A pair of recent columns highlights the hope and the despair of innovation as the driver of the US economy, prosperity, and job creation. THE HUFFINGTON POST points out the dismal and deteriorating record of US innovation over the past few years and suggests some broad avenues to get us heading back in the right direction. Tom Friedman, meanwhile, recounts the inspiring (but perhaps not easily duplicated) story of the globe-spanning start-up of a new medical device company by a small team of physician-entrepreneurs.
First, the good news. Friedman tells the story of EndoStim, a small start-up that couples invention by US physicians and US venture capital with Israelis designers, Uruguayan manufacturing, clinical trials by hospitals and surgeons in Chile and India. According to Friedman’s account, the majority of the highest paying jobs that EndoStim’s success will create will stay in the US – close to the source of the ideas and the funding. The ability of entrepreneurs (by their thousands) to quickly, cheaply and repeatedly orchestrate the best resources from around the world, Friedman contends, will be the key to our wealth and growth in the modern world.
The Huffington Post takes a decidedly bleaker look at innovation in the US. It cited a study by Information Technology and Innovation Foundation that ranked the US “dead last” among the 40 surveyed countries in our progress of innovation. Patents issued to US inventors fell 2.3% in 2009, while patents issued to non-US applicants increased 6%. Reasons, according to HuffPo, include:
– The pitiful state of US education, our society’s pitifully low level of math and science competency, and our unwillingness to invest in our children’s future.
– Our unwillingness – public and private – to invest in research and development, the source of new technologies and products
– Financing and tax structures which starve the entrepreneurial enterprise, and immigration policies which discourage foreign inventors from starting up their new ventures here.
HuffPo offers some solutions – New, faster and much more accessible broadband service to reach the vast majority of US homes and businesses; research, investment and tax policies with nurture and reward green energy development in the US; and Federal policies which encourage foreigners to plant their inventions and their start-ups in America.
While Friedman’s feel-good story of success and HuffPo’s somber assessment both offer some interesting and useful ideas, neither article offers an adequate answer for a US middle class starved for challenging, high paying jobs. Here are some additional remedies …
1. Fix the US educational system, by investing more in primary and secondary schools and making college much more affordable and accessible to the majority of American kids.
2. Massive new investment in scientific research and development – thorough direct government spending and policies which encourage and reward private R&D and investment
3. Create and aggressivley support business incubators to provide access to the range of diverse, global resources which powered EndoStim’s success.
I’m sure you can suggest additional ideas …
