The Project Implications of Technology Flywheels

Kevin Coleman is a highly skilled senior level project and program manager/advisor with experience leading projects with labor budgets ranging from a few hundred thousand dollars to multi-million dollar budgets across multiple industries.

  Innovation   Strategy  

When an emerging technology is presented to organizations, arguably the most common question that arises is, “What does it do for me?” While that is certainly a valid question, a far better question would be, “How can I use this technology?”

Those questions are sure to come up in the coming era of rapid technology advancement that we are about to enter. While we have experienced eras of rapid technological advancement before, this time it is much different. A fascinating aspect of this coming era is that it’s not being driven by a single technology--but many multiple technologies that support each other and are poised to enter the accelerated advancement phase of technology evolution during the same period of time.

Ever heard of a technology flywheel? If you haven’t, you are not alone. The definition of the traditional flywheel effect refers to a principal that states a continuation of movement after the stimulus has been removed. A very similar principal can be applied when multiple technologies enter the marketplace at the same time.

Figure 1: Technology Flywheel with two supporting technologies and two sub-supporting technologies.

Just as with the traditional principal, the technology flywheel is created as one or more separate technological advancements stimulate capabilities in another technological area--and that…

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