Does America Still Have a Lock on Innovation?
Yesterday I participated in the panel at AlwaysOn under the headline "Does America Still Have a Lock On Innovation?" together with Robert Suh, Chief Technology Strategist, Accenture, Irving Wladawsky-Berger, VP, Technical Strategy and Innovation, IBM and my good friend, leading Kite Blogger and General Partner Bill Tai from Charles River Ventures. The panel was moderated by the intelligent and witty, Andreas Kluth, Technical Correspondent at The Economist.
I really enjoyed the panel and the different interesting takes on the subject by my fellow c-panelists My five cents on the the question was:
- No place have any "lock" on innovation
- The world is flat
- Innovation is becoming flat
- Immigrants are an important factor for fuelling innovation (big similarities between the US and Israel here
- China should not be seen as a copy cat - but a great force on future innovation. Between 2004-05 there was an increase in close to 40 % in filed patents from China.
On the question on what "we" are “dumb” at in innovation and what should be done. I emphasised on the fact that the US should ease the restriction on immigration for foreign students since in 2001, more than half the U.S. engineering and computer science graduates were foreign-born students. But restrictions on visas issued to students and scientists following the September 11 terror attacks have sharply curtailed this inflow.
Similarly, China should move away from the notion of calculating the benefits of innovation vs. its cost.
See other blogs covering this panel as well. Irving also has a great blog with deeper thoughts on innovation as well.
For a full web-cast on the panel - please check out AlwaysOns Archives (should be available in the near future).
BTW, here are some comments from the Chat channel (back channel) on our panel that somebody sent to Bill:
Skeptic: i like this panel DrNetwork: Tony nailed this panel. Well done! Dickie: agreed Palo Alto Bill: right on Peter: good stuff Alexis: intelligent speakers and well informed MZ: Yup
A great thanks to Tony Perkins for inviting me to this great event. Well organized, and a great line up.
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