What matters is speed, quality, flexibility, knowledge and networks. Firms and regions that want to succeed in the new economy must do so on the basis of innovation not simply cost. A low cost strategy will ultimately lose in the global economy where other regions around the world are willing to compete at much lower cost. Innovation is about thinking and acting in new and different ways. In successful firms and successful regions, innovation becomes a culture, a way of doing things.
Innovation goes hand in hand with entrepreneurship.
Historian Daniel Boorstein wrote an excellent book The Discoverers about life stories of leading thinkers and inventors throughout history. His final comment is that the greatest enemy of creativity and innovation is conventional wisdom. Most of the people he profiled were never recognized in their lifetimes. Even our thinking about innovation itself is often blocked by conventional wisdom. Here are some findings about innovation from our work in regions around the world.