Who Does Innovation Belong To? Can We Create Innovation Without Borders?

When I read that a recent survey revealed that U.S. residents are unsure about the country's ability to remain a top innovator and the U.S. government needs to take steps to ensure its leadership, I worry.

And although I do agree with many U.S. residents that say that "other countries provide a more innovation-friendly environment", I'm concerned when I hear statements that report that just 13% think "that the U.S. will remain the most innovative country and therefore the global economic leader." I'm especially concerned when Innovation is used in the same sentence as Global Economic Leader but that's a topic for another day.

Then when I hear that the Consumer Electronics Association's (CEA) Innovation Checklist urges Congress to consider the following (The survey was sponsored by the CEA after all);

• Does this bill create American jobs?
• Does this bill encourage the best and brightest to come to the U.S.?
• Does this bill promote U.S. exports?

I really worry.

Not because the US is/could get left behind but because Innovation should not spur protectionism, it should go beyond borders to foster Innovation for this Planet and all of it's citizens.

We are already deep underway in a protectionist movement with "Buy American" that is both alienating other countries, such as Canada in which there is a movement for an unofficial boycott of US products and China which is developing it's own Nationalistic "Buy China" program.

Lest we think that Innovation belongs to well-to-do nations or even the brilliant minds emerging (no pun intended) from the emerging markets, however the ideas that create and foster Innovation are Universal. Innovation cannot be created within the confines of geographic or ideological borders.

If the global bubble and now the global recession has taught us nothing, we should at least keep in mind how intertwined the cause and effect relationship between developed and undeveloped nations is. Innovation does not belong to any one Nation and it should seek to support all citizens across the world equally.

Instead of the U.S. concentrating on who's the better/bigger Innovator in the schoolyard, the US should focus on the fact that when survey respondents were asked whether they believed the U.S. educational system was the most equipped in the world to develop innovation leaders during the next 30 years, 73% said they somewhat or strongly disagreed.

How To Create Innovation

With Innovation being or continuing to be the buzzword of the day, in which not only designers and now the US government are looking for ways to better understand the problem(s) being faced by their target audience and how to develop or "Create Innovation", we have always been big proponents of ethnographic research and "Deep Dive" immersions to our clients/potential clients, so I was glad to read the Wall Street Journal's recent article "In Search of Innovation" which vilifies some of our thinking especially in today's economy where research budgets are being slashed and qualitative research, especially ethnographic research is being shelved for more "cost effective" methodologies:

Source: Wall Street Journal by John Bessant, Kathrin Moslein and Bettina Von Stamm

Interest has surged in market research that uses detailed, firsthand observation to learn more about consumers’ needs or wants. Deep diving is one of many terms used to describe the approach, which resembles an anthropological study in the way researchers immerse themselves in the lives of the target consumers.

Such approaches can help uncover underserved or unserved markets and give clues to new directions and new frames in which to search for innovative ideas.

Novo Nordisk, for one, mobilized teams in several developing countries to research how health systems with limited resources were handling diabetes care. Researchers compiled detailed interviews and observations—documenting cases by interviewing patients and recording them on video, and spending time in hospitals, rural clinics and the health ministry. The result: a rich picture of the market, of needs that weren’t being met, and fertile suggestions for alternative products and services that might be delivered.

Looking At Unsconscious Consumption

Source: TED talk

• 426,000 cellphones are retired every day.
• 1.1million brown paper bags are used every hour.
• 4 milion plastic cups are used on US airline flights everyday (and are NOT recycled)
• 1 out of 4 humans in prison is an American

Artist Chris Jordan translates these and other mind-numbing statistics by creating his shocking images of contemporary American culture and the effects that our unconscious collective behavior as consumers is having on the planet and for the next billions that will inherit the planet.

Definitely worth watching. View Chris Jordan's work here.

A Day in the Life of The Invisible Millions

Adpated from: The Star Weekend Magazine by Hana Shams Ahmed and Independent Lens

Here in the West, the concept of having servants or domestic workers has largely disappeared. And those that can afford to have either full-time or part-time help must provide a living wage and abide by government regulations, with some countries even providing social security and medical benefits and requiring employers to provide paid holidays.

However in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, a typical middle-class family employs a single domestic worker who is responsible for performing all of the work in the household. Working from dawn until midnight; Waking up earliest in the morning, preparing breakfast for everyone in the house, getting the children ready for school, cleaning the furniture, sweeping the house, cleaning the toilets, washing the clothes, cutting and preparing lunch. The list is never ending with domestic workers often working 16+ hours/day.

With the lowest status in society, domestic workers are rarely called by their real name, summoned only by 'cheri' or 'chemri' (or 'chamra' for boys). As many domestics are under the age of 15, they often grow up without even learning how to write their own name. It's a vicious cycle of poverty as generation after generation remains uneducated and incapable of gaining access to better opportunities. Girls are even more at a disadvantage. Rarely, if ever, are they allowed to go out. Even a trip to the balcony or the rooftop is received with a sharp reprimand. When the family leaves the house, the girl is locked up from the outside, leaving her defenseless in the event of a fire.

Lakshmi and Me, is the revealing documentary film by Nishtha Jain. Set in Mumbai, India, the film is an intimate look at the relationship between an employer and her domestic worker in modern-day India, where one’s status, relationships and livelihood are often still ordained by the ancient caste system. The film is a lens into modern-day India, where millions of upwardly mobile and emerging middle-class women can now afford to have domestic help.

Like most domestic workers in India, Lakshmi works nonstop—10 hours a day, seven days a week, in six different households. She works without days off, without complaining and without bitterness—for the monthly pay of 600 rupees or so from each home.

In a hierarchical society where class lines build impenetrable walls, Lakshmi and Me is a story about lines blurring and lives impacting one another, despite the rigidity of archaic traditions meant to keep them apart.

China's First "Solar City"

Source: GreenPeace China

China is often branded a climate killer. With 70% of its energy needs coming from coal this vast country is indeed one of the key culprits of climate change. But China is making some giant strides in green innovation. Take a trip to Dezhou, a city in the East of China where the sun always shines.

With 5.5 million residents, Dezhou doesn’t look very special it's one of the many 3rd tier cities that are sprouting up all over China. But there’s something special about this city; look around and you see that all of rooftops are covered in solar heaters. In fact, in the new part of Dezhou everyone uses solar heating and about 90% of homes in the old part of the city have solar heating. Dezhou is China's first Solar City, where solar energy powers everything from street lighting to tourists carts.

But the best thing about the solar panels, for Dezhou residents isn’t that they are helping to cut greenhouse gases, but that they save money. Compared with buying an electric heater, a solar heater pays for itself in five and a half years. And from then on it doesn't cost anything. Another reason Dezhou residents love their solar panels is that the Solar industry creates jobs. In 2007, 800,000 people had jobs in the solar panel industry: that works out to be about one in three people of working age in the city. That figure is expected to grow to 150,000 by 2020. And now solar energy is such an integral part of life in Dezhou that there’s even a design industry built up around how to mould the solar heaters aesthetically into the designing of building.