I would like to express my sincere appreciation for this discussion around innovation and I believe that this video and Judy’s book should be given to President Obama. Judy’s take on how to tackle global warming and energy dependence can also help to turn the economy around. Too many C-level executives have forgotten the need for creativity, and that innovation was what made our countries into the powerhouses they are.

Thank you again Judy and I look forward to your next book.

Proactively enhancing the fitness of an innovation team is one of the prerequisites of fixing the innovation gap in an enterprise.

Innovation fitness can be improved by focusing on three innovation constructs in a company: the innovation processes, knowledge and competencies regarding innovation, and the organisational structures that support innovation projects within a company.

By measuring the innovation parameters within a company as it pertains to the normal operational constructs, the innovation capability maturity or innovation fitness can be assessed.

Kind regards and happy innovating!

I am an executive in a software startup company. I was very intrigued by the title of this, because I was feeling the same thing. While the 70s and 80s saw constant innovation that resulted in the technology boom in the 90’s, the technology field got flooded with opportunists and bureaucrats that are currently hampering innovation—from the VC community that has artificial standards that prevent investment in actual innovation, to entrepreneurs that copy and imitate but don’t innovate, to the big players that acquire start-up companies and cannot figure out how to realize any value from these acquisitions.

We need to improve our educational system. We spend the highest amount per child on education and have the lowest return on our investment in education. Also, R&D budgets at America’s largest corporations as a percentage of sales and revenues are at their lowest level. No wonder our innovation is in the tank.

Ms. Estrin is quite visionary in her views and both the private and public sectors need more of this type of thought leadership. Indeed, asking big questions and failing early (and cheaply) are the hallmarks of some of the best science and most successful corporations in history.

I only wonder if there’s not a chicken-and-egg process operating on several levels in the United States regarding corporate America’s willingness and ability to fund pure research combined with Wall Street’s obsession with the 13-week reporting cycle, a consumer who wants “it” now, and an educational system that can’t seem to keep up in math and science.

Perhaps we can break even that cycle by adhering more closely to Ms. Estrin’s thought paradigm.