Does America Need More Innovators?

Does America Need More Innovators?

Author: Matthew Wisnioski

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2019-04-09

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 0262352605

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A critical exploration of today's global imperative to innovate, by champions, critics, and reformers of innovation. Corporate executives, politicians, and school board leaders agree—Americans must innovate. Innovation experts fuel this demand with books and services that instruct aspiring innovators in best practices, personal habits, and workplace cultures for fostering innovation. But critics have begun to question the unceasing promotion of innovation, pointing out its gadget-centric shallowness, the lack of diversity among innovators, and the unequal distribution of innovation's burdens and rewards. Meanwhile, reformers work to make the training of innovators more inclusive and the outcomes of innovation more responsible. This book offers an overdue critical exploration of today's global imperative to innovate by bringing together innovation's champions, critics, and reformers in conversation. The book presents an overview of innovator training, exploring the history, motivations, and philosophies of programs in private industry, universities, and government; offers a primer on critical innovation studies, with essays that historicize, contextualize, and problematize the drive to create innovators; and considers initiatives that seek to reform and reshape what it means to be an innovator. Contributors Errol Arkilic, Catherine Ashcraft, Leticia Britos Cavagnaro, W. Bernard Carlson, Lisa D. Cook, Humera Fasihuddin, Maryann Feldman, Erik Fisher, Benoît Godin, Jenn Gustetic, David Guston, Eric S. Hintz, Marie Stettler Kleine, Dutch MacDonald, Mickey McManus, Sebastian Pfotenhauer, Natalie Rusk, Andrew L. Russell, Lucinda M. Sanders, Brenda Trinidad, Lee Vinsel, Matthew Wisnioski


Advanced Manufacturing

Advanced Manufacturing

Author: William B. Bonvillian

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2018-01-12

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 0262037033

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How to rethink innovation and revitalize America's declining manufacturing sector by encouraging advanced manufacturing, bringing innovative technologies into the production process. The United States lost almost one-third of its manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2010. As higher-paying manufacturing jobs are replaced by lower-paying service jobs, income inequality has been approaching third world levels. In particular, between 1990 and 2013, the median income of men without high school diplomas fell by an astonishing 20% between 1990 and 2013, and that of men with high school diplomas or some college fell by a painful 13%. Innovation has been left largely to software and IT startups, and increasingly U.S. firms operate on a system of “innovate here/produce there,” leaving the manufacturing sector behind. In this book, William Bonvillian and Peter Singer explore how to rethink innovation and revitalize America's declining manufacturing sector. They argue that advanced manufacturing, which employs such innovative technologies as 3-D printing, advanced material, photonics, and robotics in the production process, is the key. Bonvillian and Singer discuss transformative new production paradigms that could drive up efficiency and drive down costs, describe the new processes and business models that must accompany them, and explore alternative funding methods for startups that must manufacture. They examine the varied attitudes of mainstream economics toward manufacturing, the post-Great Recession policy focus on advanced manufacturing, and lessons from the new advanced manufacturing institutes. They consider the problem of “startup scaleup,” possible new models for training workers, and the role of manufacturing in addressing “secular stagnation” in innovation, growth, the middle classes, productivity rates, and related investment. As recent political turmoil shows, the stakes could not be higher.


The Dawn of Innovation

The Dawn of Innovation

Author: Charles R. Morris

Publisher:

Published: 2012-10-23

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 1586488287

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From the bestselling author of The Trillion Dollar Meltdown and The Tycoons comes the fascinating, panoramic story of the rise of American industry between the War of 1812 and the Civil War


The Idea Factory

The Idea Factory

Author: Jon Gertner

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2012-03-15

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 1101561084

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The definitive history of America’s greatest incubator of innovation and the birthplace of some of the 20th century’s most influential technologies “Filled with colorful characters and inspiring lessons . . . The Idea Factory explores one of the most critical issues of our time: What causes innovation?” —Walter Isaacson, The New York Times Book Review “Compelling . . . Gertner's book offers fascinating evidence for those seeking to understand how a society should best invest its research resources.” —The Wall Street Journal From its beginnings in the 1920s until its demise in the 1980s, Bell Labs-officially, the research and development wing of AT&T-was the biggest, and arguably the best, laboratory for new ideas in the world. From the transistor to the laser, from digital communications to cellular telephony, it's hard to find an aspect of modern life that hasn't been touched by Bell Labs. In The Idea Factory, Jon Gertner traces the origins of some of the twentieth century's most important inventions and delivers a riveting and heretofore untold chapter of American history. At its heart this is a story about the life and work of a small group of brilliant and eccentric men-Mervin Kelly, Bill Shockley, Claude Shannon, John Pierce, and Bill Baker-who spent their careers at Bell Labs. Today, when the drive to invent has become a mantra, Bell Labs offers us a way to enrich our understanding of the challenges and solutions to technological innovation. Here, after all, was where the foundational ideas on the management of innovation were born.


Ninja Innovation

Ninja Innovation

Author: Gary Shapiro

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2013-01-08

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 0062242369

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Innovate or die For thirty years, Gary Shapiro has observed the world's most innovative businesses from his front-row seat as leader of the Consumer Electronics Association. Now he reveals the ten secrets of "ninja innovators" like Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and many others. What does it take to succeed? Discipline. Mission-oriented strategy. Adaptability. Decisiveness. And a will for victory. In short, today's most successful businesses are "ninja innovators." Drawn from Gary Shapiro's three decades of experience leading the consumer electronics industry, Ninja Innovation takes readers behind the scenes of today's top enterprises, uncovering their ten essential strategies for success. As head of the Consumer Electronics Association and its influential annual trade show, the International CES, Shapiro has worked with the most innovative companies in history—Intel, IBM, and Samsung, to name a few—focusing on creating policies and events that produce revolutionary products year after year. He has learned the key strategies that have guided these businesses to record-breaking profits, as well as the traps that have led so many others to crushing failure. In order to stay in front of the pace of innovation, Shapiro observes, top companies must operate as an elite strike force—just like the legendary medieval warriors known as ninjas. Ninjas weren't called upon to do the ordinary; they had to perform truly extraordinary tasks, while risking everything. As a highly trained martial-arts black belt himself, Shapiro mines the valuable insights of these centuries-old warriors to spotlight the secrets of agility, creativity, decisiveness, and reinvention that are essential for twenty-first-century leaders seeking breakthrough success. Taking readers inside the most cutting-edge businesses, Ninja Innovation is the ultimate guide to achieving victory in today's innovate-or-die economy.


Leading Innovation: How to Jump Start Your Organization's Growth Engine

Leading Innovation: How to Jump Start Your Organization's Growth Engine

Author: Jeff DeGraff

Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional

Published: 2006-09-06

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 0071590471

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Leading Innovation presents a unique, holistic approach to creating innovation at all levels of your organization. Authors Jeff DeGraff and Shawn Quinn have created a real-world, how-to playbook of integrated creativity tools and techniques for understanding where innovation comes from and harnessing its power to create a culture where real growth happens on a constant basis. Based on DeGraff's proven methods-which he teaches in his innovation program at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and has applied at Fortune 500 companies around the world-this breakthrough guide focuses on systematically integrating business practices and connecting them to the value propositions they produce. You'll discover how to diagnose obstacles to innovation, realistically assess your options, and develop an integrated program of action that can be adjusted to meet the needs of any group, department, or business unit throughout your organization. You'll learn the 7 key steps to double-digit growth, sparking innovation in your: Leadership-teams, development, and behavior Strategic planning-identifying emerging opportunities Organizational culture and competency development Performance management processes-resource allocation, portfolio management Innovation incubation processes-stage-gate development processes, innovation networks Human resource management-staffing, team building, organizational learning Throughout, insightful case studies demonstrate how these results-driven methods are supported by senior leadership at GE, Reuters, Coca-Cola, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Eaton, and other leading innovators.


Organized Innovation

Organized Innovation

Author: Steven C. Currall

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2014-01-07

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 0199330719

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"Organized" and "innovation" are words rarely heard together. But an organized approach to innovation is precisely what America needs today. This book presents a blueprint for coordinating technology breakthroughs to advance America's global competitiveness and prosperity. That prosperity is at risk. As other nations bolster technology innovation efforts, America's research, development, and commercialization enterprise is falling behind. An "innovation gap" has emerged in recent decades, where US universities focus on basic research and industry concentrates on incremental product development. The country has failed to address the innovation gap because of three myths--innovation is about lone geniuses, the free market, and serendipity. These myths blind us from recognizing our dysfunctional system of unorganized innovation. In Organized Innovation, Currall, Frauenheim, Perry and Hunter provide a framework for optimizing the way America creates, develops, and commercializes technology breakthroughs. A roadmap for universities, business, and government, the book is grounded in the authors' seminal study of the National Science Foundation's Engineering Research Center program, which has returned to the US economy more than ten times the funding invested in it. For too long, our approach to technology innovation has been unorganized. The authors enable us to turn the page. They show us how to organize innovation for a more prosperous, hopeful future.


Rising Above the Gathering Storm

Rising Above the Gathering Storm

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2007-03-08

Total Pages: 590

ISBN-13: 0309100399

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In a world where advanced knowledge is widespread and low-cost labor is readily available, U.S. advantages in the marketplace and in science and technology have begun to erode. A comprehensive and coordinated federal effort is urgently needed to bolster U.S. competitiveness and pre-eminence in these areas. This congressionally requested report by a pre-eminent committee makes four recommendations along with 20 implementation actions that federal policy-makers should take to create high-quality jobs and focus new science and technology efforts on meeting the nation's needs, especially in the area of clean, affordable energy: 1) Increase America's talent pool by vastly improving K-12 mathematics and science education; 2) Sustain and strengthen the nation's commitment to long-term basic research; 3) Develop, recruit, and retain top students, scientists, and engineers from both the U.S. and abroad; and 4) Ensure that the United States is the premier place in the world for innovation. Some actions will involve changing existing laws, while others will require financial support that would come from reallocating existing budgets or increasing them. Rising Above the Gathering Storm will be of great interest to federal and state government agencies, educators and schools, public decision makers, research sponsors, regulatory analysts, and scholars.


Innovation Nation

Innovation Nation

Author: John Kao

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2007-10-02

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 141655257X

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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 innovator: 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 innovation: 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.