CGF ARTICLES, OPINIONS & EDITORIALS
Staying ahead of change; Building and protecting future value (2011-11-09)
February 19,
2015 3714 3714 
Throughout the history of mankind, much has been said and written about change.
Notably the Greek philosopher, Herakleitos (C.535BC - 475BC) of Ephesus, is known to have been the earliest person to have pondered the implications of change; and others who followed his thinking, eventually coined the more modernised quote to suggest that, “the only constant in life, is change.”
Centuries later, Abraham Lincoln, who served as the President of the United States of America from 1861 until his assassination in 1865, certainly understood change. Lincoln said that he had grown to become a smarter person through change, and this was evident as he promoted economic and financial modernisation and ended slavery.
Since these early-day pioneers -- and advocates of change -- the technological and socio-economic advances made by man have increased in epic proportions, and there is still no end in sight as we forge ahead. Our modern world continues to place more and greater demands for, and upon this word called change. One must assume that this is done in order to remain relevant within an intricately woven, and fiercely competitive global economy. The fact that we are constantly driving for change, and that it has become so important to us, suggests that we also place incredible value to such change.
Even Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel® realised the need for staying ahead of technological change, and he did this to build future value for his organisation. His predictions in 1965 stated clearly that the number of transistors on a semiconductor chip would double about every two years. Indeed Moore’s technological (and economic) predictions for Intel® were exceeded. Moore and his partners -- Robert Noyce and Andrew Grove -- foresaw value in their microchip which they had developed, knowing the massive effect this device would have upon billions of people around the world, both then and in the future. As is often the case, most people would have, for example, missed the Intel® opportunity; and probably for many reasons. One reason may have been that the ordinary (or unsuspecting) person would not have had the vision to realise the future value of this small device, and would not have acted upon their gut feeling to build such a product, let alone protect their valuable idea.
Of course, times have changed and it is no longer true that value is only attached to an object such as the case with the Intel® microchip, or any other well-known or recognised products such Carl Benz's automobile with its famous encircled three-point star, or a BlackBerry®, or Apple® products for that matter. Nowadays, value is also attached to something which may be less tangible, such as a string of words. For example the slogan “Yebo gogo” has become iconic in South Africa and is attached to Vodacom’s full suite of products and services, which is protected with copyright. These products and services are the creative ideas of their founders, each who took personal and financial risks to invent and formulate their respective products and services to improve entire business markets, or segments thereof. Understandably, their efforts need to be protected; and the way in which these visionaries have protected their investment and distinguished their products and services, has been done through trademarks, registered and awaiting registration, and copyrights, denoted by the ™, ® and © symbols.
