Innovation Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do to Get It Back (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: bringing innovation, innovation hubs, deep smarts, United States, Silicon Valley, San Diego (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Alarmed by the lack of innovation in the United States today, former Harvard Business School professor and current consultant Kao diagnoses the situation, describes best practices, explains how innovation works and puts forth a strategy proposal, all in an attempt to squirt ice water in America's ear. Kao-who has been an entrepreneur, a psychiatrist, an educator and a pianist for Frank Zappa-is clearly passionate about his premise. Aimed primarily at policy makers and legislators, his three-pronged agenda is designed to help the government create a culture committed to constantly reinventing the nature of its innovation capabilities. However, his authoritative and history-rich book is not necessarily useful to the everyday reader, as Kao includes few small-scale strategies. His one effort to bring this down to the citizen's level-in fictional short stories about the future-is a little contrived, jamming in statistics and leaning on flashbacks. But overall, the book does its job. The question is, will lawmakers look at it and follow its lead? (Oct. 2)
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Review

"It should be a surprise to no one that John Kao's new book is a highly innovative approach to innovation. He analyzes with crystalline clarity the challenges to U.S. innovation hegemony from ambitious and hungry competitors, China, India, Finland, and even Estonia. He does not shrink from advocating specific solutions, including the creation in the United States of 20 $1B Innovation Hubs and a National Innovation Advisor. His vision is not, however, American. He shows us how the whole planet needs to accelerate its capacity for innovation. For those of us who lead institutes dedicated to innovation this is a Bible and a Koran."

-- Reg Kelly, Chairman, Bay Area Science and Innovation Consortium, and Director, Institute of Quantitative Biomedical Research --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1 edition (October 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416532684
• ISBN-13: 978-1416532682
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #229,714 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Restoring a Culture of Innovation, October 8, 2007

By	Shane Deichman "innohv8" (Portsmouth, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

John Kao has sounded the alarm over America's atrophying ability to innovate. Through apt historical references and a no-nonsense critique of fundamentals (e.g., school curriculum, institutional cultures, etc.) he shows where America has strayed from the "engine of invention" following Sputnik and through the Apollo missions to the moon -- and how today's innovation hotbeds in Singapore, Denmark and Finland are eroding America's long-term economic viability. He also offers practical solutions (from the micro to the macro) in this provocative "long view" of a culture that was built on innovation.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nothing Innovative About this Book, May 31, 2008

By	J. Groen "Jerry Groen" (GURNEE, ILLINOIS USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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For a book about Innovation, there is nothing Innovative about this book. The stories about Singapore, Finland and Ireland are well known and can be found in Business Week or Wall Street Journal. Yes, and well read readers will know that we are losing our innovation edge to China and India. No new information there. And, his answers are not new - use the internet, improve our education systems, entice outside talent, better offices, etc. In fact, I would even question his definition of innovation - jazz is innovative but classical music is not? He starts with the assertion that innovation is not just about technology and science and then labors onto technology and science. Further, at the end of this book, he used the "I" word so many times to emphasize his opinion, that I lost count of it. I can go on about this book, but let me leave it with this - this is the worst book on innovation that I have read. A lot of borrowing from others, a lot hype on what he will provide for solutions and then NO delivery. Don't waste your time on this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a call for science, creativity, and growth, October 16, 2007

By	Mark Bünger, Research Director, Lux Research (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

John's first-hand experience meeting business, science, and political leaders around the world shows how widespread and intense the drive for innovation has become. Americans should read this book not in fear of emerging nations' ascendancy, but in eager anticipation of the prosperity that these new collaborators will bring. If fear is warranted, it's that our own leaders will not share the foresight and commitment to innovation that is becoming the global norm.