The Box

I believe "the box" plays an important role in linking sources of innovation to globalization. McLean seems to perform the functions of an entrepreneur as described by economist Joseph Schumpeter. As very well portrayed in the chapters McLean finds the source of innovation from the problems and challenges he faces in the shipping business. He is not the source of invention but he critically plays an important role of implementing a "container" in the shipping industry after gaining the inspiration from the railroad industry. McLean is successfully able to upend the shipping industry by bringing in a disruptive way of operating. Even though the setup cost of "containerization" is high McLean is able to foresee the advantages a container might bring to the company and to the consumers by affecting long term prices. This also results in the reduction of the price of the goods in the long run which actually also results in globalization. Now smaller countries abundant in producing or manufacturing niche goods can make it available to anywhere in the world at very low prices. Through effective use of the containers McLean was able to gain a competitive advantage over his competitors and was able to facilitate just-in-time delivery of items to particular businesses which again resulted in the lowering of the costs of production of the goods. One of the recent innovations I can deeply relate to such a reading is my role in the previous organization where I was responsible for reducing project delivery times and I came up with an innovative solution to automate few manual processes. This certainly had a few repercussions on my team as our cycle times reduced we were now expected to undertake more projects and continually innovate which helped us operate in the leanest way possible.