Innovation Is International

Forbes magazine has published its 2012 list of the 100 most innovative companies in the world.  Check it out because it clearly reveals that there is no one Land of Opportunity these days.

If we just look at the top ten, we see companies from the U.S. but also from China, India and Japan.

For those who argue that European companies are stymied by over-regulation, heavy taxation and the "socialist" tendencies of their governments, please note that a UK company comes in 10th on the list and a French company, Pernod Ricard, is 15th.

In fact, there are quite a few French companies on the list.   Le Point has an article here which talks about "les entreprises tricolores" that made the cut:  Danone (ahead of Apple), Essilor, L'Oreal and others.

I was personally very pleased to see that one of my former employers, Dassault Systèmes, is on the list. They deserve it - it's not only a great company to work for but it's filled with people who are wicked smart and very VERY creative.  I saw things when I worked for them that just blew my mind.

Every so often when people find out that I hail from Seattle, I get asked, "Since you're an IT person, why didn't you stay there and work for Microsoft?"

Well, put yourself in my place.  Sure I could have stayed in Seattle but where was the fun in that?  I was born there and the city holds few mysteries for me.  There was also no guarantee that Microsoft or any of the other companies based there would have hired me.   By leaving I got the chance to work for what Forbes has recognized as a highly innovative international company, to live in two of the world's most beautiful cities (Paris and Tokyo), and to travel all over the world (China, Germany, Korea, India and many other places.)

Honestly, I'd say this was a no-brainer.

The other day I came across this article in The Atlantic, To Make America Great Again, We Need to Leave the Country.  Lot of hard truths there and the author is dead right when he says:

When Americans travel abroad, they are often surprised at how well other countries do the things we used to think America does best. In fact, one reason so many American businesses still lead the world is because they benchmark the competition and emulate best practices. But suggest to an American politician that we should try to learn from other countries, and he will look at you like you are from Mars. It is somehow unpatriotic even to raise such comparisons.

I'd say the situation is even worse than that.  Not only do those of us who abroad get laughed at when we make even the most mild suggestions about how practices learned elsewhere might be quite helpful in an American context, but we also get treated like Benedict Arnold's - tax evaders and potential terrorists until proven otherwise.

Forget "brain drain."  These days it's about "brain circulation."  The U.S. must recognize that not only does it benefit enormously when its people go abroad but, in a globalized world, its got competition as a pole of attraction.  In the 21st century, some effort is required to convince migrants to move there and stay - an effort that is not helped by American tax policy.   It also needs to start seeing its diaspora as an asset, a pool of people who do a lot of quiet good for America wherever they live.   I've yet to meet a single American who has given one thought about ways to get back those Americans who went abroad in the first place.  Other countries recognized long ago  that their expatriates are rich in experience that cannot be taught at a hometown university or learned at corporate HQ in Topeka, Kansas.  They have positive (not punitive) policies to encourage their citizens to go abroad and come back. 

And that is one set of "best practices" that the U.S. should definitely take from the wider world.