There has been a lot of press about the commodity boom and how it’s the saving grace for the Australian economy. And for the vast majority of people out there, the rising prices of ‘commodities’ can often seem a nebulous and intangible issue - an issue that grabs a few seconds in the business section of the 6 o’clock News and that’s about it.

However, the resources boom may well start to become something that is increasingly up close and personal for many consumers. And excitingly, it may also start to be a key driver of innovation.

Why? Well, rising commodity prices are starting to have a very real effect on the price of energy. Aluminium production in particular is being dealt a ‘perfect storm’. The Aluminium industry is currently experiencing rising commodity prices and rising energy prices, and as a result - sharply increasing costs of production. (energy accounts for about 45 per cent of the cost of producing finished aluminium).

So what effect does this have on consumers? Well if you like your Coke and Fanta - you’re in for less of it if a recent article in the Financial Times is anything to go by.

In a nut shell Coca-Cola is looking at shrinking the size of its coke and fanta cans (from 355ml to 330ml) in Hong Kong due to the soaring price of aluminium. John Sicher, analyst at drinks newsletter Beverage Digest, said: “In a number of markets the big beverage companies are starting to look at different package sizes…both Coke and Pepsi are testing different package sizes in the US.” Sicher went on to say that many companies were experimenting with “slightly smaller bottles” and that changes in packaging were likely to be “a major theme” for the soft-drinks industry over the next few years.

Now there’s an interesting twist on the scarce resource story! Further weight to this has been added to this scarcity theory in a recent report coming out of Europe which would indicate that rising energy prices are starting to hit many manufacturers across multiple industries.

Rising prices, while greeted with despair by Consumers, Government and the media can often provide the perfect environment for disruptive innovation.

As prices rise and markets start to slow, consumers increasingly look for solutions that do the job, not necessarily to perfection, but well enough.

We suspect that over the last 10 years there has been a wholesale over-engineering of many solutions across multiple industries. Further, we are starting to see evidence that supports the hypothesis that the new resource scarce environment could well provide a once in a generation opportunity for new players to create powerful new disruptive models. So while Aluminium was the material of the late 20th century - used across multiple markets  for a multiple of jobs, an opportunity now exists for new materials, new skills, new business models that are able to ‘get the job’ done in a cheaper and more ‘total cost’ effective manner.

Rising resource prices, climate change economics, the emergence of Asian economic power, the ageing population, true globalisation and web 2.0. These are all just some of the increasingly powerful trends and forces at work that we believe are creating a ‘perfect storm’ for innovation.

Within this maelstrom of change, organisations will come under increasing pressure to pick a strategy, a technology, an idea to guide them to new growth. As we have blogged previously this is a method fraught with danger. However, organisations can put in place risk mitigation strategies to ensure that rather than being a victim of change, they become one of the new Gates, Jobs, Brinns and Page’s of the world.

Simply put, the upside of getting it right is now too compelling to ignore

Michael R Johnson