Innovation Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do to Get It Back

by John J. Kao

Not long ago, Americans could rightfully feel confident in our preeminence in the world economy. The United States set the pace as the world's leading from the personal computer to the internet, from Wall Street to Hollywood, from the decoding of the genome to the emergence of Web 2.0, we led the way and the future was ours. So how is it, bestselling author and leading expert on innovation John Kao asks, that today Finland is the world's most competitive economy? That U.S. students rank twenty-fourth in the world in math literacy and twenty-sixth in problem-solving ability? That in 2005 and 2006 combined, in a reverse brain drain, 30,000 highly trained professionals left the United States to return to their native India?

Even as the United States has lost standing in the world community because of the war in Iraq, Kao warns, the country is losing its edge in economic leadership as well. The future of our prosperity, and of our national security, is at serious risk. But it doesn't have to be this way. Based on his in-depth experience advising many of the world's leading companies and studying cutting-edge innovation "best practices" in the most dynamic hot spots of innovation both in the United States and around the world, Kao argues that the United States still has the capability not only to regain our competitive edge, but to take a bold step out ahead of the global community and secure a leadership role in the twenty-first century. We must, though, take serious and concerted action fast.

First offering a stunning, troubling portrait of just how serious is the erosion in recent years of U.S. competitiveness in innovation, Kao then takes readers on a fascinating tour of the leading innovation centers, such as those in Singapore, Denmark, and Finland, which are trumping us in their more focused and creative approaches to fueling innovation. He then lays out a groundbreaking plan for a national innovation strategy that would empower the United States to actually innovate the process of to marshal our vast resources of talent and infrastructure in the particular ways that his studies of innovation have shown lead to transformative results.

Innovation Nation is vital reading for all those Americans who are troubled by the great challenges the United States faces in the ever-more-competitive economy of our twenty-first-century world.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Technology, American

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Innovation Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do to Get It Back
John Kao
Free Press

Kao asserts that in the United States, “our national capacity for innovation is eroding, with deeply troubling implications for our future…In tomorrow’s world, even more than today’s, innovation will be the engine of progress. So unless we move to rectify this dismal situation, the United States cannot hope to remain a leader. What’s at stake is nothing less than the future prosperity and security of our nation…While our competitor nations focus on educating and training engineers and inventors, our schools are turning out youngsters who are better consumers than they are creators.”

What to do? Kao proposes that the United States become an “innovation nation” by making a major commitment of resources, both human and financial, to rejuvenate our innovation age. “And the obvious first step is simply to acknowledge the challenges we face at a national level. After which we must develop a compelling vision and a blueprint for action that will reinvent the way we educate our children, marshal our resources, pursue our research projects, communicate and share our discoveries, and conduct ourselves in the world community.”

One of Kao’s most interesting ideas is what he calls an “Information Hub” such as the one in San Diego that demonstrates “how talent, investment, and creativity flow to places whose culture encourages the pioneer spirit, the search for open spaces, and the hunger to express itself as much by creating value in a place as through the ideas and ventures that are generated by it.” He proposes a BHAG for the United States (Big Hairy Audacious Goal is a term introduced by Jim Collins): to establish twenty Innovation Hubs, each devoted to solving one “wicked” problem, with initial funding of at least $20 billion. One day, he hopes, “the catalytic nature of diversity and the power of innovation on a planetary basis will unleash the full potential of human beings to better themselves and to create a world well worth living in.”

[Lydalyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm writing this review on 10/26/14, although I actually finished this book last summer/fall, around this time period, for my Innovations class. I really enjoyed it, however, it was reading material for a class, I would still encourage others to read this book. American educators need to take a look at how Education is taught in other countries, like Finland, and really take a look at public education and the direction American public education is heading. I'm sorry I didn't comment more on the book at the time, after I had just read it last summer, while it was fresh in my mind. Good book, and also an important topic to keep talking about in business and education fields. I am sure I will find myself reading the book again in the near future.

[Stan Skrabut · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I picked up Innovation Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do to Get It Back by John Kao, it was during a period when I was involved in a lot of discussion about innovation. My goal was to become smarter on the topic so that I could adequately contribute to the conversation. At the time, I was looking for tactical and practical methods to employ in the workplace. Innovation Nation takes the conversation of innovation to an entirely different level. Read more

[Holly Anne Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for my Strategic Technology class and I only read 2/3 of it because I ran out of time.

In Innovation Nation John Kao explores why the U.S. is losing it's edge on innovation. Countries like Singapore, India, and China are investing in their people, education, and innovation. The United States is falling behind in their education levels, especially in the areas of math and science. The U.S. needs to create more funding opportunities for innovation and technology. It also needs to invest more in educating the youth so that they can keep up with other countries and in order to be Innovation Nation.

Good read. Easy to understand. Offers solutions for the U.S.'s innovation slump.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book builds a great case for increased education and innovation in the United States. Other countries are catching up to us and in some cases are passing us in critical areas. Hopefully some of our nations leaders take the advice in this book to heart.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent prescription of what it will take to get the U.S. economy running. Explains how a competitive private sector depends on a well managed public sector. Gives detailed examples of Singapore and Finland and of what they are doing right and what we Americans can learn from their example.

[Melissa]

still learning......

[Teri Temme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scary, yet highly motivating. Interesting to read what other countries are doing. I would love to work at his described innovation hubs.