Innovating with Ingenuity
Chapter 8, Innovating with Ingenuity, shows us how companies around the world have been innovating. It is important to understand what ingenuity really means. It is defined as the quality of being ingeniously inventive, creative, and practical; inventiveness. The chapter starts out with the quote, “When people ask me ‘What is your competitive advantage?’ I say, ‘The quality of our engineers.’” This was stated by Mauricio Botelho, President and CEO of Embraer (A successful Brazilian aircraft manufacturer) from 1995 to 2007. John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, in 2005 said that the United States is and remains on being the world’s frontrunner in innovation. He emphasizes that other countries are advancing in technology as enthusiastically as we are and that therefore we cannot assume we are safely ahead of the world. Throughout the chapter we are shown how challengers have been investing in innovation by capitalizing in research and development. Some examples included are companies like ZTE, a Chinese telecom equipment maker that spent 12% of its $3 billion 2006 revenue on research and development. In accordance to VentureOne, Venture capitalists invested $1.89 billion in Chinese companies in 2006. In total, from 2005 to 2006 there was a 34% increase in investments in Chinese information technology firms. Governments are also becoming aware of how important innovation is when it comes to modernization. For example, the Russian President’s, Vladimir Putin, New Deal consisted of $1.1 billion reserved for grants to innovation in schools, teachers, and apprentices. China-based Suntech Power, one of the world best photo-voltaic cell manufacturers, has its own R&D and affiliations with academic institutions. Universities too are proposing more courses in design innovation management and entrepreneurship as well