Bidiversity

In an excellent article in the Washington Post, the CEO and Chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, highlights the key ingredients for covering the innovation deficit of the United States. He perceptively states:

Addressing the innovation deficit requires rethinking our innovation model. 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. Now that the Internet has put abundant information and powerful tools in everyone’s hands, innovation is often driven from the bottom up. The ideas that power our next generation of growth are just as likely to originate in a coffee shop as in the laboratory of a big corporation.

True to his innovator’s routes, Schmidt highlights that

More than ever, innovation is disruptive and messy. It can’t be controlled or predicted. The only way to ensure it can flourish is to create the best possible environment — and then get out of the way. It’s a question of learning to live with a mess.

In order to boost an innovation culture in the US, Schmidt has outlined the following key tenets:

Start-ups and smaller businesses must be able to compete on equal terms with their larger rivals

Ensuring a level playing field is key. According Schmidt, ” Congress should ensure that every bill it passes promotes competition over protecting the interests of incumbents”.

Encouraging risk-taking means tolerating failure

Learning from failure is the second ingredient in Schmidt’s recipe.

“If we want to be a leader in new industries such as green energy, we have to accept that some of our investments won’t pan out. Show me a program with a 100 percent success rate, and I’ll show you one with 0 percent innovation”.

Invest in Knowledge

Sustaining investment in the US knowledge base, and maintaining the momentum

“The decision by Congress to double science funding last year was a big step in the right direction. Now we need to extend the R&D tax credit so businesses can confidently invest in their future.

Create the “Wikipedia for ideas”

Openness and accessibility of information  must be harnessed.

Government-funded research should be made public through “a Wikipedia of ideas,” so entrepreneurs can harness ideas commercially. High-speed Internet access must be much more widely available. Broadband is a major driver of new jobs and businesses, yet we rank only 15th in the world for access. More government support for broadband remains critical.

Nurture talented people

According to Schmidt, the US attracts global top talent to study at US universities, and consider the fact that they cannot get visas an enormous loss:

We have everything else we need to climb out of the current morass. Right now, somewhere in the United States, someone is working at a kitchen table, in a dorm room or a garage, developing an idea that could not only create a new industry but could also just possibly change the world. If we provide the right environment, she’ll do the rest.

Interestingly, here at bidiversity and our  founding sponsors, Aquitude, we believe that the same tenets are true for commercial enterprises. So, how well does your business fare with those tenets?