Container shipping: the greatest business innovation of the 20th Century?

I was totally caught up in BBC4’s The Box That Changed Britain - an absolute must for business and economics students.  This fantastic programme covered business costs, logistics, retail, business location, productive efficiency, human resource management, trade and globalisation.  Nearly everyone is busy at the moment with revision, but if you want a pause for thought (or a resource for debate after the exams) this is it.

And I’m hard pressed to think of any other innovation that has had such a significant impact on business in the last 50 years.  Ideas anyone?

Epic fail: how to do really badly [15 May 2012]
Technological change - manufacturing and innovation [20 Apr 2012]
Strategy - How Nokia was overtaken by Apple and Samsung [17 Apr 2012]
Revision Presentation - Business & the Technological Environment [9 Apr 2012]
Apple’s new CEO and a new iPad - A Change in Leadership [9 Mar 2012]
Start-ups - the Wooden Smartphone? [4 Mar 2012]
Pink bricks for girls?  Lego builds a new strategy [2 Mar 2012]
Ideas not Hierarchy Makes a Business - Steve Jobs on Teamwork & Culture [13 Feb 2012]
Innovation in Business - Perspectives from Stephen Elop (CEO of Nokia) [12 Feb 2012]
Product innovation - extending the humble cupcake [10 Feb 2012]
The history of Apple’s product innovation - in 30 seconds [10 Feb 2012]
Private equity buyouts - Sunday Times supplement [5 Feb 2012]
Success for the Daily Mail’s online strategy [30 Jan 2012]
Leadership - Howard Schultz on the importance of leading an innovative culture [29 Jan 2012]
Strategic choice: What should Apple do for its investors? [29 Jan 2012]
Technological change: 3-D printing promises a new industrial revolution [28 Jan 2012]
Technological change: now you can have your own factory! [28 Jan 2012]
External influences: the threat that is China [22 Jan 2012]
What’s gone wrong for Kodak? [19 Jan 2012]
Business size and the innovation debate [11 Jan 2012]
Revision Presentation - Innovation [2 Jan 2012]
Business Innovation - where do good ideas come from? [2 Jan 2012]
Investment in People - Google and Human Capital [26 Dec 2011]
A trip down memory lane for a great business studies resource [3 Nov 2011]
Technology and Business - Microsoft’s vision of the mobile future is astounding (video) [28 Oct 2011]
Strategy case study - does Microsoft have a long-term strategy? [21 Oct 2011]
How PepsiCo are trying to control diseconomies of scale [18 Oct 2011]
Pining for Success - Heston’s mince pie innovation [13 Oct 2011]
Ansoff and the Boston Matrix can’t help Kodak [6 Oct 2011]
Invention in a Bottle [28 Sep 2011]
Insights on invention from Trevor Bayliss [14 Sep 2011]
Can investment in R&D provide a competitive advantage? [31 Aug 2011]
Where there’s muck there’s brass [6 Jul 2011]
Innovation and Persistence holds the Key for King of Shaves [4 Jul 2011]
Evan Davis ‘Made in Britain’ - and a new trade data tool to play with [21 Jun 2011]
The Chocolate Business Angel’s Views on Entrepreneurs [21 Jun 2011]
Technology & innovation - extending the humble contact lense [9 Jun 2011]
Organic growth strategy - the benefits if firms “believe in better” [24 May 2011]
Jaguar goes for NPD investment with £5bn plan [10 May 2011]
Michael Porter - Shared Value and the Limitations of CSR [15 Feb 2011]
An idea that’s a lot of hot air…. [11 Jan 2011]
Innovation and ideas - what makes a successful business concept? [8 Jan 2011]
Video case study - Harris Tweed prospers through innovation and international expansion [29 Dec 2010]
Innovation and Invention - the Toy Story [23 Dec 2010]
Innovative ice breakers to fill a market gap [2 Dec 2010]
Dominos Pizza - Growth & Strategy (Part 2) - Innovation, Service and Smart Operations [26 Nov 2010]
Strategy - The Challenges Facing Nokia [21 Oct 2010]
Google on the changing face of advertising [8 Oct 2010]
The technological wave in television - who will win the 3D battle? [30 Jul 2010]
Does Nokia’s Strategy Need An Upgraded CEO? [30 Jul 2010]
Retail banking through the ages - a pictoral guide [29 Jul 2010]
Sony’s Product Development Timeline [13 Jul 2010]
BUSS4 Recession Strategies - The Crucial Role of the Business Model [6 Jun 2010]
Some facinating data on research & development data at Apple, Google & Microsoft [25 May 2010]
Profit seeking paradoxes in an oblique world [15 May 2010]
Book wars! [5 May 2010]
Starbucks - the Famous Strategic Change Memo from 2007 [21 Apr 2010]
Strategy in a recession - global innovators keep investing [25 Feb 2010]
Strategic reaction to the UK recession - notes and observations [9 Feb 2010]
Innovation - Is Entertainment Letting Us Down? [2 Jan 2010]
Revision Presentation - Innovation & Invention for New Businesses [1 Jan 2010]
Innovation & Protecting a Business Idea - Classroom Video [30 Oct 2009]
The Jenson Button Business Lesson [21 Oct 2009]
Corporate culture: how a huge firm like Google tries to foster innovation [23 Sep 2009]
Can you spot the next ‘disruptive technology’? [7 Sep 2009]
Innovation helps firm buck the recession [9 Jul 2009]
Microsoft and Google compete head-to-head [9 Jul 2009]
Rapstrap becomes Dragons Den’s Biggest Success to-date [17 Sep 2008]
Cutting costs for a railway by switching the engines off [10 Sep 2008]
Dragons Den - The Deal that Floated Away from the Dragons [27 Aug 2008]
Product innovation - is the jetpack ready for takeoff? [31 Jul 2008]
Fast food product innovation - will the feedbag take off? [16 Jun 2008]
Start-ups and the confidence factor [21 May 2008]
Fudges finds its niche [13 Mar 2008]
Team spirit, innovation and business success [9 Feb 2008]

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