Google CEO Eric Schmidt published an article in the Washington Post yesterday (the 9th of Feb 2010), entitled “Erasing our innovation deficit” (click here to view). In this article he states that a much smaller share of worldwide innovation now originates from the US than had been the case in the past. He also states that regaining the leading innovator position is key to restoring US jobs and future competitiveness, and that “We can no longer rely on the top-down approach of the 20th century, when big investments in the military and NASA spun off to the wider economy.”
At the time of writing this post the article has attracted 53 comments, ranging widely from full agreement with Mr. Schmidt’s points to blaming government and big business for all of our problems – and lots of other diverse views.
I’d like to share some of my fundemental views about innovation:
Innovation isn’t just about gadgets, hardware and software – it’s about witnessing change; anticipating further change; envisioning the impact down the road, and how things might be better; and acting to drive the change in that direction (rather than just waiting for others to do it.) Both governments and companies have driven innovation top-down for a long time.
While individually we may not be able to change government or society, we can start by looking at whether we want to lead or want to be led, and by forgetting our egos so that we can embrace someone else’s good idea when see it. Large companies are now able to adopt new processes and tools to benefit from ideas that originate anywhere and evolve through the contribution of all interested parties (employees, customers, partners…) – rather than relying primarily on the “Innovation Department”. This doesn’t take away the need for some top-down investments – but it does enable many more worthy ideas to compete for them.
So, erasing the innovation deficit begins with each of us understanding that change is inevitable, and then deciding to be a catalyst for change and to take a role in shaping it – hopefully in a positive direction. The first active step does not involve deciding what to change – it is about listening and exploring. Once we’ve done that we can move into the other three roles (as outlined by Roger von Oech) the Artist – to give our basic ideas a creative twist; the Judge – to figure out which of them are worth pursuing; and the Warrior – to go out there and make them happen!
