National innovation: the role of attitude

Here in Taiwan people often have a perception that Taiwan is "small." When I hear this, I usually mention that Taiwan's population is 400 percent bigger than my own country, Scotland. That's right, four times more people live in Taiwan than in Scotland. (Incidently, both countries are feeling the pain of one of capitalism's more self-destructive by-products: rapidly aging -- and shrinking -- populations, but that's another story in itself.)

Attitude is everything in innovation. The right attitude or "mindset" is crucial for success whether it is at the level of the individual, the firm, the region or the nation (I learned that from a Donald Trump e-mail). Look at Singapore, tiny. Israel, it's small too. Belgium, not the biggest place on earth. You get the point.

Here's an interesting presentation from Charles M. Vest,
President Emeritus of MIT, on innovation and its importance to the United States.

Where's the discipline?

If you're teaching creativity and teamwork by having executives build paper planes and go on rafting trips, there's something wrong with your organization, argues Curtis Carlson, CEO of SRI, the firm that developed the computer mouse. Curtis has recently co-authored a book entitled Innovation: The Five Discipline of Creating What Your Customers Want.

According to the authors, the five disciplines involve being able to:

1. Pick important, not merely interesting, problems.

2. Assess each innovation for its value to customers. Master a value proposition (and be able to articulate it).

3. Appoint an insanely commited project champion.

4. Build effective teams.

5. Build the team across the organization.

This book focuses more on product development rather than the efficiency side of things. You can listen to a Time podcast about the book.

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Innovation insights from Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais and Richard Merchant from the BBC's hugely successful The Office offer some useful insights into values (and a little bit about idea management) in this 17-minute, tongue-in-cheek video. The video was originally intended for staff at Microsoft UK but, unsurprisingly, has made it out into the wider world! You Tube, a popular video-sharing Web site, has caved in to Microsoft's displeasure at having this made public and removed it from their site. It is still available at Google, though:



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Candor, China and Innovation

Many companies here in Taiwan have headed over to China in search of bigger profits. A lot of the time the shift to China has been driven by the need to cut costs, especially in industries requiring manual labor. You hear many success stories, but what you don't hear so much about are the numerous failures. If individuals from Taiwanese firms find it tough going in China, with their common language, Mandarin, and somewhat similar culture, what about the rest of us? Chinese firms will also be keen to get a piece of the economic action; and will play the game of business by their rules, not the so-called "fair" rules dictated by Western governments.

A move to China is also driven by a desire to find new country-markets for existing products (market development). But while all of this is going on, what of your existing country-markets? You still need to keep your eye on the ball in terms of your product offering there as well.

So you cut costs to the bone, and you've run out of new country-markets to sell your products to, now what? For the fortunate ones, it might just mean retirement, but for many it's going to require innovation on the value side of things. Jack Welch on a Businessweek podcast has some interesting comments on China, and he also presents his views on candor, which he describes as a "Viagra for business."


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Different this time?

Niall Ferguson, professor of history at Harvard University, contended in a recent BBC interview (sorry, there doesn't seem to be a link) that the world needs "historically informed leaders" so that they can be alert to, and better understand, future developments. He continued to remind listeners that some of the worst wars occured during periods of rapid economic and technological progress. His view is at once gloomy and refreshing. Some people would simply call it "getting real."

Firms trying to innovate also need to be historically informed. It's all too tempting to cast the past aside and get sucked into the notion that it "will be different this time." Chances are it won't be. You can listen to an old interview with Niall Ferguson on National Public Radio (NPR). It was recorded in 2003.

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