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Innovation is a global issue. In a new poll released by Newsweek and Intel,
75% of Americans say that technology innovation is more important than
ever but over half fear that the Great Recession has hurt the ability
of US companies to innovate. Europeans largely believe that technology
innovation has improved their quality of life and the economy, yet only
14% predict that Europe will be an innovation leader. Not so the
Chinese: 63% believe that China will overtake the US in technology
innovation within 30 years.
Innovation may be global, but it
always takes place in a local context, be it a town or city, a county,
state or province. Here's an example. This past week, in the US state
of Nebraska, the University of Nebraska's Board of Regents took up an issue
raised by opponents of stem cell research, which holds such promise for
developing innovative new therapies but does it by making use of
embryonic tissue. For weeks, the board had been the target of a fierce
campaign from opponents. Their goal was to have the board restrict
research to a small number of cell lines approved by President George
W. Bush, rather than opening the door to research on hundreds created
since 2001 from unused embryos at fertility clinics. In the end, the
board deadlocked in a tie vote, which left the current rules in place
and was a defeat for the activists.
The morning I read that
story, I stopped on my way to work to stare at a huge banner draped
across the front of the New York Stock Exchange (see the video below).
The China Cord Blood Corporation was doing a public offering. I heard
later that they raised about $20m to fund expansion in China. Its
business is storing the blood left in umbilical cords after birth.
Why? Because such blood may be a pathway to innovative new therapies
in the future.
And there you had it: two stories of healthcare innovation tying
together opposite ends of the globe. A Chinese company with a
successful business coming to the US to raise money, and a US
university caught in a struggle with citizens about whether one form of
innovation was morally right. Whatever your position on the issue in
Nebraska, it's clear that local context matters. Broad cultural issues
and plain old people with strong feelings can have outsized impacts on
a community's innovation potential. In Saudi Arabia, religious opposition is rising to modern universities
created by the kingdom to jumpstart innovation - because they are
places where Westerners and Saudis can live a Western lifestyle. In
the US state of California, huge budget cuts are threatening that crown jewel of higher education,
the University of California system. The current cause is the
recession but the underlying problem is a law drafted by anti-tax
activists back in the Eighties that has made it almost impossible for
the state to raise taxes for the past two decades.
In this
global broadband economy, communities have local choices to make.
Innovation is essential, yet it can be deeply disturbing to established
ways of life, thought and belief. It can be tempting to say "we just
can't do that here" because a noisy minority opposes it. But they
can't stop innovation from taking place. They can just ensure that
your community misses out on the benefits.
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