Who's to blame for America's loss of innovation? (aka "The U.S. is losing it")

[Deja Q]

(get the boots on, the country meadow scented nose plugs, and a big shovel)

http://blogs.zdnet.com/green/?p=2635

I'd rather not take any excerpts. You'll be riveted from start to end over any number of things. Including a little concept called "irony"...

[DrDan]

1. an easy one

1st - back in the '80's, there was a major shift in corporate vision. The focus went from 10-year plans to quarterly views - in-line with earnings reports. This was around the same time as a major shift in the progression of corporate CEOs. There was a history of CEOs coming from inside the corporations giving them a sound knowledge of the corporation, its capabilities, its future. Around this time, CEOs started their game of musical chairs. Their focus was no longer long-range planning. It was focussed completely on quarterly earnings reports. Long-range strategies were based on quarterly results. Trimming budgets was their specialty - usually through massive down-sizing.

2nd - one of the first expenses to be removed by these short-visioned CEOs was R&D. Bell Labs and the like no longer received the budgets of the past. Cuts, cuts, and more cuts left them impotent with respect to innovative thought and product development.

We brought it on with this shift from long-range planning and research to a quarterly-driven focus.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Yep It's The Shareholders.

People bid up stock prices based on last quarter's bottom line performance.

[DrDan]

4. and CEO bonuses - HUGE bonuses - are typically based on earnings

so - anything 10-years out is secondary.

Cut costs. Improve the quarterly picture. The greed takes over with these CEOs.

Screw innovation. Screw R&D. Screw the employees. Lie if you have to. Just produce a positive earnings report.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. Having gone through 25 years in big Pharma, I have clear view on this -

Here is a little list just off the top of my head:

1. Short term focus. Innovation takes patience, time, and supporting prudent risk taking. As someone else said, focus on immediate results is counter to innovation.

2. Promotion of good scientists to managerial position. Related to it - promoting managers to leadership positions. They are NOT the same. Good scientists are generally awful people managers. And Walk The Line suffer no fools managers are not at all leaders. In my 25 years, I had very few good bosses, but saw even less effective leadership.

3. The trend on our society to be a bit lazy in some of the high tech type or Pharma companies (yes, a generalization, but I've witnessed it). Entitlement, high pay, big bonuses that are NOT linked to performance but become automatic. This made lots of people just going through the motions.

[kirby]

5. Globalization worshipers n/t