How to Hire an Innovator Geoffrey C. Nicholson, staff vice president of corporate technical planning and international technical operations at 3M, cites six characteristics he looks for when hiring prospective innovators. Driven to stay competitive in the new, global marketplace, business leaders find they have squeezed all the efficiencies they can from flattened organizations and shrunken budgets.
Innovation is nothing new to American businesses.
This is, after all, the country that gave the world Ford's assembly line, fast food and FedEx. The United States has earned and long enjoyed its reputation as the world's innovation leader. That's the point, says Scott Stern, an assistant professor of management at the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Mass., who co-developed the Innovation Index. This is exactly the time when we should be making these investments. Then be prepared to assume a humbling new image in the global marketplace.