Innovation as attitude

My father always used to tell me that "a firm is only as good as its worst employee." The same perspective can also be taken when looking at innovation at the national level. Rather than focusing all attention and resources (tax dollars) on high-profile, large companies, governments should also be looking at poorly performing small firms. It is these firms that need help. Education and training can play a key role here. It's not that difficult to arrange a cheap, accessible education programme for small business owners -- this could be delivered via DVD/Downloadable video/Pdf file/Mp3 file/flash PowerPoint etc. -- or in a more traditional, classroom setting. This is disruption just waiting to happen (Let's face it, McKinsey isn't motivated to help these guys out).

Not only do governments need to think about the type of firms that need support, they also need to stop thinking of innovation as limited to a few geographic regions within a country. It seems that governments have placed way too much faith in Michael Porter's clusters -- sure, Porter's ideas are plausible enough (when was this book written?), but innovation is not just about geography and a few select, high-profile industries. It also requires an attitude, or mindset, for innovation, which is shaped by a nation's culture and history.

I came across this very interesting piece in the Scotsman that is worth a read. The piece focuses on firms that are locked into a "business park" mindset in Scotland. Here is an extract:

ANDREW Lloyd has a message to the geeks of Scotland. Like a technocratic Moses, he wants to lead them out of the business parks and "innovation centres" where they conduct subsistence-level business with each other, slaves to over-indebtedness and "business park mentality".

Properly growing companies, he says, should be forced, like slobbish 20-somethings, to make their way in the real world. "Just surviving is for losers," he says.