Companies can no longer cover all relevant disciplines. More of the financing of innovation is now directed towards new firms and risky projects. Here the US leads, as a result of its great availability of venture capital. Venture capital markets have boomed in recent years, doubling in North America and more than tripling in Europe. This also helps us understand why the US has led the ICT revolution and why Wall Street leads world sharemarkets in both its ups and downs.
Innovation is much more global.
This is forcing many more global takeovers and mergers. Innovation is spread more widely across sectors, including key services such as banking, media and health care. This last point is particularly important to investors. It is silly to write off ICT industries simply because of what happened last April, as many commentators have suggested. Much of the profit increases in key service sector companies that have performed very well since then have been a product of innovation - of the application of new techniques, practices and organisation structures.