Page 7 - RoadCem Manual - PCT BV

Foreword
“JUST AS ENERGY IS THE BASIS OF LIFE ITSELF, AND IDEAS THE SOURCE OF INNOVATION, SO IS INNOVATION THE VITAL SPARK OF ALL HUMAN CHANGE, IMPROVEMENT AND PROGRESS”,
“INNOVATION IS THE ABILITY TO SEE CHANGE AS AN OPPORTUNITY NOT A THREAT”
In their search for a better life people are always looking for better products and services. It is a lifelong pastime for everyone.
In the shop we look for the best product that we can find to meet our needs. On the road we look for a faster or shorter route or both. We choose the restaurant where we go for dinner by the quality of the waiter service and the atmosphere in the restaurant more often than by the quality and quantity of food in the portion served. Our life is a permanent search for improvement of some kind. In this we are often influenced by the advertisements and marketing that a producer of a product or a service has invested in. In principle, we make the choices we do on the basis of information we have, and our understanding and interpretation of that information. In effect, our choices and subsequently the success of a product and/or service is to a large extent determined by the quality of information the user has about it and also by the inherent characteristics of the product/service that this information is trying to convene.
In practice we often buy a product or a service without knowing that there is a better one available, purely because we do not have the necessary information. In our private life as a customer, we let ourselves be tempted and maybe even mislead when buying food, soft drinks, electrical goods, cars, houses, etc. In our professional life as client, we may choose one product where another might have been more suitable. Being under pressure for time or not wanting to take a risk with an unknown product we base our choice on what we know, on the information we have and our ability to interpret it adequately.
In line with the above it may be concluded that the biggest barrier for the success of new and innovative products and/or services is in fact the information about these products and/or services and its quality.
As professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, I have always looked at innovation as a critical aspect of a sustainable society and solutions for the future. In line with this I have, for years, searched for new approaches and new solutions to the principal problems of environmental degradation, pollution and climate change that we as a civilization encounter.
In this permanent search I often came across new methods, new materials and new technologies which were associated with claims of success in their contribution to sustainable future of human societies.
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