WE MAY LOSE the global innovation race, if we don't get our act together real soon. Heed these Cambridge University scholars, who warn that keeping all R&D in the United States is an outdated Cold War strategy and "a recipe for disaster" in today's global economy and cross-cultural world. Rather, modern and emerging markets should blend their R&D expertise "to co-create breakthrough solutions that no single region could have developed on their own" -- what they call "polycentric innovation." The scholars -- Navi Radjou and Jaideep Prabhu and Blood Orange Media's Simone Ahuja -- write in CNN's GlobalPublicSquare blog:
"American companies such as GE, Xerox, and PepsiCo are leading the way in (innovation). However, their pioneering approach is at odds with U.S. policy, which seems to be betting that the best way to keep America competitive is to keep all R&D within the U.S. . . . ."Linking home-grown innovation with national competitiveness is a hopelessly outmoded policy — a relic of the Cold War when the launch of Sputnik in 1957 spurred America into an innovation arms race with the Soviet Union. In the 50s, America dominated the global economy, so it made sense . . . .
"Today, however . . . India, China, and Brazil (are) poised to account for more than 50% of global growth . . . American policymakers must recognize that in today’s multi-polar world, it isn’t national knowledge alone that confers power; rather, it is global knowledge networking that brings power."
- CNN's GlobalPublicSquare, "America Must Embrace Global Innovation" by Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu and Simone Ahuja.
- Harvard Business Review blog, "India's Decade of Collaboration" by Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu, Prasad Kaipa, Simone Ahuja.
- WSJ, "Polycentric Innovation: A New Mandate for Multinationals" by Navi Radjou.
(Photo, above) "Wow Thing" by xray delta one (James Vaughan), under a Creative Commons license on flickr. Vaughan is a photographer in Kent, Ohio, U.S.A. at jamesvaughanphoto.com.
Editor's note: This post originally ran last year.
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