That Obama is a smart man, isn’t he? He has decided that the answer to the U.S economy’s problems is Innovation. Well, yeah Obama, what took you so long?
The ‘leader of the free world’ has expressed his hope of “sparking the minds of innovators” in the United States, making the U.S of A more competitive by bringing in new products and technologies. We have always been big advocates of focussing on innovation to drive your business here at Innovatrs, so it shouldn’t be any different with a large country.
Obama says business innovation is ‘a building block to more jobs‘, pledging a bit of a departure from his original economic message – it’s all praise to the private sector now rather than the huge government programs he originally proposed. Rather than spend, spend, spend America’s way out of their economic woes, it almost appears as if Barack read our article on lean startups and thought he would change his tact. Good move.
We are seeing a similar idea forming in London’s proposed ‘Silicon Roundabout‘. Cameron’s big idea is to cultivate nano, green and other new technologies as a way of giving the U.K a strong position in the ever growing Internet and technology based markets. The hope is also that big International companies decide to plot base in the new East London tech centre, bringing their considerable wedge and new jobs with them.
You’ve got to back the judgement of both leaders – neither can claim to be a visionary, no new flashes of genius have come from either man with these ideas, but they are taking the right steps to drag their respective nations out of the mire. The innovation love-in is also a pretty good PR excerise by both men. The public are hating on the banking industry in a big way. It’s all ‘get the bankers out’, ‘slash their bonuses’, ‘hang them by their braces’. We all know that is a futile view point.
Any way of taking the public focus away from the banking industry, whilst also painting a rosy picture of the economic future is a smart idea. It just so happens that the innovation route is the right one. No country can willingly allow the huge multi national bankers to up and leave their financial district, it would mean the loss of further jobs and billions in tax. But diverting attention from them by showing bold and innovative plans for the future is a great way to appease the public’s mood.
Although in Obama’s case, baring in mind his pledge to innovate is a departure from his original plans and kind of overlooks the globally renowned and prolific Silicon Valley – you have to wonder what took him so long to come to this conclusion?
What do you think about the new innovative spirit Obama is showing America? Old news or a great idea? Let us know…
2/02/11
