Innovation in a Reinvented World: 10 Essential Elements to Succeed in the New World of Business

Industry Snapshot: Transportation—Airlines, Rails, and Automobiles

Our country is sorely behind the rest of the world in implementing the transportation ecosystem that America requires in the twenty-first century. The United States invests at most 2.5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on infrastructure compared with China, which invests at the rate of 9 percent to 12 percent of its GDP, and we find ourselves in 27th place among 36 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations.

Our growing population paints a picture of a strained infrastructure in the not so distant future—in 2010 the U.S. population reached 308 million people. Imagine for a moment what the Internet of things will look like with the prospect of a trillion connected objects: cars, cameras, roadways, pipelines, and even livestock and pharmaceuticals. Then think about the movement and interaction of all those things.

No doubt intelligent systems will be needed to manage America's needs just in this century to augment our shrinking labor force and aging population. Working smarter, not harder, is imperative for the United States.

The old world of business with its disconnected system of vehicles, pathways, and terminals will not get us to where we need to be in the next decade. A mature society that expects to compete in a global economy, where our planet is becoming smarter and faster every day, must put its reinvention of the transportation industry in overdrive just to keep up with ...