Article Review: Germany on Innovation

HBR recently published an article on the comparison between US and Germany on their approach to innovation. The link to the article is : http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/05/why-germany-dominates-the-u-s-in-innovation/

Key highlights are listed below;
- At the national level, Germany is better than US and China in innovation and growth.
- Leading in sustainable energy systems, molecular biotech, lasers and experimental software engineering.
- Fraunhofer Society, applied-science think tank established seven institutes across America.
- US leads in providing financial platform to fund innovative ideas however on radical inventions, Germany is as good as US.
- Germany enables workers to increase their productivity while US attempts to replace workers with technology.

Key Takeaways?
- Financial system is important to help commercialize any innovations.
- Encouraging initiatives to improve old business/manufacturing processes through new ideas and technologies.
- Instead of focusing on consumer sector, Germany has wisely chosen to concentrate on technologies that are used to manufacture end user products.
- A cross-over of different industries (e.g. integrating/employing technology/finance/arts related professionals with various business sectors) results in improved business processes.
- Business application of academic research helps innovation to spread across the economy.