China Finds that Innovation is Harder than it looks

Welcome back. Seems to me that, since China does so much manufacturing, it might want to focus on *process* innovation: developing ways to improve manufacturing productivity for things it is already making. This would include the development of machine tools, robotics, etc--the people who actually use these things are arguably best equipped to do product planning for them, at least at the functional level. I could see China developing a major business in making production equipment focused on the needs of developing countries.

Yes, innovation will not brought about by impusive revolution under manipulated wishes, but out of systemtic building up of a whole dynamic enviornment, comprised of such as input of education and research funds and legal institution of intellectual property right, that will require a relatively long-term of streneous and down-to-earth commitment by the entire society.

David Foster's idea is brilliant. I think so, too. I think in fact that is part of the reason that Japan's economy grew because they developed very advanced process technology that allowed them to produce at a much lower cost than their U.S counterpart.

I won't say that China can never become an innovative country like U.S and Western Europe. But its still has some gap to bridge. But perhaps the first healthy step is investment in process technology?

That sounds like a good route to me also. But too much of their research program now sounds like the old Soviet five-year plans

Limitations in Chinese innovation has its roots in Confucian educational system. My experiences about research projects in Beijing: http://beijingman.blogspot.com/2006/01/lets-research-lets-innovate.html

BeijingMan, thanks for the very interesting link.

Innovation has become a corporate buzzword evrywhere. But constantly talking about an idea is totally different from practicing it: One is about wishful thinking; the other, is about action. Innovators are doers, they act. China is trying to become an "innovation society" but so far that is purely wishful thinking.
But how can a huge country like China achieve this goal ? I Think that one way is to build a countrywide culture of innovation inside chinese companies. This strategy should require tangible steps like creating the right internal teams, setting up the right processes and procedures and rewards but also require intangible steps like giving employees room to be creative, and even more important is encouraging them to take risks and initiatives.
But at the end what counts is the perception that a costumer builds in his mind about the value of a firm goods or services. Innovation has to be good value. It’s not innovation at any price or cost.

I think it's interesting, all this talk of innovation. It is very likely that in 10 years the only innovations worth speaking of will be those that garner china a larger share of the worlds dwindling energy supply. And these will likely be military in nature.

How will China, Asia, and the world effectively reconcile their socio-political requirements for essentially infinite growth over time with the very finite limits on world energy capacity in the very near term?

B