Download

Peter Lee

Michael Alsford

Charles J Armitage

Eric G Lee

Adam Spielman

Edward L Morse

Thomas A Singlehurst

Ronit Ghose

P.J. Juvekar

Yigal Nochomovitz

Stephen Trent

Pavan Daswani

Francesco Martoccia

Eric B Petrie

Andrew Baum

Neena Bitritto-Garg

Kaseedit Choonnawat

Scott Gruber

Wendy Nicholson

Adam Phillips

Peter Verdult

Jelena Zec

In our new report, the eighth in our Disruptive Innovations series, we once again look at some of the leading-edge concepts across sectors and identify new products which could ultimately disrupt their marketplace. A few of the “new” concepts may not seem quite that new — e.g., alternative proteins and psychedelic drugs — but new technology and increased acceptance could make them game changers. Psychedelic drugs have been around in various forms since the 1950s, and despite promise at the time, regulation kept the class of drugs on the sideline. Today, their benefits are being explored in conditions such as treatment-resistant depression and anxiety. Plant-based alternative proteins are already changing the traditional “meat” households put on the dinner table, but new lab-grown cultured meat, with better taste and a eventually lower price, could become the next alternative protein. Sustainable innovation remains a big focus not only for governments, corporates, and investors, but also innovation. The battle on climate change has continued in earnest and the need to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has become even more of a global priority. Removing carbon dioxide for the benefit of the planet is explored in three ways: (1) nature-based solutions, including afforestation and reforestation; (2) enhanced natural processes, including land management and bioengineered plants; and (3) direct air capture (DAC) — the “alchemy of air,” where machines capture carbon dioxide straight out of the atmosphere. In past issues, we’ve explored innovations in green transportation, including hydrogen-powered rail, autonomous vehicle networks, hyperloop, and electric vehicles. This year we look at the use of ammonia as a fuel in jet engines. Although hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuels are further along as potential renewables solutions, most jet engines can be retrofitted to use ammonia, it is easily storable, and there is already an ecosystem for production and distribution in place. Finally, we explore how to close the recycling loop using de-polymerization methods that will avoid plastic waste filling our landfills. 2021 has been a great year for innovation in healthcare. mRNA was largely unproven in 2020 despite decades of scientific research, but today has become one of the most powerful weapons against the pandemic. Given the rapid proof-of-concept for mRNA vaccines during COVID-19, we now know that mRNA can produce highly effective and safe vaccines — and COVID-19 vaccines could be just the tip of the iceberg. Finally, a report on disruptive innovations wouldn’t be complete without looking at some new technology. The introduction and increasing popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) coupled with the transition of retail into the metaverse highlights the blending of fintech with both consumer and gaming. Semiconductor manufacturing is on the verge of transforming from two-dimensional to three-dimensional architecture, which could increase the speed of chips by five-fold. And artificial intelligence could be coming to your next flight, protecting both your health and your safety. Authors: Charles J Armitage,Andrew Baum, MD,Pavan Daswani,Ronit Ghose, CFA,P.J. Juvekar,Peter Lee,Eric G Lee,Francesco Martoccia,Edward L Morse,Yigal Nochomovitz, Ph.D.,Eric B Petrie,Thomas A Singlehurst, CFA,Stephen Trent,Michael Alsford,Neena Bitritto-Garg,Kaseedit Choonnawat,Scott Gruber,Wendy Nicholson,Adam Phillips,Peter Verdult, CFA,Jelena Zec,Adam Spielman,

<h3 class="">In our new report, the eighth in our Disruptive Innovations series, we once again look at some of the leading-edge concepts across sectors and identify new products which could ultimately disrupt their marketplace.&nbsp;</h3>
<h3 class="">A few of the &ldquo;new&rdquo; concepts may not seem quite that new &mdash; e.g., alternative proteins and psychedelic drugs &mdash; but new technology and increased acceptance could make them game changers. Psychedelic drugs have been around in various forms since the 1950s, and despite promise at the time, regulation kept the class of drugs on the sideline. Today, their benefits are being explored in conditions such as treatment-resistant depression and anxiety. Plant-based alternative proteins are already changing the traditional &ldquo;meat&rdquo; households put on the dinner table, but new lab-grown cultured meat, with better taste and a eventually lower price, could become the next alternative protein.</h3>
<p>Sustainable innovation remains a big focus not only for governments, corporates, and investors, but also innovation. The battle on climate change has continued in earnest and the need to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has become even more of a global priority. Removing carbon dioxide for the benefit of the planet is explored in three ways: (1) nature-based solutions, including afforestation and reforestation; (2) enhanced natural processes, including land management and bioengineered plants; and (3) direct air capture (DAC) &mdash; the &ldquo;alchemy of air,&rdquo; where machines capture carbon dioxide straight out of the atmosphere. In past issues, we&rsquo;ve explored innovations in green transportation, including hydrogen-powered rail, autonomous vehicle networks, hyperloop, and electric vehicles. This year we look at the use of ammonia as a fuel in jet engines. Although hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuels are further along as potential renewables solutions, most jet engines can be retrofitted to use ammonia, it is easily storable, and there is already an ecosystem for production and distribution in place. Finally, we explore how to close the recycling loop using&nbsp; de-polymerization methods that will avoid plastic waste filling our landfills.<br /><br />2021 has been a great year for innovation in healthcare. mRNA was largely unproven in 2020 despite decades of scientific research, but today has become one of the most powerful weapons against the pandemic. Given the rapid proof-of-concept for mRNA vaccines during COVID-19, we now know that mRNA can produce highly effective and safe vaccines &mdash; and COVID-19 vaccines could be just the tip of the iceberg.<br /><br />Finally, a report on disruptive innovations wouldn&rsquo;t be complete without looking at some new technology. The introduction and increasing popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) coupled with the transition of retail into the metaverse highlights the blending of fintech with both consumer and gaming. Semiconductor manufacturing is on the verge of transforming from two-dimensional to three-dimensional architecture, which could increase the speed of chips by five-fold. And artificial intelligence could be coming to your next flight, protecting both your health and your safety.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://ir.citi.com/gps/OwmPShSV11fK15bk9oC85KYeZpleZbMdK5yJy1aulpmcczI2SI6SLyN2A8aYIxvk9zBIGl0%2faco%3d" width="800" height="600"></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: Charles J Armitage,Andrew Baum, MD,Pavan Daswani,Ronit Ghose, CFA,P.J. Juvekar,Peter Lee,Eric G Lee,Francesco Martoccia,Edward L Morse,Yigal Nochomovitz, Ph.D.,Eric B Petrie,Thomas A Singlehurst, CFA,Stephen Trent,Michael Alsford,Neena Bitritto-Garg,Kaseedit Choonnawat,Scott Gruber,Wendy Nicholson,Adam Phillips,Peter Verdult, CFA,Jelena Zec,Adam Spielman,</span></p>

Our eighth edition of the Disruptive Innovations series, looks at ten new innovations we believe are gaining momentum and should be watched.

Disruptive Innovations VIII - CitiGPS

Ten More Things to Stop and Think About

In our new report, the eighth in our Disruptive Innovations series, we once again look at some of the leading-edge concepts across sectors and identify new products which could ultimately disrupt their marketplace. 

Disruptive Innovations VIII

Anthony Yuen

Martin Wilkie

Arthur Lai

Thomas P Wrigglesworth

Elise Badoy

Adam G Cochrane

Joel Beatty

Cedric Besnard

David Bieber

Shawn M Egan

Charles Greig

Chris Ma

Nobuyoshi Miura

In healthcare, we once again are spoiled for choice in terms of the ideas and concepts that are quickly coming down the pike. Robotic surgery makes up just 2% of all surgical procedures currently, but with advancements in visualization and robotics, this looks set to accelerate to almost 15% by 2030. Virtual healthcare is just starting to gain a foothold with the advent of telehealth, but going forward, we see it expanding to broader technology-enabled healthcare, spanning from urgent care all the way to chronic condition management and remote surgery — effectively replacing the four walls of a hospital with the patients’ home. Gene therapies, which are increasingly being reviewed and approved by regulators have the potential to make untreatable diseases treatable, eliminate some currently treated disease markets, transform the drug payer system, and increase the rate of drug development. Finally, we investigate the benefits and challenges of using probiotics as preventative medicine and an alternative to immune-related drug therapies There is also a focus on sustainable innovation. Outside of simply emitting less carbon dioxide, we find carbon dioxide removal technology, such as carbon capture and storage/sequestration could be on the near horizon along with carbon pricing. Hydrogen-powered rail could be an indirect renewable energy story as hydrogen-powered trains, using fuel cells, have zero emissions at the point of use and don’t require an upgrade to track infrastructure. We also look at new technology initiatives to increase the quality of recycled fibers in order to offset the use of virgin materials in clothing manufacturing and the role that Digital Agriculture can play in ensuring not only cost savings for farmers through increased efficiency, but also as a sustainable solution to increase food yields in order to feed a growing population. Authors: Elise Badoy, CFA,Joel Beatty, MD, CFA,Cedric Besnard,David Bieber,Adam G Cochrane,Shawn M Egan, Ph.D.,Charles Greig, CFA,Arthur Lai,Eric G Lee,Chris Ma,Francesco Martoccia,Nobuyoshi Miura,Edward L Morse,Martin Wilkie,Thomas P Wrigglesworth,Anthony Yuen,

<p class="CIRBodyText">In healthcare, we once again are spoiled for choice in terms of the ideas and concepts that are quickly coming down the pike. Robotic surgery makes up just 2% of all surgical procedures currently, but with advancements in visualization and robotics, this looks set to accelerate to almost 15% by 2030. Virtual healthcare is just starting to gain a foothold with the advent of telehealth, but going forward, we see it expanding to broader technology-enabled healthcare, spanning from urgent care all the way to chronic condition management and remote surgery &mdash; effectively replacing the four walls of a hospital with the patients&rsquo; home. Gene therapies, which are increasingly being reviewed and approved by regulators have the potential to make untreatable diseases treatable, eliminate some currently treated disease markets, transform the drug payer system, and increase the rate of drug development. Finally, we investigate the benefits and challenges of using probiotics as preventative medicine and an alternative to immune-related drug therapies</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p class="CIRBodyText">There is also a focus on sustainable innovation. Outside of simply emitting less carbon dioxide, we find carbon dioxide removal technology, such as carbon capture and storage/sequestration could be on the near horizon along with carbon pricing. Hydrogen-powered rail could be an indirect renewable energy story as hydrogen-powered trains, using fuel cells, have zero emissions at the point of use and don&rsquo;t require an upgrade to track infrastructure. We also look at new technology initiatives to increase the quality of recycled fibers in order to offset the use of virgin materials in clothing manufacturing and the role that Digital Agriculture can play in ensuring not only cost savings for farmers through increased efficiency, but also as a sustainable solution to increase food yields in order to feed a growing population.</p>
<p><br /><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: Elise Badoy, CFA,Joel Beatty, MD, CFA,Cedric Besnard,David Bieber,Adam G Cochrane,Shawn M Egan, Ph.D.,Charles Greig, CFA,Arthur Lai,Eric G Lee,Chris Ma,Francesco Martoccia,Nobuyoshi Miura,Edward L Morse,Martin Wilkie,Thomas P Wrigglesworth,Anthony Yuen,</span></p>

In our new report, the seventh in our Disruptive Innovations series, we once again look at some of the leading-edge concepts across sectors and identify new products that could ultimately disrupt the marketplace. This year again, there are a few concepts that have been around for quite a while — nuclear fusion and quantum computing — which have required a technological breakthrough to become reality. With nuclear fusion, we note there has been talk of a solution in the ‘next 20 years’ for about the past 50 years, but interest in the topic has recently peaked again with the increased global focus on renewable energy and the concept is only one small breakthrough away from becoming reality. Quantum computing is another subject talked about as perpetually on the horizon, but progress is accelerating here and we think that we could be close to a tipping point in technology in the near future.

Disruptive Innovations VII

Itay Michaeli

Walter H Pritchard

Andrew S Baum

Mark May

Jim Suva

William R Katz

Haley A Tam

Robert Garlick

James Ainley

Peter Chalif

Kota Ezawa

Jorge Ruiz

Christian Wetherbee

In this new report, Disruptive Innovations III, we once again take a look at some of the newest concepts across sectors and identify new products which could potentially disrupt the marketplace. What stands out in the report this year is the size of the expected market opportunities for each product. In financial innovations alone, a combination of marketplace banking (peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding) and Robo-Advisors touch a total addressable market of over $5.3 trillion. Autonomous driving along with the overall sharing economy could jointly be a $435 billion opportunity by 2030. Also different this time is the increasing synergies between the different innovations. Driverless vehicles that facilitate “robotic taxis” should also enhance the sharing economy through companies such as Uber and Lyft. Virtual competitions designed to accelerate the pace of digital banking innovation, such as the Citi Mobile Challenge, wouldn’t be possible without the availability of public application program interfaces (APIs). As it continues to improve, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (MLAI) is increasingly disruptive through direct impact and as a building block for other innovative technologies. The use and impact of MLAI can be seen as a factor in most of our highlighted innovations. Autonomous driving, a topic we covered in detail in Car of the Future v2.0, is moving from concept to reality with 2020 now forecast as the start of the ‘driverless era’. Drones, initially used by the military, could soon be the preferred delivery method for small packages and the primary way we take pictures at family barbeques. Virtual and augmented reality has progressed to the point that computer games will soon behave more like the holodeck in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Even in places where we’ve already highlighted disruptive innovations, we’re seeing disruption being disrupted. Immunotherapy manufacturers, which we highlighted as disrupting the pharmaceutical market last year through targeted cancer treatments, are now being disrupted themselves with the advent of generic competition through biosimilars. Fracking in the gas industry was one of the biggest disruptive innovations in the energy sector as it opened up commercial opportunities for shale oil and gas reserves that the industry had known about for decades but had not bothered to pursue. In this report we look at Floating LNG, which has the potential to repeat this for stranded gas reserves. Authors: James Ainley,Andrew S Baum,Peter Chalif,Kota Ezawa,Robert Garlick,William R Katz,Mark May,Itay Michaeli,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Jorge Ruiz,Jim Suva, CPA,Haley A Tam, CFA,Christian Wetherbee,Authors: James Ainley,Andrew S Baum,Peter Chalif,Kota Ezawa,Robert Garlick,William R Katz,Mark May,Itay Michaeli,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Jorge Ruiz,Jim Suva, CPA,Haley A Tam, CFA,Christian Wetherbee,Authors: James Ainley,Andrew S Baum,Peter Chalif,Kota Ezawa,Robert Garlick,William R Katz,Mark May,Itay Michaeli,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Jorge Ruiz,Jim Suva, CPA,Haley A Tam, CFA,Christian Wetherbee,Authors: James Ainley,Andrew S Baum,Peter Chalif,Kota Ezawa,Robert Garlick,William R Katz,Mark May,Itay Michaeli,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Jorge Ruiz,Jim Suva, CPA,Haley A Tam, CFA,Christian Wetherbee,

<p>In this new report, Disruptive Innovations III, we once again take a look at some of the newest concepts across sectors and identify new products which could potentially disrupt the marketplace. What stands out in the report this year is the size of the expected market opportunities for each product. In financial innovations alone, a combination of marketplace banking (peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding) and Robo-Advisors touch a total addressable market of over $5.3 trillion. Autonomous driving along with the overall sharing economy could jointly be a $435 billion opportunity by 2030.<br /><br />Also different this time is the increasing synergies between the different innovations. Driverless vehicles that facilitate &ldquo;robotic taxis&rdquo; should also enhance the sharing economy through companies such as Uber and Lyft. Virtual competitions designed to accelerate the pace of digital banking innovation, such as the Citi Mobile Challenge, wouldn&rsquo;t be possible without the availability of public application program interfaces (APIs). As it continues to improve, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (MLAI) is increasingly disruptive through direct impact and as a building block for other innovative technologies. The use and impact of MLAI can be seen as a factor in most of our highlighted innovations.<br /><br />Autonomous driving, a topic we covered in detail in<strong> <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://ir.citi.com/kTV1i1epgd3LAMr0SU8T2D4PrfGFRhpD2vwew4c7HpGLWHvDqoLk42OZn%2FKLKRrENEECmzMEPhU%3D">Car of the Future v2.0</a>,</strong> is moving from concept to reality with 2020 now forecast as the start of the &lsquo;driverless era&rsquo;. Drones, initially used by the military, could soon be the preferred delivery method for small packages and the primary way we take pictures at family barbeques. Virtual and augmented reality has progressed to the point that computer games will soon behave more like the holodeck in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Even in places where we&rsquo;ve already highlighted disruptive innovations, we&rsquo;re seeing disruption being disrupted. Immunotherapy manufacturers, which we highlighted as disrupting the pharmaceutical market last year through targeted cancer treatments, are now being disrupted themselves with the advent of generic competition through biosimilars. Fracking in the gas industry was one of the biggest disruptive innovations in the energy sector as it opened up commercial opportunities for shale oil and gas reserves that the industry had known about for decades but had not bothered to pursue. In this report we look at Floating LNG, which has the potential to repeat this for stranded gas reserves.<br /><br /><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: James Ainley,Andrew S Baum,Peter Chalif,Kota Ezawa,Robert Garlick,William R Katz,Mark May,Itay Michaeli,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Jorge Ruiz,Jim Suva, CPA,Haley A Tam, CFA,Christian Wetherbee,</span><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: James Ainley,Andrew S Baum,Peter Chalif,Kota Ezawa,Robert Garlick,William R Katz,Mark May,Itay Michaeli,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Jorge Ruiz,Jim Suva, CPA,Haley A Tam, CFA,Christian Wetherbee,</span><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: James Ainley,Andrew S Baum,Peter Chalif,Kota Ezawa,Robert Garlick,William R Katz,Mark May,Itay Michaeli,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Jorge Ruiz,Jim Suva, CPA,Haley A Tam, CFA,Christian Wetherbee,</span><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: James Ainley,Andrew S Baum,Peter Chalif,Kota Ezawa,Robert Garlick,William R Katz,Mark May,Itay Michaeli,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Jorge Ruiz,Jim Suva, CPA,Haley A Tam, CFA,Christian Wetherbee,</span></p>

Two years ago we published our first Disruptive Innovations report hoping it would be a fun and interesting look at some of the new technologies that were around the corner. At the time, there was also a growing debate surfacing over the lack of economic growth in the U.S. and whether it was due to a lack of innovation. We disagreed then that there was a lack of innovation and two years down the road we stick with our position. We see the pace of technological change accelerating as we move into a new Digital Age, helped by the continued decline in the cost of innovation coupled with increased interest in funding innovation.

Disruptive Innovations III

Vanessa Colella

Arifumi Yoshida

Dalibor Vavruska

Michael Rollins

Atif Malik

Ji Cheong

Roger Ashworth

Ross Barrows

Stephanie J Demko

Adam Ilkowitz

Asiya Merchant

Amanda Scarnati

Samantha Semenkow

Vanessa Colella, Chief Innovation Officer at Citi, writes that innovation isn’t always instantaneous: The hardest challenges to identify and react to are the ones that arise slowly. Large-scale societal, economic, and technological trends that emerge gradually and continuously over time are easily overlooked, but in reality it is these trends that can create the biggest impact. Tracking slow change, she notes, by asking which trends are impacting businesses and clients in ways that are both accelerating and irreversible can help to create improved systems that reduce friction or shift society in such a way that returning to the old practices seems inconceivable. In this new report, we once again look at some of the leading-edge concepts across sectors and identify new products that could ultimately disrupt the marketplace. One notable point is that a number of the concepts we look at have actually been around for a while — all-solid-state batteries, anti-aging medicines, eSports and offshore wind turbines — but something has changed in each of them, such that we’re now at a tipping point of accelerated adoption. Telecoms take a spotlight this year with two new concepts: 5G and Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA). 5G technology has been under discussion for the past five years, and although unlikely to show major improvements in consumer smartphones, we see huge potential in commercial and industrial areas such as connected & autonomous vehicles, smart manufacturing, digital health, and smart cities. DSA works in conjunction with this by disrupting the model currently used for wireless spectrum allocation. In healthcare, the search for the fountain of youth goes back hundreds of years, and attempts by modern medicine have historically failed. But today, there is a new breakthrough in the understanding of why we age could lead to novel drugs on the market by 2023. Healthcare data — the result of electronic health-record legislation in 2009 — is growing by leaps and bounds, and new tools like artificial intelligence, machine-learning and natural language-processing will help drive data utilization and lower healthcare costs. Autonomous vehicles (AV) could be available in the mid-2020s and create new ways to use cars, with RoboTaxi driverless car services and AV Subscription ownership, while the development of all-solid-state batteries could accelerate the uptake of battery electric vehicles. eSports could eclipse traditional league sports for viewership and sponsorship, wind generation uptake can be accelerated by the use of floating wind-turbines in deep waters, buying and selling a house can be transformed with FinTech solutions, and smart assistants could be the primary interaction with data queries in the near future. Hope you can avoid the acceleration and slow down to read the report.

<div id="page-wrapper">
<div id="page">
<div id="main-wrapper" class="clearfix">
<div id="main" class="clearfix">
<div id="content" class="column">
<div class="section">
<div class="region region-content">
<div id="block-system-main" class="block block-system">
<div class="content">
<div id="node-6923" class="node node-gps-report node-unpublished node-full clearfix">
<div class="content clearfix">
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-above">
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item even">Vanessa Colella, Chief Innovation Officer at Citi, writes that innovation isn&rsquo;t always instantaneous: The hardest challenges to identify and react to are the ones that arise slowly. Large-scale societal, economic, and technological trends that emerge gradually and continuously over time are easily overlooked, but in reality it is these trends that can create the biggest impact. Tracking slow change, she notes, by asking which trends are impacting businesses and clients in ways that are both accelerating and irreversible can help to create improved systems that reduce friction or shift society in such a way that returning to the old practices seems inconceivable.<br /><br />In this new report, we once again look at some of the leading-edge concepts across sectors and identify new products that could ultimately disrupt the marketplace. One notable point is that a number of the concepts we look at have actually been around for a while &mdash; all-solid-state batteries, anti-aging medicines, eSports and offshore wind turbines &mdash; but something has changed in each of them, such that we&rsquo;re now at a tipping point of accelerated adoption. Telecoms take a spotlight this year with two new concepts: 5G and Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA). 5G technology has been under discussion for the past five years, and although unlikely to show major improvements in consumer smartphones, we see huge potential in commercial and industrial areas such as connected &amp; autonomous vehicles, smart manufacturing, digital health, and smart cities. DSA works in conjunction with this by disrupting the model currently used for wireless spectrum allocation.<br /><br />In healthcare, the search for the fountain of youth goes back hundreds of years, and attempts by modern medicine have historically failed. But today, there is a new breakthrough in the understanding of why we age could lead to novel drugs on the market by 2023. Healthcare data &mdash; the result of electronic health-record legislation in 2009 &mdash; is growing by leaps and bounds, and new tools like artificial intelligence, machine-learning and natural language-processing will help drive data utilization and lower healthcare costs.<br /><br />Autonomous vehicles (AV) could be available in the mid-2020s and create new ways to use cars, with RoboTaxi driverless car services and AV Subscription ownership, while the development of all-solid-state batteries could accelerate the uptake of battery electric vehicles. eSports could eclipse traditional league sports for viewership and sponsorship, wind generation uptake can be accelerated by the use of floating wind-turbines in deep waters, buying and selling a house can be transformed with FinTech solutions, and smart assistants could be the primary interaction with data queries in the near future.<br /><br />Hope you can avoid the acceleration and slow down to read the report.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

When we think about innovation and the change that it brings about, there is a tendency to say things like ‘it seems to have come out of nowhere’ or ‘it happened in a heartbeat.’ The same can be said about fads. On a Monday you’ve never heard of a Click Clack, a Pet Rock, a Furby, or a Fidget Spinner, but by what seems like the lunchtime, you can’t turn a corner or walk past a school playground without seeing them everywhere. Innovation has the same feeling as a fad — we go from not thinking we need a mobile phone to not being able to leave the house without it. Over the past few years, it feels like this technological change is accelerating. But is it?

Disruptive Innovations VI

Robert Buckland

Ashwin Shirvaikar

Graeme McDonald

Adriana Knatchbull-Hugessen

Daniel Arias

Nathan Furr

Praful Mehta

Imagine going to the doctor and having a routine blood test that can scan your body for cancer tumors. Or being told that your child was born with a genetic disease but then finding out it can be ‘cured’ by injecting a virus which can edit the defective gene. Both of those things are possible in the near future with the advent of liquid biopsy techniques and CRISPR-based gene editing. In transportation, robotic piloting in commercial jets could mean that your flight is unmanned and that the days of your plane being delayed because the pilot is stuck in traffic on the way to the airport are long gone. Or maybe you don’t want to take that short-haul flight at all, and instead could jump into a Hyperloop pod that shoots you 700mph in a vacuum tube to your destination. Artificial intelligence-piloted planes and Hyperloop systems could be the driver of new transportation modes. In financials, it seems like there are new breakthroughs in FinTech almost every day. The same is true for Internet of Things (IoT) where a positive environment is emerging as the number of connected devices is increasing and high-speed bandwidth is being widely deployed. We look at how adding a payments layer to any IoT construct helps the proliferation and monetization of IoT use cases. Blockchain — primarily known as the basis for cryptocurrency — could soon be used to change how we trade physical commodities, but also how our local electricity market operates. And in an attempt to take back share from passive managers, active investment managers are disrupting their pricing models by considering a performance-oriented fee structure. Robots designed to replace humans through the automation of factory floors has been a trend for a few years, but new developments in end-of-arm tools for robots which aim to mimic the function of the human hand could mean that we will see robots performing a new range of jobs and functions. On the flip side, new low-code development platforms are coming that will facilitate the rise of the “citizen developer” who can create software applications for the business world without the need of a traditional software developer and thereby bridge the gap between the supply of developers and the demand for application development. Finally, we look at the next generation of tobacco — Heat Not Burn tobacco — which gives the user the enjoyment of a traditional cigarette without the smell and harmful smoke. And we start it all off with a look at what big companies can do to transform themselves into innovators. We hope you find these ‘Ten More Things to Stop and Think About’ as exciting as we do. Authors: Daniel Arias,Robert Buckland,Nathan Furr,William R Katz,Adriana Knatchbull-Hugessen,Graeme McDonald,Praful Mehta,Edward L Morse,Yigal Nochomovitz, Ph.D.,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Ashwin Shirvaikar, CFA,Adam Spielman,Haley A Tam, CFA,Stephen Trent,Christian Wetherbee,Martin Wilkie,Anthony Yuen,Authors: Daniel Arias,Robert Buckland,Nathan Furr,William R Katz,Adriana Knatchbull-Hugessen,Graeme McDonald,Praful Mehta,Edward L Morse,Yigal Nochomovitz, Ph.D.,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Ashwin Shirvaikar, CFA,Adam Spielman,Haley A Tam, CFA,Stephen Trent,Christian Wetherbee,Martin Wilkie,Anthony Yuen,Authors: Daniel Arias,Robert Buckland,Nathan Furr,William R Katz,Adriana Knatchbull-Hugessen,Graeme McDonald,Praful Mehta,Edward L Morse,Yigal Nochomovitz, Ph.D.,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Ashwin Shirvaikar, CFA,Adam Spielman,Haley A Tam, CFA,Stephen Trent,Christian Wetherbee,Martin Wilkie,Anthony Yuen,Authors: Authors: Daniel Arias,Robert Buckland,Nathan Furr,William R Katz,Adriana Knatchbull-Hugessen,Graeme McDonald,Praful Mehta,Edward L Morse,Yigal Nochomovitz, Ph.D.,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Ashwin Shirvaikar, CFA,Adam Spielman,Haley A Tam, CFA,Stephen Trent,Christian Wetherbee,Martin Wilkie,Anthony Yuen,Authors: Daniel Arias,Robert Buckland,Nathan Furr,William R Katz,Adriana Knatchbull-Hugessen,Graeme McDonald,Praful Mehta,Edward L Morse,Yigal Nochomovitz, Ph.D.,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Ashwin Shirvaikar, CFA,Adam Spielman,Haley A Tam, CFA,Stephen Trent,Christian Wetherbee,Martin Wilkie,Anthony Yuen,

<p>Imagine going to the doctor and having a routine blood test that can scan your body for cancer tumors. Or being told that your child was born with a genetic disease but then finding out it can be &lsquo;cured&rsquo; by injecting a virus which can edit the defective gene. Both of those things are possible in the near future with the advent of liquid biopsy techniques and CRISPR-based gene editing.<br /><br />In transportation, robotic piloting in commercial jets could mean that your flight is unmanned and that the days of your plane being delayed because the pilot is stuck in traffic on the way to the airport are long gone. Or maybe you don&rsquo;t want to take that short-haul flight at all, and instead could jump into a Hyperloop pod that shoots you 700mph in a vacuum tube to your destination. Artificial intelligence-piloted planes and Hyperloop systems could be the driver of new transportation modes.<br /><br />In financials, it seems like there are new breakthroughs in FinTech almost every day. The same is true for Internet of Things (IoT) where a positive environment is emerging as the number of connected devices is increasing and high-speed bandwidth is being widely deployed. We look at how adding a payments layer to any IoT construct helps the proliferation and monetization of IoT use cases. Blockchain &mdash; primarily known as the basis for cryptocurrency &mdash; could soon be used to change how we trade physical commodities, but also how our local electricity market operates. And in an attempt to take back share from passive managers, active investment managers are disrupting their pricing models by considering a performance-oriented fee structure.<br /><br />Robots designed to replace humans through the automation of factory floors has been a trend for a few years, but new developments in end-of-arm tools for robots which aim to mimic the function of the human hand could mean that we will see robots performing a new range of jobs and functions. On the flip side, new low-code development platforms are coming that will facilitate the rise of the &ldquo;citizen developer&rdquo; who can create software applications for the business world without the need of a traditional software developer and thereby bridge the gap between the supply of developers and the demand for application development. Finally, we look at the next generation of tobacco &mdash; Heat Not Burn tobacco &mdash; which gives the user the enjoyment of a traditional cigarette without the smell and harmful smoke.<br /><br />And we start it all off with a look at what big companies can do to transform themselves into innovators. We hope you find these &lsquo;Ten More Things to Stop and Think About&rsquo; as exciting as we do.<br /><br /><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: Daniel Arias,Robert Buckland,Nathan Furr,William R Katz,Adriana Knatchbull-Hugessen,Graeme McDonald,Praful Mehta,Edward L Morse,Yigal Nochomovitz, Ph.D.,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Ashwin Shirvaikar, CFA,Adam Spielman,Haley A Tam, CFA,Stephen Trent,Christian Wetherbee,Martin Wilkie,Anthony Yuen,</span><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: Daniel Arias,Robert Buckland,Nathan Furr,William R Katz,Adriana Knatchbull-Hugessen,Graeme McDonald,Praful Mehta,Edward L Morse,Yigal Nochomovitz, Ph.D.,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Ashwin Shirvaikar, CFA,Adam Spielman,Haley A Tam, CFA,Stephen Trent,Christian Wetherbee,Martin Wilkie,Anthony Yuen,</span><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: Daniel Arias,Robert Buckland,Nathan Furr,William R Katz,Adriana Knatchbull-Hugessen,Graeme McDonald,Praful Mehta,Edward L Morse,Yigal Nochomovitz, Ph.D.,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Ashwin Shirvaikar, CFA,Adam Spielman,Haley A Tam, CFA,Stephen Trent,Christian Wetherbee,Martin Wilkie,Anthony Yuen,</span><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: </span><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: Daniel Arias,Robert Buckland,Nathan Furr,William R Katz,Adriana Knatchbull-Hugessen,Graeme McDonald,Praful Mehta,Edward L Morse,Yigal Nochomovitz, Ph.D.,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Ashwin Shirvaikar, CFA,Adam Spielman,Haley A Tam, CFA,Stephen Trent,Christian Wetherbee,Martin Wilkie,Anthony Yuen,</span><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: Daniel Arias,Robert Buckland,Nathan Furr,William R Katz,Adriana Knatchbull-Hugessen,Graeme McDonald,Praful Mehta,Edward L Morse,Yigal Nochomovitz, Ph.D.,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Ashwin Shirvaikar, CFA,Adam Spielman,Haley A Tam, CFA,Stephen Trent,Christian Wetherbee,Martin Wilkie,Anthony Yuen,</span></p>

As we worked this summer to start putting together our fifth edition in the Citi GPS Disruptive Innovations series, there was a concern that the entries we were receiving didn’t have that “wow” factor that we felt in prior years. So we re-thought and cast our net wider, and put a new slate together. But for some reason, we still couldn’t muster up a load of excitement. Mildly dejected, we started to speak to people outside of our circle and that’s when we had an ‘aha!’ moment and realized that over the years we had immersed ourselves in so many publications and websites that much like ‘innovation junkies’, it was taking more and more for us to get excited about things that could be disruptive and change the future. Looking at our list with new eyes — more like the ones we had when we started this series five years ago — we now have here what we think is thought-provoking and fantastic.

Disruptive Innovations V

Jason Channell

Erik J Bass

Todd Bault

Steven Englander

Simon Ho

Deborah Hopkins

Tsubasa Sasaki

Timothy Thein

Kenneth Wong

But disruption can be so much more than just a better way to listen to music. Disruptive innovation can be found in both products and processes — i.e. how we do something is just as disruptive to the status quo as the new technology that enables us to do it. Going back to the advent of the ATM machine, both the technology itself was disruptive, but so was the process — we no longer had to go to a bank to deposit a check or withdraw cash. In this same vein, mobile phones as a technology were disruptive to fixed telephony, but the ability to conduct banking transactions and to pay for goods and services over this new technology is a change in process that has disrupted many industries. In this new report, Disruptive Innovations II, we take a look at some new sectors where new products could potentially disrupt a market. Four of the ideas that we highlight are related to themes we introduced in our April 2013 report. Following up on personalized medicine, we analyze the $35 billion opportunity in immunotherapy which uses the patients’ immune system to fight cancer cells and has the potential to transform cancer from a deadly disease into a chronic disease akin to HIV. In technology, we progress from 3D printing to 4D printing by adding the dimension of self-assembly to a 3D printer-generated object. In solar technology, we note the recent rapid uptake of solar in Germany and Japan and how new technologies in energy storage are emerging that should remove more of the cost barriers for solar adoption and also reduce the cost of electric vehicles. Finally, in banking we expand our thoughts on mobile payments and look at how mobile payments have digitalized banking in general and raised financial inclusion, especially in emerging markets. There are also some different areas of innovation in this new report. Typically thought of as a sleepy industry, insurance wouldn’t normally be thought of as a place where you would find disruptive innovation. But the latest surge in insurance securitization through the issuance of insurance-linked securities (ILS) has disrupted the market and forced industry players to consider potentially radical changes to their existing strategies. The emergence of digital advertising could breathe life into an industry that was becoming commoditized while farmers are looking to new technologies to greatly enhance productivity in one of society’s oldest professions. Other innovations may change how we do basic things in the future: how we drive (possibly with electric vehicles), what we use for cash (digital currency) and who our colleagues are at work (maybe R2D2 and CP3O). Authors: Erik J Bass, CFA,Todd Bault, FCAS,Andrew S Baum,Jason Channell,Dr. Steven Englander, Phd,Ronit Ghose,Simon Ho, CFA,Deborah Hopkins,P.J. Juvekar,Mark May,Graeme McDonald,Itay Michaeli,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Tsubasa Sasaki, CFA,Thomas A Singlehurst, CFA,Timothy Thein, CFA,Kenneth Wong, CFA,Authors: Erik J Bass, CFA,Todd Bault, FCAS,Andrew S Baum,Jason Channell,Dr. Steven Englander, Phd,Ronit Ghose,Simon Ho, CFA,Deborah Hopkins,P.J. Juvekar,Mark May,Graeme McDonald,Itay Michaeli,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Tsubasa Sasaki, CFA,Thomas A Singlehurst, CFA,Timothy Thein, CFA,Kenneth Wong, CFA,Authors: Erik J Bass, CFA,Todd Bault, FCAS,Andrew S Baum,Jason Channell,Dr. Steven Englander, Phd,Ronit Ghose, CFA,Simon Ho, CFA,Deborah Hopkins,P.J. Juvekar,Mark May,Graeme McDonald,Itay Michaeli,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Tsubasa Sasaki, CFA,Thomas A Singlehurst, CFA,Timothy Thein, CFA,Kenneth Wong, CFA,Authors: Erik J Bass, CFA,Todd Bault, FCAS,Andrew S Baum,Jason Channell,Dr. Steven Englander, Phd,Ronit Ghose, CFA,Simon Ho, CFA,Deborah Hopkins,P.J. Juvekar,Mark May,Graeme McDonald,Itay Michaeli,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Tsubasa Sasaki, CFA,Thomas A Singlehurst, CFA,Timothy Thein, CFA,Kenneth Wong, CFA,

<p>But disruption can be so much more than just a better way to listen to music. Disruptive innovation can be found in both products and processes &mdash; i.e. how we do something is just as disruptive to the status quo as the new technology that enables us to do it. Going back to the advent of the ATM machine, both the technology itself was disruptive, but so was the process &mdash; we no longer had to go to a bank to deposit a check or withdraw cash. In this same vein, mobile phones as a technology were disruptive to fixed telephony, but the ability to conduct banking transactions and to pay for goods and services over this new technology is a change in process that has disrupted many industries.<br /><br />In this new report, Disruptive Innovations II, we take a look at some new sectors where new products could potentially disrupt a market. Four of the ideas that we highlight are related to themes we introduced in our April 2013 report. Following up on personalized medicine, we analyze the $35 billion opportunity in immunotherapy which uses the patients&rsquo; immune system to fight cancer cells and has the potential to transform cancer from a deadly disease into a chronic disease akin to HIV. In technology, we progress from 3D printing to 4D printing by adding the dimension of self-assembly to a 3D printer-generated object. In solar technology, we note the recent rapid uptake of solar in Germany and Japan and how new technologies in energy storage are emerging that should remove more of the cost barriers for solar adoption and also reduce the cost of electric vehicles. Finally, in banking we expand our thoughts on mobile payments and look at how mobile payments have digitalized banking in general and raised financial inclusion, especially in emerging markets.<br /><br />There are also some different areas of innovation in this new report. Typically thought of as a sleepy industry, insurance wouldn&rsquo;t normally be thought of as a place where you would find disruptive innovation. But the latest surge in insurance securitization through the issuance of insurance-linked securities (ILS) has disrupted the market and forced industry players to consider potentially radical changes to their existing strategies. The emergence of digital advertising could breathe life into an industry that was becoming commoditized while farmers are looking to new technologies to greatly enhance productivity in one of society&rsquo;s oldest professions. Other innovations may change how we do basic things in the future: how we drive (possibly with electric vehicles), what we use for cash (digital currency) and who our colleagues are at work (maybe R2D2 and CP3O).<br /><br /><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: Erik J Bass, CFA,Todd Bault, FCAS,Andrew S Baum,Jason Channell,Dr. Steven Englander, Phd,Ronit Ghose,Simon Ho, CFA,Deborah Hopkins,P.J. Juvekar,Mark May,Graeme McDonald,Itay Michaeli,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Tsubasa Sasaki, CFA,Thomas A Singlehurst, CFA,Timothy Thein, CFA,Kenneth Wong, CFA,</span><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: Erik J Bass, CFA,Todd Bault, FCAS,Andrew S Baum,Jason Channell,Dr. Steven Englander, Phd,Ronit Ghose,Simon Ho, CFA,Deborah Hopkins,P.J. Juvekar,Mark May,Graeme McDonald,Itay Michaeli,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Tsubasa Sasaki, CFA,Thomas A Singlehurst, CFA,Timothy Thein, CFA,Kenneth Wong, CFA,</span><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: Erik J Bass, CFA,Todd Bault, FCAS,Andrew S Baum,Jason Channell,Dr. Steven Englander, Phd,Ronit Ghose, CFA,Simon Ho, CFA,Deborah Hopkins,P.J. Juvekar,Mark May,Graeme McDonald,Itay Michaeli,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Tsubasa Sasaki, CFA,Thomas A Singlehurst, CFA,Timothy Thein, CFA,Kenneth Wong, CFA,</span><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: Erik J Bass, CFA,Todd Bault, FCAS,Andrew S Baum,Jason Channell,Dr. Steven Englander, Phd,Ronit Ghose, CFA,Simon Ho, CFA,Deborah Hopkins,P.J. Juvekar,Mark May,Graeme McDonald,Itay Michaeli,Walter H Pritchard, CFA,Tsubasa Sasaki, CFA,Thomas A Singlehurst, CFA,Timothy Thein, CFA,Kenneth Wong, CFA,</span></p>

Disruptive innovation is a term that was first coined in 1995 by Harvard Business School Professors Clayton Christensen and Joseph Bower and explains how “a market or sector is transformed by introducing simplicity, convenience, accessibility and affordability where complication and high cost are the status quo.” For the most part, when people think about disruptive innovation, technology is the first thing that comes to mind — smartphones, flat-screen TVs, MP3 players — things that have come on the market that have totally replaced products that we had and make us think “how did we ever live without this wonderful machine”.

Disruptive Innovations II

Jason B Bazinet

Elizabeth Curmi

Dennis Chan

Amit B Harchandani

Dan F Homan

One thing that’s different about my daily inbox over the past four years is that the informational emails are more and more filled with stories about disruptive innovation and even more excitingly, about the disruptive innovations that we’ve highlighted in past Citi GPS reports. Whether it be 3D printing, virtual reality gaming, immunotherapy or digital banking, disruption and accelerating technological change is increasingly part of our everyday conversation. So where is all of this innovation happening? With innovation clusters scattered throughout the world, in places like Silicon Valley, Boston, London, Stockholm, and China we wanted to see if there was a recipe for success that other regions could follow. In the first chapter of the report, we look at the factors affecting different regions and find that the majority of the successful clusters thrive in an open, global environment where knowledge sharing is at the core of their activities. In our new report, we once again look at some of the newest concepts across sectors and identify new products which could potentially disrupt the marketplace. Some of the concepts are familiar, i.e. big data, robotics and on-line retailing, but the application of these concepts is very different than in the past. Big data is playing a significant role in the energy sector and being used across the entire energy value-chain, from finding energy faster and producing it more inexpensively in the upstream, to more customized energy at the downstream user level. Robots are not just being built and utilized in the automotive industry, but are now being produced with open source software which will boost collaborative development and potentially shifts the use of robots in a much wider range of end markets. And in retail, beyond the shift from physical retail to online retail, we are now exploring direct-to-consumer marketplace for fashion where consumers can order direct from the manufacturer and bypass the retailer. Contextual Commerce is also changing the nature of e-commerce by introducing content and intent to the online experience and could lower the rate of online shopping cart abandonment. Immunotherapy was the newest disruptive treatment for cancer treatment but now epigenetics are being developed to increase the effectiveness of immunotherapy as well as become another tool in a doctor’s cancer toolbox. Doctor’s will also be helped by new delivery systems for the eye – next gen ocular drug delivery – which increase effectiveness of eye treatments and the ease of delivery. New innovations in smart box technology to create Home Hubs and innovations in screen materials that will allow mobile phones to move away from their current shape and potentially have no shape are both looked at in the pages that follow. Finally, we look at new advances in subsea pipes that will reduce the cost of deepwater drilling and new developments in wideband semiconductors which will increase performance with every smaller sized devices. Can’t wait for these to hit my inbox! Authors: Andrew S Baum,Jason B Bazinet,Dennis Chan,Elizabeth Curmi, PhD.,Amit B Harchandani,Dan F Homan,Arthur Lai,Graeme McDonald,Yigal Nochomovitz, Ph.D.,Michael Rollins, CFA,Ashwin Shirvaikar, CFA,Thomas A Singlehurst, CFA,Jim Suva, CPA,Martin Wilkie,Anthony Yuen,

<p>One thing that&rsquo;s different about my daily inbox over the past four years is that the informational emails are more and more filled with stories about disruptive innovation and even more excitingly, about the disruptive innovations that we&rsquo;ve highlighted in past Citi GPS reports. Whether it be 3D printing, virtual reality gaming, immunotherapy or digital banking, disruption and accelerating technological change is increasingly part of our everyday conversation.<br /><br />So where is all of this innovation happening? With innovation clusters scattered throughout the world, in places like Silicon Valley, Boston, London, Stockholm, and China we wanted to see if there was a recipe for success that other regions could follow. In the first chapter of the report, we look at the factors affecting different regions and find that the majority of the successful clusters thrive in an open, global environment where knowledge sharing is at the core of their activities.<br /><br />In our new report, we once again look at some of the newest concepts across sectors and identify new products which could potentially disrupt the marketplace. Some of the concepts are familiar, i.e. big data, robotics and on-line retailing, but the application of these concepts is very different than in the past. Big data is playing a significant role in the energy sector and being used across the entire energy value-chain, from finding energy faster and producing it more inexpensively in the upstream, to more customized energy at the downstream user level. Robots are not just being built and utilized in the automotive industry, but are now being produced with open source software which will boost collaborative development and potentially shifts the use of robots in a much wider range of end markets. And in retail, beyond the shift from physical retail to online retail, we are now exploring direct-to-consumer marketplace for fashion where consumers can order direct from the manufacturer and bypass the retailer. Contextual Commerce is also changing the nature of e-commerce by introducing content and intent to the online experience and could lower the rate of online shopping cart abandonment.<br /><br />Immunotherapy was the newest disruptive treatment for cancer treatment but now epigenetics are being developed to increase the effectiveness of immunotherapy as well as become another tool in a doctor&rsquo;s cancer toolbox. Doctor&rsquo;s will also be helped by new delivery systems for the eye &ndash; next gen ocular drug delivery &ndash; which increase effectiveness of eye treatments and the ease of delivery. New innovations in smart box technology to create Home Hubs and innovations in screen materials that will allow mobile phones to move away from their current shape and potentially have no shape are both looked at in the pages that follow. Finally, we look at new advances in subsea pipes that will reduce the cost of deepwater drilling and new developments in wideband semiconductors which will increase performance with every smaller sized devices.<br /><br />Can&rsquo;t wait for these to hit my inbox!<br /><br /><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: Andrew S Baum,Jason B Bazinet,Dennis Chan,Elizabeth Curmi, PhD.,Amit B Harchandani,Dan F Homan,Arthur Lai,Graeme McDonald,Yigal Nochomovitz, Ph.D.,Michael Rollins, CFA,Ashwin Shirvaikar, CFA,Thomas A Singlehurst, CFA,Jim Suva, CPA,Martin Wilkie,Anthony Yuen,</span></p>

Every morning my inbox is filled with a mixture of emails – request emails that require me to take action and informational emails to keep me up to date about what’s new in the world. My strategy with request emails is the same as my strategy playing tennis – when one comes into my court the best thing to do is to reply quickly and ‘get it back over the net’ into the senders court. But the information emails are different. Sometimes they’re read right away, sometimes they’re skimmed and deleted and sometimes they’re read and filed. Whatever happens to those emails, the information in them gets tucked somewhere in my brain.

Disruptive Innovations IV

<div class="columns small-12 medium-9 small-order-1 medium-order-2 video-description">
<h3>&nbsp;</h3>
<p><span class="authList" style="display: none;">Authors: </span></p>
</div>

A look at a “few things to stop and think about” from the latest report in the Citi GPS Disruptive Innovations report series.

Disruptive Innovation

What are the latest innovations in products and services that are going to change sectors and companies? Our Disruptive Innovation series takes a look at 10 new items each year that are poised to disrupt, as well as topics around disruption — from how to create cities that are innovative and how established companies can become innovation leaders, to whether innovation is happening faster or slower than thought.

Disruptive Innovation Series

Nitesh Agarwal

Soumava Banerjee

Arkady Gevorkyan

Ronit Ghose, CFA

Ronald Josey

Carly Kenselaar

Ryan Levine

Shreyas Madabushi

Ashiq Mubarack

Anthony Nemoto

Yigal Nochomovitz, Ph.D.

Michael Rollins, CFA

Thomas A Singlehurst, CFA

Adam Spielman 

Sameer S Thakur

We start by looking at the areas where innovation and financing are coming together through the amount of venture capital (VC) funding by theme. Although total growth in venture capital funding increased steadily between 2010 and 2020, investments roughly doubled in 2021 to $723 billion. Despite optimism these levels would continue, VC funding has pulled back in 2022. On the sustainability front, we continue to highlight innovations to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Vertical farming, where plants or crops are grown indoors in vertically stacked layers, use less water, fertilizer, and land than conventional farming, leading to lower emissions. The acceleration of automation capabilities in vertical farms has also improved its scalability and profitability. Advancements in sodium-ion batteries, which use sodium instead of metals such as lithium to generate charge, have lower material costs and lower supply chain pressures due to the abundance of sodium around the world than current battery technologies. These advantages could drive electric vehicle penetration rates. In terms of power generation, small modular nuclear reactors could be disruptive to global energy markets, stabilizing power prices and shifting incentives away from gas and coal power generation throughout the world. Innovations in technology can potentially change the way we shop, access the internet, organize not only data but corporate structures, gain education, and produce high-performing computers. Social commerce is transforming the way shoppers interact with merchandise but also how retailers inform their product roadmaps. Households and small businesses may soon be cutting their fixed broadband cords for wireless broadband access that can also expand the addressable market for broadband services. Upskilling through online professional learning, qualifications, and credentialing, could either disrupt universities or help them adapt to changes in learner preferences. From an organizational perspective, the introduction of blockchain-based decentralized autonomous organizations, which are collectively owned and governed with rules set and executed through smart contracts, could enable more individuals to collectively work for themselves through digital community ownership. Data fabric can be used in an organization to simplify access to data across different platforms and high-NA extreme ultraviolet lithography (high-NA EUV) es expected to lower costs and reduce complexity in the manufacture of semiconductors. Finally, in healthcare, allogeneic cell therapies, which source cells infused into a patient to treat or cure a disease from master cell banks instead of patients themselves, are must less invasive for the patient and can increase the availability of cell therapy.

<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.35; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; font-weight: 300; background-color: #ffffff;">We start by looking at the areas where innovation and financing are coming together through the amount of venture capital (VC) funding by theme. Although total growth in venture capital funding increased steadily between 2010 and 2020, investments roughly doubled in 2021 to $723 billion. Despite optimism these levels would continue, VC funding has pulled back in 2022.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.35; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; font-weight: 300; background-color: #ffffff;">On the sustainability front, we continue to highlight innovations to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Vertical farming, where plants or crops are grown indoors in vertically stacked layers, use less water, fertilizer, and land than conventional farming, leading to lower emissions. The acceleration of automation capabilities in vertical farms has also improved its scalability and profitability. Advancements in sodium-ion batteries, which use sodium instead of metals such as lithium to generate charge, have lower material costs and lower supply chain pressures due to the abundance of sodium around the world than current battery technologies. These advantages could drive electric vehicle penetration rates. In terms of power generation, small modular nuclear reactors could be disruptive to global energy markets, stabilizing power prices and shifting incentives away from gas and coal power generation throughout the world.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.35; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; font-weight: 300; background-color: #ffffff;">Innovations in technology can potentially change the way we shop, access the internet, organize not only data but corporate structures, gain education, and produce high-performing computers. Social commerce is transforming the way shoppers interact with merchandise but also how retailers inform their product roadmaps. Households and small businesses may soon be cutting their fixed broadband cords for wireless broadband access that can also expand the addressable market for broadband services. Upskilling through online professional learning, qualifications, and credentialing, could either disrupt universities or help them adapt to changes in learner preferences.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.35; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; font-weight: 300; background-color: #ffffff;">From an organizational perspective, the introduction of blockchain-based decentralized autonomous organizations, which are collectively owned and governed with rules set and executed through smart contracts, could enable more individuals to collectively work for themselves through digital community ownership. Data fabric can be used in an organization to simplify access to data across different platforms and high-NA extreme ultraviolet lithography (high-NA EUV) es expected to lower costs and reduce complexity in the manufacture of semiconductors.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.35; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; font-weight: 300; background-color: #ffffff;">Finally, in healthcare, allogeneic cell therapies, which source cells infused into a patient to treat or cure a disease from master cell banks instead of patients themselves, are must less invasive for the patient and can increase the availability of cell therapy.</p>

Speeding Into the Digital Future

We start by looking at the areas where innovation and financing are coming together through the amount of venture capital (VC) funding by theme. Although total growth in venture capital funding increased steadily between 2010 and 2020, investments roughly doubled in 2021 to $723 billion. Despite optimism these levels would continue, VC funding has pulled back in 2022. On the sustainability front, we continue to highlight innovations to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Vertical farming, where plants or crops are grown indoors in vertically stacked layers, use less water, fertilizer, and land than conventional farming, leading to lower emissions. The acceleration of automation capabilities in vertical farms has also improved its scalability and profitability. Advancements in sodium-ion batteries, which use sodium instead of metals such as lithium to generate charge, have lower material costs and lower supply chain pressures due to the abundance of sodium around the world than current battery technologies. These advantages could drive electric vehicle penetration rates. In terms of power generation, small modular nuclear reactors could be disruptive to global energy markets, stabilizing power prices and shifting incentives away from gas and coal power generation throughout the world. Innovations in technology can potentially change the way we shop, access the internet, organize not only data but corporate structures, gain education, and produce high-performing computers. Social commerce is transforming the way shoppers interact with merchandise but also how retailers inform their product roadmaps. Households and small businesses may soon be cutting their fixed broadband cords for wireless broadband access that can also expand the addressable market for broadband services. Upskilling through online professional learning, qualifications, and credentialing, could either disrupt universities or help them adapt to changes in learner preferences. From an organizational perspective, the introduction of blockchain-based decentralized autonomous organizations, which are collectively owned and governed with rules set and executed through smart contracts, could enable more individuals to collectively work for themselves through digital community ownership. Data fabric can be used in an organization to simplify access to data across different platforms and high-NA extreme ultraviolet lithography (high-NA EUV) es expected to lower costs and reduce complexity in the manufacture of semiconductors. Finally, in healthcare, allogeneic cell therapies, which source cells infused into a patient to treat or cure a disease from master cell banks instead of patients themselves, are must less invasive for the patient and can increase the availability of cell therapy. Speeding Into the Digital Future   Speeding Into the Digital Future    

In our new report, the ninth in our Disruptive Innovations series, we once again look at some of the leading-edge concepts across sectors and identify new products, which could ultimately disrupt their marketplace. A few of the “new” concepts are derivatives of innovations we have explored in the past. Technology-related concepts dominate the list this year and span across a range of sectors — from retail to and education to farming.

Disruptive Innovation Series

Keep Exploring CITI GPS Content

Sign up to receive the latest from Citi.