No "Innovation Gap"? WEF ranks U.S. top in Global Competitiveness Report
The rankings were calculated from both publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum together with its network of Partner Institutes (leading research institutes and business organizations) in the countries covered by the report.
"In an uncertain global financial environment it is more important than ever for countries to put into place the fundamentals underpinning economic growth and development. The World Economic Forum has for many years played a facilitating role in this process by providing detailed assessments of the productive potential of nations worldwide. The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009 offers policy-makers and business leaders an important tool in the formulation of improved economic policies and institutional reforms," noted Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.
So is there no "innovation gap" after all?
BusinessWeek's Bruce Nussbaum comments that "The U.S. is still great at innovation but bad at economic management. This is important to understand as we move forward and create a National Innovation Policy."
What do practitioners think? We at frog design conducted a country-wide blitz mini-survey among our employees. Within one hour more than 50 "frogs" responded (crowdsourcing really does work), and as it turns out our employees aren't so sure there is a gap - yet. Those who did think we've found ourselves in an idea lull pointed to everything from education to government to the fact that there are too many chairs in company conference rooms as reasons why. There were many other interesting thoughts.
We will publish the results of the survey on Friday. Stay tuned.
Tim Leberecht is frog design's vice president of marketing and communications and has worked in the media, entertainment, and high-tech industries. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET.
