Better, Faster, Cheaper Myopia

Innovation Obsolescence

That’s the good news. The bad news is that true innovation appears to be falling by the wayside. It concerns me that we believe in the myth that better, faster, and cheaper is the only way to create competitive advantages. We have forgotten the importance of thinking outside the box to find ways that are entirely different. The focus on better, faster, and cheaper becomes a limiting factor. This focus is often very metrics driven, complete with dashboards to measure progress. While beating the competition by doing it better, faster, and cheaper may provide incremental gains, it won’t provide the breakthrough ideas that command the highest value in the marketplace. The new, breakthrough ideas that create entirely new paradigms are getting fewer and farther between.

For example, I am amazed at the failure of many business leaders to make innovation part of their company culture. It’s a shame that so much effort is spent copying others or beating up the competition, instead of finding new applications and new markets for products and services. The Internet is certainly the greatest innovation in recent times, but now it seems that new ideas are simply add-ons.

I am also amazed at the failure of many industries to realize that the net effect of better, faster, and cheaper is compressed profit margins. Instead, why don’t we have more businesses creating innovative, value-added products and services that create wider margins?

Innovation’s Value Proposition

At the core of this problem is a society that doesn’t currently value science, engineering, and information technology education or careers. Between 1998 and 2002, the number of science and engineering doctoral degrees awarded to U.S. citizens at U.S. institutions fell 12 percent to 14,000, according to the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology. (During the same period, by the way, the number of doctoral degrees granted in most other fields remained the same.)

Compare that to other countries—like Russia, where 50 percent of their graduates major in science. Microsoft Research says that 180,000 people graduate each year with information technology skills in Russia, while India graduates 60,000 and China graduates 50,000. No other country in the developing world, including the United States, even comes close.

Having an advanced science or engineering degree will make it easier to get a green card, and that may be a factor in that trend. In fact, between 1990 and 2000, foreign-born doctoral graduates in science and engineering fields in the U.S. rose from 24 percent to 38 percent, according to the National Science Foundation. But that source of brainpower began to shrink after increased security restrictions were implemented following September 11, 2001, so we now get fewer scientists and engineers from foreign countries as well.

While business leaders have little direct control over what students decide to study or the immigration policies of the federal government, we can influence students’ choices by choosing to pay more for what we value. Scientists and engineers typically don’t get paid the highest salaries, but if we started paying them more in our own businesses, the number of students attracted to science and engineering would grow.

Our great country has thrived on “disruptive innovation” by the research and development of new ideas, products, and services. Don’t believe in the myth that better, faster, and cheaper is the only way to create competitive advantages. Rather, learn to value and reward innovation, new ideas, and paradigm shifting. (By the way, the common myth that adults don’t grow new brain cells is a bunch of horsepucky!)