The Values Chain: An inquiry into how we create and capture value when we innovate

Let’s begin with this, an apple. Not the company, the fruit. If we add up all the information contained in cells and DNA, it would be fair to say that there is more information storage capacity in an apple than existed in all the world’s computers in 1990.

How much of that information is available to us, perceivable and parseable? With our senses we might perceive color, taste, freshness, mouth feel, is it food and safe and delicious? That’s about what we can tell, in order to assign value. Accordingly, we assign a low value to fruits. If you were to drive the Interstate 5 across the Sacramento Valley during tomato harvest season, you’ll see the sides of the freeway lined with fruit that has fallen off the truck because it isn’t worth the cost to fit a tight cover over the trucks that transport the fruit.