Innovation Networks

This figure is from recent Forrester report on Innovation Networks. Idea is simple;

to really gain value for Corporate America out of rapidly growing Inidan economy, US CEOs will need to look at India as more than just a low cost provider of commodity services.

What Forrester calls an "Innovation Network" is essentially a proposal for a structured network of loosely coupled organizations that optimize on one key variable "human resource", regardless of geography.

However this is a simple idea, but even inside a large corporations it is hard to implement this idea when human resource is divided across different organizations. So how will this idea be implemented across the globe?

Well there are two answers to that question:

1) Gloomy Answer: It will never happen - so tighten your belt for rough economic or political upheavals

2) Not so Gloomy answer: Corporations will start to matter as much to individual identities as national citizenship. And therefore in cases where gloabal organization truly spreads the power and control across the globe true global growth will emerge via optimal utilization of human resources.

In real world absolutely optimal solution never emerges and therefore real answer will be somewhere in the middle. however Innovation Network concept is a useful tool for course corrections in our search for optimal solution.

Economic Policy

Is Offshoring really bad for America?I dont think so. Remember the ferver in 70s about manufacturing, however later on it worked out to America growing in faster growth industries while rest of the world conitnued economic growth thru taking low end jobs.Off shoring to India in service industry is a similar repeat of macroeconomic shifts. Overtime it will create opportunities for Americans to focus on higher growth areas like Genetic Engineering, Biotechnology, creative industry etc. This may be an end of knowledge worker era in America and beginning of Creative Worker (tm) era.If recent offshoring growth is really ushering the Creative Worker (tm) era in America, then it will bring to American life tremendous wealth of improved quality of life.