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From The Economist magazine, “Innovation in America: A gathering storm?"
Nov 20th 2008

Confronted by Asia’s technological rise and the financial crisis, corporate America is losing its self-confidence. It should not…

...Venturesome America

Does the relative decline of America as a technology powerhouse really amount to a threat to its prosperity? Nonsense, insists Amar Bhidé of Columbia Business School. In “The Venturesome Economy”, a provocative new book, he explains why he thinks this gloomy thesis misunderstands innovation in several fundamental ways.

First, he argues that the obsession with the number of doctorates and technical graduates is misplaced because the “high-level” inventions and ideas such boffins come up with travel easily across national borders. Even if China spends a fortune to train more scientists, it cannot prevent America from capitalising on their inventions with better business models.

That points to his next insight, that the commercialisation, diffusion and use of inventions is of more value to companies and societies than the initial bright spark. America’s sophisticated marketing, distribution, sales and customer-service systems have long given it a decisive advantage over rivals, such as Japan in the 1980s, that began to catch up with its technological prowess. For America to retain this sort of edge, then, what the country needs is better MBAs, not more PhDs.

America also has another advantage: the extraordinary willingness of its consumers to try new things. Mr Bhidé insists that such “venturesome consumption” is a vital counterpart to the country’s entrepreneurial business culture.

There have been many negative comments posted on The Economist website about this article because of it's unfortunate use of "MBA" instead of what Dr. Bhide really says, "entrepreneur." So I just posted this comment:

Dr. Bhide's previous book, The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses, has been called by the publisher of Inc. Magazine the most important book about startup ever written. In light of it, this new book of his makes a critically important point that is totally missed in this article: What America needs is not more scientists (or MBAs), but more entrepreneurs.

John Wren, author of Daring Mighty Things--The Simplest Way to Start Your First (or Next) New Business. Available free today for Economist readers at www.JohnWren.com

My little book on startup is also available for free today to readers of www.JohnWren.com, just click on the link to the bottom left. What do you think of it? Your input now would be very helpful, I'm intending to publish a fully revised print edition soon.