Disruptive Technologies

Sound in Movies:

The Jazz Singer introduced in 1927 was the first movie to have sound . It proved to be a game changer and a disruptive technology .It completely altered the lives of producers, actors and directors of the silent film industry. Some adapted and became successful in the sound era. Others were in denial mode and simply refused to believe in talking movies .

The most famous of them all Charlie Chaplin fought the change to the very end In 1931 he said in an interview that he would give the talking movies 6 months more. He probably was the only person who could make silent movies throughout the 1930s based on his enormous popularity. He also finally had to accept sound in his movie The Great Dictator of 1940.

Greta Garbo was another star who made the successful transition to sound by making her producers announce for her first talking movie that Garbo speaks.

There were others who did not make the transition at all. In silent movies actors didn't have any language problems. Those actors with language barriers did not make the transition to sound.

The next disruptive technology was color . Some black and white movie producers made the transition to color ; others were left behind.

The next transition could be actors being replaced by life like looking live sounding digital creations which could be possible through the wonders of digital technology. The movie Toy Story is an example of this . The cycle of disruptive technologies never ends.

The Shipping Industry:

Technology totally transformed the shipping industry in the time span of a decade. The development of containerization ,the development of standard ship building designs and refrigeration of transport ships totally changed the industry .

It totally changed the way ports handled cargo .

Some ports made the transition successfully others were left behind. Some tried to but did not succeed ,others remained in denial mode. The technological changes completely changed the ranking of ports. Singapore became the leading port in South-East Asia by incorporating the new technology, the port of Seattle became a leader in the handling of containers on the West Coast. The port of New York which did not have sufficient space for modernizing has been steadily losing money on the other hand. Ports which did not have the money or space converted these spaces into other things like malls or waterfront parks . In

short there were winners and losers .