It's not the speedy chips or the whizzy computer games or the intricate data-mining software that can sift complex databases to let us know that beer and diapers are the two items most often purchased together after 6 p.m. It's not even the omnipresent Web addresses that assault us on TV, in magazine ads, and on billboards. Rather, it's a way of doing business. But not enough. Elements of the Valley have been copied, but the place has not been cloned, gene for gene, anywhere in the world.
People talk the talk.
So here's a short list to help. Reward those who take risks, and don't penalize those who take a chance and fail. In other parts of the world, business flops and dead-end projects are stigmas. Careers screech to a halt. That makes managers afraid to take a gamble.