3 reasons why Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland are more innovative than USA

According to the Boston Consulting Group in March 2009, the United States ranked eight in Innovation Index (after Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Iceland, Ireland, Hong Kong and Finland) and is loosing its distinction as an innovation leader.

Work force quality and economic (skilled and educated people), immigration (green card is easier to obtain for a blue collar than for a PhD) and infrastructure policies are top 3 reasons why US states are loosing innovation in the global competition.

Solutions Summary:

• Local and national governments need to improve innovation environment and infrastructures and support innovation activities.
• R&D tax credits is the minimal action, but the credit amount is not important, it needs to be sustainable.
• Intellectual property policies are also vital for businesses to turn innovation in profit.
• Direct funding through government grants and government-funded laboratories faces an amount problem, not enough and you get no results.
• Partnership with universities, businesses and nonprofit also faces a management wall to turn R&D results into business success.
• Finding high-quality talents is also a key. Besides vital long term plans for education, secondary schools should integrate academic with technical aligned with industry needs and standards.
• Industry clusters (mostly useful in small countries) can lead to high and quick results in  good economic trends but also to high risks and bankruptcy (see Iceland's Banking cluster for instance).
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• Togethearth provides an open innovation platform and consultancy for businesses, researchers, governments, nonprofit, schools, entrepreneurs and inventors worldwide, a place where you can find talents, support innovation initiatives coming from shop floor to research labs, and evaluate market response to new solutions and products.

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• For full report from the Boston Consulting Group, see: http://www.nam.org/innovationreport.pdf