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Newer, Faster, Better: The Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years

The Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years

In 1979, Visicalc, the first spreadsheet software was introduced, Sony rolled out the Walkman, and ESPN began broadcasting sporting events to cable TV companies. And Nightly Business Report debuted.

In the years between then and now, the world has seen a wealth of innovation... from black rotary phones to BlackBerrys.. from paper checks to ATM & debit cards.. from rooms filled with bulky, mainframe computers to PC's that fit in a pocket.. Finding newer, faster and better ways to do things has changed lives around the world, and changed the way business is done.

In a joint project, Nightly Business Report and Knowledge@Wharton, the online research and business analysis journal of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, will examine the 30 most important innovations of the last 30 years in a special series of stories, and a half hour special... to mark the 30th anniversary of the PBS program.

The Top 30 innovations were announced on February 16, 2009.

Help Select the Top 30 Innovations

Nightly Business Report and Knowledge@Wharton invite you, our viewers and readers, to recommend what you believe to be the top 30 innovations of the past 30 years.

The deadline for receiving your recommendations is Sept. 15, 2008.

Based on your recommendations, a panel of judges from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania will select the top 30 innovations - and also the most significant innovation of the past 30 years. The judges will make their selections based on the following criteria:

  • Did it improve quality of life, having a direct and/or material effect on quality of life?
  • Did it address a compelling need? solve a compelling problem?
  • Was it a fresh breakthrough with a "wow" factor?
  • Did it change the way business is conducted?
  • Did it increase the efficiency of how resources are used?
  • Did it spark an ongoing stream of new innovations on top of the original innovation?
  • Did it lead to the creation of a vast, new industry?

Wharton judges

  • Franklin Allen, co-director, Wharton Financial Institutions Center
  • Thomas Colligan, Vice Dean, Wharton Executive Education
  • George Day, co-director, Mack Center for Technological Innovation
  • Ian MacMillan, director, Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Research Center
  • Mukul Pandya, editor in chief, Knowledge@Wharton
  • Lori Rosenkopf, professor, Management Department,
  • Karl Ulrich, chair, Operations and Information Management Department
  • Kevin Werbach, professor, Legal Studies and Business Ethics Department

Lasting Leadership

The partnership on identifying the 30 most important innovations of the past 30 years represents the second major collaboration between Knowledge@Wharton and Nightly Business Report. Five years ago, to mark NBR's 25th anniversary, the two organizations partnered to identify the 25 most influential business leaders of the past 25 years. The results were published in a book titled, Lasting Leadership: What You Can Learn from the Top 25 Business People of Our Times.

Reminder: The deadline for receiving your recommendations is Sept. 15, 2008.

Nightly Business Report

Each weeknight for almost three decades, Nightly Business Report has been providing its viewers with accurate, concise, and analytical coverage of business and financial news. The program has been honored with numerous national reporting awards, and graced by U.S. Presidents and CEO's alike. NBR has reported from around the world, at venues as varied as China, India, Vietnam, South Africa, Cuba, Mexico, Russia, France and Switzerland. To mark our continuing commitment to the finest in television business news, Nightly Business Report will celebrate its 30th anniversary January 22nd, 2009, by ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Nationally underwritten by Franklin Templeton Investments and ExxonMobil, Nightly Business Report is distributed by PBS live to public television stations at 6:30pm EST every weeknight. Local broadcast times vary.

Knowledge@Wharton

Knowledge@Wharton (http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu) is an award-winning online journal. Launched in 1999 to disseminate knowledge about business from Wharton and other sources, Knowledge@Wharton has evolved into a network of web-based publications that appears every other week in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese. An Indian edition was launched in 2006. The Knowledge@Wharton Network of sites has more than 1.2 million registered users worldwide.