General Electric (GE) + One Technologies, Inc.
Collaboration cannot exist only internally, however—collaborating with startups, other companies, customers and additional partners will be a defining feature of successful companies in the future.

Where will we find these connected people generating growth? In all probability, it will be in cities. We are already seeing a vast expansion in the size of large cities—the UN estimates that by 2030, more than 50 percent of people will be city residents, amounting to approximately 5 billion urban residents as cities progressively become centers of economic value generation. Already today, large cities generate about 85 percent of U.S. GDP, close to 80 percent in China and 65 percent in Europe. It is estimated that by 2020, just 600 cities will generate 60 percent of the world’s entire economic value.

While there is a gigantic amount of economic value that can be unleashed within cities through collaboration and ideation between people located in close proximity, there are challenges that will need to be overcome to make this sort of population density work efficiently. Cities must become intelligent in nature, as well, allowing infrastructure systems to communicate and generate data that can be used to optimize logistics, resource usage and other aspects of city life.

This is where new intelligent lighting by GE plays a role in enabling One Technology to leverage nodes and sensors integrated into street lighting and become the nervous system for connected cities.

The Connected Future is already here; the amount of economic benefit we can extract from it depends on the extent to which technology is embraced with enthusiasm and smarts as we scale up our connected infrastructure. Be on the forefront, and be rewarded! Invest today.