business Books of 2008."

To cap off Day 2 of the World Innovation Forum, Dan Ariely will be speaking on the topic, "The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions."

Dan Ariely is a professor of behavioral economics at Duke University and visiting professor at the MIT Media Lab. A behavioral economist, Ariely is the author of the groundbreaking and bestselling book, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.

To kick off Day 2 of the World Innovation Forum, Clayton Christensen will be speaking on the topic, "Disruptive Innovation as a Platform for Growth."

Clayton Christensen, world-renowned for his work on innovation and disruption, is a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. He is a sought-after business consultant and an advisor to some of America's biggest companies. Professor Christensen is the author of the best-selling books, The Innovator's Dilemma, The Innovator's Solution, Seeing What's Next, and the recently-released Disrupting Class.

For full, blow-by-blow coverage of Day 1 of the World Innovation Forum in NYC, click here. From the Pitney Bowes bloggers hub, I was using the nifty Cover It Live blogging interface to provide highlights from the first day of speakers. There's new functionality in the Cover It Live interface enabling live Twitter updates, so check out the real-time interspersing of tweets and blog posts.

To cap off Day 1 of the World Innovation Forum, Vijay Govindarajan will be speaking on the topic, "Strategic Innovators: From Ideas to Execution."

Vijay Govindarajan is widely regarded as one of the world's leading experts on strategy and innovation. He has been called "one of the outstanding thought leaders of the new generation" by The Wall Street Journal and Business Week. He is a sought-after consultant who has worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies. Govindarajan has published seven books, including the international bestseller, Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators.