The innovation economy: The future success of the United States is riding on it

This blog post is an excerpt from my recently published book iInnovate - A guide for engaging in the innovation economy. I wrote the book and started a business, called iInnovate Leadership Network, to help guide, support, and inspire innovators, entrepreneurs, and business builders interested in growing valuable companies that improve the lives of all stakeholders and the communities where they live and work. I believe innovation and entrepreneurship is what has made this country great, and will continue to do so in the future.

Enjoy the read!

The United States has become a great economic power because of its ability to innovate, and enable entrepreneurs to grow companies based on their creativity, drive, and ingenuity. Our laws and culture allow for the free flow of talent and money to game-changing inventions. We celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit and closely guard the American dream. We believe that the rewards of our capitalist society should be available to anyone with the creativity, determination, and hard work to pursue them. Although we clearly have not achieved this objective yet, the United States is the leading innovation economy in the world, and a model that other countries wish to emulate.

The United States, however, cannot take its innovation excellence for granted, as globalization has rapidly enabled other countries to catch up and in some areas even surpass the United States. A Gallup study based on Census Bureau data, ranked the United States twelfth in 2015 among developed nations in terms of business start-up activity per capita. Even more alarming is that business start-ups have been declining steadily in the United States over the past thirty years, and now annual business deaths outnumber starts.

In order to reverse this trend, and retain our competitive innovation advantage in the world, we will need more people trained and ready to participate in the innovation economy; additional investments in education, new innovation, and entrepreneurship; and the will to include as many individuals as possible in the innovation economy.

This mandate, if you will, is only becoming greater as innovation speeds up the rate of change and greatly alters the way we work and live.

For some, this is a scary proposition. For others, willing to embrace the challenges and opportunities that innovation brings, it is a very exciting time. If you would like to be part of the changes that are inevitably occurring, this is an invitation to come aboard and join the exciting opportunities that await you within the innovation economy. Get started on your own innovation journey so you can be counted as one who claims “iInnovate” and have changed the world for the better.