Sebastian has worked with the World Economic Forum since 2008 and is currently director and deputy head of the Program Development Team, overseeing design and development of the Annual Meeting, the Annual Meeting of the New Champions, and the World Economic Forum on Africa. Previously, he was a fellow at the U.N. Office of Development Studies in New York and a research officer at the International Labour Office in Geneva. Since 2012, he has been a visiting professor for the IOMBA program at the University of Geneva.
Andrew McAfee
Is Innovation Exploding or Expiring?
Is global innovation waxing or waning? That depends on who you listen to. How we react to economic transitions can depend on the stories we hear and repeat about them. As Nobel laureate Robert Shiller puts it, sometimes these stories “inspire us to go out and spend, start businesses, build new factories and office buildings.” Other times, “they put fear in our hearts and impel us to sit tight, save our resources, curtail spending, and reduce risk.” So it may be with today’s competing narratives on innovation: one portrays a civilization that has run out of big ideas; the other suggests we are on the brink of a new industrial revolution.
