Book Review: Closing the Innovation Gap

Judy Estrin is worried about the innovation gap that developed in America in the early part of this century. Her ideas for overcoming it are useful for any country that is trying to build up some degree of innovation and creativity in business and technology.

Closing the Innovation Gap: Reigniting the Spark of Creativity in a Global Economy examines the macro-level system necessary to support innovation as well as the company-level environment that supports good innovation. Estrin, a Silicon Valley veteran with plenty of successes behind her (and lots more where that came from still in front of her), explores what is necessary for innovation to happen, and rounds up her professional friends and colleagues whose own experiences support her main points.

Her discussions of corporate support for innovation are particularly useful for those of who lead Creatives. Many of her specifics are more suited to large corporations — Google comes to mind — but the principles are useful for businesses of all sizes. And if you’re a small firm now, but hoping to become a big one, this gives you an idea of what is needed to make that growth happen. Estrin makes the point a few times that the days of coming up with an idea in your garage and making billions of dollars are pretty much over. A more formal structure, with more people of diverse backgrounds, seems to be more important now than ever. With the ideas presented here, leaders are better able to design the kind of environment needed to foster innovation.

The portions of the book dealing with the innovation “ecosystem” give leaders an idea of where their Creatives are coming from and how it might be more difficult to find them in the future. She talks about such things as education, cultural attitudes toward science and engineering, funding for the arts, financial support for basic research, corporate and academic preferences for short-term rather than long-term results, and the broader need for instant gratification rather than a longer focus that has taken hold in many developed economies in recent years. These sections of the book offer leaders a better understanding of what is needed to support a culture of innovation, with lessons they can apply on a smaller scale in their own firms. While fixing the problems in this ecosystem and closing the innovation gap might seem beyond the abilities of small businesses, there are some efforts that smaller firms can make, and if nothing else, leaders can identify unsolvable big-picture problems and try to work around them.

Estrin suggests that, in the US, innovation was on a downhill slide as early as the 1980s, when talented American university students started seeing careers in finance as preferable to science and engineering, and the creation of wealth became more important than the creation of the actual ideas and inventions that lead to wealth. Innovation in the US often depended largely upon foreign university students who came to America and often stayed, but she discusses how 9/11 led to stricter immigration practices that made things tougher for foreign students. In past years, many of these students would go to the US and then elect to stay after finishing their degrees. These days, though, between the difficulty of getting student and work visas, and the emerging opportunities in their home countries, even those who do still come to the US for school often plan to return home afterwards. (countries that are currently be trying to limit the immigration of students and professionals might want to consider that example of the potential impact on their own innovation capabilities)

Estrin’s writing style is very nice and easy to follow. She jumps around from executive to executive, but following the identity of all the speakers is not important; following what they say is. Her political views come through strongly at a few points, and if you are of the opposing view, that might get in the way of your appreciation for her message, but it shouldn’t. Closing the Innovation Gap provides an important wake up call for a country that isn’t used to being second-best, and offers some good ideas to help others avoid that fate.