At an internal meeting today, our DG brought our attention to a piece written in yesterday’s Financial Times. The article, by Alan Cane, is entitled Joining forces for innovation in the face of globalisation. It’s based on a Forrester report that looks at innovation transformers. These are defined as countries that are “effective at taking developments from other nations or companies and turning them into commercial products”. This is an interesting concept, as it seperates R&D spend in the country under study from product development based on technology developed anywhere.
The report breaks countries into four categories: leaders, strong performers, contenders and risky bets. Surprisingly (to me, at any rate), Ireland is the only country in the report identified as being in the leaders category. Industrial giants such as the UK, USA, Japan and France are all in the risky bets category. Quote:
Ireland is the surprise leader in a ranking of how far 26 industrialised countries benefit from a trend towards ‘innovation networks’—partnerships between companies or countries which are thought to be more effective than keeping research and development to oneself.
Looks like we’re doing something right here.
(Regrettably, I can’t find a link to the appropriate article on the FT website. If I find one, I’ll update this post).
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