Timeline Strategy Consulting

Has Stagnating Innovation Led to This Economic Crisis?

Congratulations on a well-written and powerful article.

If America could stop its love affair with liquidating itself just long enough to take stock, we would see exactly what you say; a decline in basic research that dries up the pipeline. And yes, lucky lenny, he is exactly right - go study the history of technology of innovation in the United States. Almost every basic electronic innovation we take for granted came out of government labs as part of military research or during the space race. The free market didn't, I repeat, DIDN'T, create those basic innovations. It may have put them in your hands, but it didn't make them from scratch.

I am afraid that this is a trend that's not easily changed but I have hopes that Obama elevates science to a higher level of visibility and respect.

If we just look at who innovates well, and relatively efficiently, Apple rises to the top of the list. One can argue that they are a technology compiler and that they do little basic research, but for about $700 million a year (or around 2% of sales) they produce big innovations in the following areas: human/machine interfaces, use of wireless technology, organization and display of information, miniaturization, industrial design, and convergence of multiple technologies.