Closing the Innovation Gap: Reigniting the Spark of Creativity in a Global Economy

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Named one of the "Best Books on Innovation, 2008" by BusinessWeek magazine

Does innovation come about by luck or hard work? Is it a flash of inspiration or the result of careful management? Are innovators born or taught? In Closing the Innovation Gap, Judith Estrin provides the answers to these and other questions critical to our future. A technology pioneer and business leader, Estrin describes what will be required to reignite the spark of innovation in business, education, and government--ensuring our long-term success in the global economy.

Innovation does not occur in a vacuum. It grows from the interplay of three drivers of creative change--research, development, and application. Estrin calls this dynamic the “Innovation Ecosystem,” explaining how these communities work together to create sustainable innovation.

Closing the Innovation Gap covers:

Leaders in business and public service “must think beyond short-term financial results and understand the impact of globalization and an accelerated pace of change on future economic growth,” says Estrin. With Closing the Innovation Gap as your guide, business leaders will gain key insights into identifying their needs, asking the right questions, testing new ideas, and successfully leading their organization to the frontiers of twenty-first-century innovation.

What Customers Say About Closing the Innovation Gap: Reigniting the Spark of Creativity in a Global Economy:

Like Hutton, Estrin is a critic of short-termism in business, the financial markets, academia and government spending. Judy Estrin has a genuine pedigree in innovation coming from a family of innovators. Judy has a Silicon Valley pedigree having had senior roles or been a board member at: Sun Microsystem (who build servers on which banks, telecoms providers and many [.]. In this respect Estrin echoes the work of Will Hutton's The state we're in published in 1996 which I read in college. This collaboration requires root-and-branch changeEstrin's book is powerful as she pulls together a coherent story which makes it easy to read. depended - now part of Oracle), Cisco (who pretty much are the internet infrastructure) and FedEx.The book addresses the challenge of innovation that we currently have.In Closing the innovation gap, I found the book to fall into three distinct sections: * Charting the origins and progress of what I will call `innovation entropy' in the west.

A secondary factor that Estrin points out is a corresponding lack of appetite for risk - or the rise of risk management which has helped cripple long-term research which begat big innovation * How to address `innovation entropy'. Her father worked with John von Neumann (the father of modern digital computing) at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton and her mother was a professor at the computer science department of UCLA. Some of this short-termism was unintentional as the law of unintended consequences kicked in due to changes in regulations that were designed to encourage innovation. This talks about how the cold war was entwined with the rise and stall of innovative research that helped in creation of technology that we take for granted today: keyhole surgery, the internet, modern computers, cellular phones and CCDs (coupled-charged device which go into digital cameras). * The economic and cultural effects of `innovation entropy'. Estrin maps out the areas where educators, government, financiers and businesses need to change and collaborate on.

As a prominent person within Silicon Valley she gains access to many people who are at the head of organisations driving innovation at the present time.

The only negative comment I would make, and it is slight, is that it appears at times to align online a partisan view point. Other reviewers have commented that some of the ideas in this book have existed for some time, and that may be the case. At other times, it seems anti-partisan, which is what I believe the true intent was. However, this book does an excellent job of tying together the large concepts into a coherent read. I have had no trouble reading this book from cover to cover. This book changed the way that I look at innovation, at the role that government might play, and how to approach the day to day considerations of a startup. It is well written and edited, and it is thought provoking, which was, I believe, the intent.

Judy Estrin's thoughts and ideas on how to close the innovation gap should be a must read for everyone in education, government and our corporate leaders. Her overview of the history of our rise and fall in the technology sector is spot on and her recommendations to close the innovation is refreshing and makes great sense.This book is written so well that once you pick it up you will not be able to put it down.

Excellent book with a variety of clear information well presented. Its an eye opener of our economic reality.

My husband and I both read the book and found it very informative, inspiring and well worth the read.