Technology Development

Back in 2015, I was deployed on a project along with 8 other people to determine better ways to innovate in line with customer expectations. We broke up into 3 groups of 3 and dispersed to the far corners of the world to gain customer insight, regional perspective and company desire. I was deployed to the Middle East and told to 'get close' to local customers via the companies regional R&D centers. Off I went to Dubai, Doha and Damman to talk to Adnoc, Qatar Gas and the biggest of them all.... Saudi Aramco. The biggest R&D/Innovation center was in the Kingdom and apart from looking like a discotheque (those there will remember it well!), it employed scientists and hosted customer on a very regular basis. If I fast forward to what we learned I can summarize it in 3 points (2 professional and 1 personal) ...

1. Customer desire is not the same as Customer need
2. Technical Readiness far outpaces Commercial readiness because of the point above
3. Never trust the boot/trunk of a car to stay up when you are getting luggage out of it! I ended up with a little injury on the bridge of my nose that is still visible today! My daughter remembers this point as the only thing about the Middle East :) Great hotel staff patched me up

So fast forward nearly 10 years...what has changed? In my opinion as we address the Energy Transition, absolutely nothing. Customer need is not focused on as much as desire and we still have a great obsession with developing technology rather than markets, the points are highly interlinked!

With great interest I received the chart below with the top technology trends as they relate to transition themes. Whilst hard to read I will summarize the top trend of the 243-line items (243 maybe a problem as that does not scream focus?)

1. EV Technologies
2. Renewable power for mining of minerals (probably related to item 1)
3. Carbon Capture technology
4. Fuel cell technology (H2 and others)

So, this list leads me back to the 2 (which we can simplify into 1) conundrums of the Energy Transition...

How do we develop a market that drives economics that enables technology?

In simpler terms, how do we match what large, influential customers that are investing into the transition (O&G operators, large co energy providers, large co service companies etc.) and collaborate to drive towards need rather than desire? There are a ton of very innovate start-ups that need help understanding real need vs desire and sometimes the sound of a great concept blind sides us from what we need to really do.

We operate in a capitalist world, and everyone needs to try and 'get one over' on the competition. I absolutely understand that and actively drive towards it however I do wonder that if we are serious about our futures how do we get real clarity on an annual basis of what is needed so the great innovators of this world can 'get to work' solving it

Appreciate your thoughts on what I think is a pivotal problem...