Where In The World Is Innovation?

[swombat]

The measure of innovation is patent registrations? I'm not convinced by this measure. Sure, it allows them to draw a nice graph, but if the underlying data is trash, the graph is less than useful.

[jwilliams]

That's the scale for the chart - The article (that it links to) claims: "analyzed over 700 variables, including those driving innovation (business environment, government and regulation, human capital, infrastructure, and local demand) along with proxies for innovation output (for example, economic value added, journal publications, patent applications) to identify trends among the success stories"

[ig1]

Also measuring US Patents is obviously going to skew it towards US hubs, not to mention many things are patentable in the US (software, business methods) which aren't patentable elsewhere.

[lacker]

The problem with "number of patents" is that it counts the touch-scroll-wheel for the iPod as the same as any random patent, although it will have a lot more influence on the world.

[mixmax]

I've taken out two patents in startups I founded, and it was probably the least creative experience of the whole venture.

I don't think I'll take out patents next time around.

[rgrieselhuber]

Nice to see Tokyo floating big. There is a lot of great stuff going on here, even more than is commonly noticed by the press.

[timcederman]

Nice to see Brisbane, Australia on there, although the whole reason I left is because it certainly didn't seem like a "hot spring". That said, universities there were certainly doing some great research (very cutting edge all things considered), and getting a lot patents, etc.

[jwilliams]

Where are you now?

I know the McKinsey is a subscription - but does anyone know if the complete data set available? In particular, I'd like to know how other Australian cities were positioned (I'm in Melbourne).

[djahng]

I think the author is missing the point. You can find people anywhere in the world to fund a website that "shows cat videos" as long as you don't approach investors with that thesis. And really, it's ok to fail anywhere, not just Silicon Valley. It's what you learn from it that counts. Sure, it's probably not ok to fail because you became a heroin addict (even in Silicon Vallye). But if you're a computer scientist in Utah that tried to come up with, for example, new encryption methods for banking software security but failed to get funding, does that make the technology itself irrelevant because your business failed?

[noaharc]

Hot springs, dynamic oceans, silent lakes, and shrinking pools??

Sometimes consulting doesn't seem like such a bad career, then reality smacks me in the face.

[chiffonade]

Why not use colorful language?

It's not like the Flickr, Twitter, Rumblr, Tumblr, Dumbler, Fumblr thing we have going on in the web 2.0 world is any better.

[anthonyrubin]

Original source:

http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/innovation/building-a...

[pchristensen]

Interesting that Chicago had the 3rd highest diversity (after SV, Tokyo)

[rs]

sigh... and london did not fare well :( There are a number of "things" going on here, and all I can imagine is the scale of SV :)

[chiffonade]

Eh, I wouldn't romanticize it too much. Silicon Valley is just a bunch of strip malls, suburban homes and office parks.