OPINION: If we, in Ireland, can innovate and apply new ideas, we will benefit from a sustainable national prosperity, writes Chris Horn
'INNOVATION IS the key building block in developing strong indigenous industry," said Taoiseach Brian Cowen on November 19th last, when he met John Hartnett, a former senior vice-president at Palm, who led a delegation of top Irish technology leaders from Silicon Valley.
In 2000, our Government had the foresight to create Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) to develop a world-class research capability in Ireland. The discovery of new things, by research, should be a prerequisite for our nation's growth. It should attract foreign investment and it should encourage the invention of new products and services based on insights from the natural world. SFI, the Royal Irish Academy, the British Telecom Young Scientists Exhibition and others celebrate our most successful Irish scientists.
We need ambitious world-class indigenous business leaders. Enterprise Ireland (EI) and the Irish Software Association deserve full praise for their brave initiative in the Leadership For Growth programme, in which young chief executives of Irish technology and construction companies are being tutored in world-class leadership skills via the Stanford Graduate Business School (in Silicon Valley) and Duke Corporate Education (in North Carolina). I have participated as one of the mentors on this programme.
So our taxes, in part, are being invested in scientific research and in developing our emerging business leaders. What else should our Government be doing to rebuild Ireland?
What about entrepreneurship? Ernst and Young and Ulster Bank sponsor the Entrepreneur of the Year. Entrepreneurs organise and manage a business, sometimes taking considerable risk to do so. But to what extent does entrepreneurship, as so ostentatiously celebrated on national TV annually at Citywest and as reflected by the portfolio of finalists chosen by the judges, rebuild Ireland?
It is wonderful to see the growth of family businesses and the implementation within Ireland of business models imported from overseas, but it is unclear to me whether these examples necessarily lead to a sustainable prosperity for Ireland.
While all of these entrepreneurial activities create employment, it remains unclear whether they lead to sustainable national prosperity. "Me too" businesses in Ireland may enrich some individuals but, in my view at least, will not overcome our faltering national competitiveness.
Science is the discovery of what already exists. Entrepreneurship and executive leadership organises business. Invention yields new ideas which were not previously known. But innovation puts new ideas into practice, bringing to life new insights.
Joseph Schumpeter, in his Theory of Economic Development, noted that innovation pragmatically brings new goods, new methods of production, new markets, new sources of raw materials and new organisational structures.
I believe if we, in Ireland, can innovate and pragmatically apply new ideas, we will benefit from a sustainable national prosperity. If we can bring new products, new processes, new markets, new sources and new business structures into practice, then we will not only change Ireland but also change the world.
Our national strategic weakness is now the gap between our world-class research and development (as led by SFI) and our world-class leadership and market development capabilities (as led by EI).
Our primary national focus needs now to be on innovation rather than on entrepreneurship and scientific research.
Some Irish organisations already realise this. This newspaper publishes this monthly magazine. Engineers Ireland organises the national annual Innovation Awards. The theme of the Science Gallery is "Be Discovered" - encouraging young innovators to share new ideas and insightful approaches.
Georgia Tech opened its applied institute in Athlone, Co Westmeath, to work with industry in Ireland and translate results from scientific research into innovative products and services. Comreg has created a globally unique international profile for Ireland by permitting real innovation and experimentation on our national airwaves for broadcasting, narrow-casting and dynamic spectrum technologies.
We should have much more national focus and policy on innovation - putting advanced research and development results into commercial practice. In some other economies, the defence and transportation industries serve as markets for innovation; nevertheless in Ireland, we can still use our taxes to publicly procure innovative services and products.
We can encourage our public services to trial new products and methods which could improve their practices and processes.
We can encourage companies in Ireland to bring challenges to our research community, and together seek innovative and pragmatic solutions - Georgia Tech provides a fine model of how this could be done.
We need to help our young people, in school and in third level, to think innovatively; the need is not so much developing skills in mathematics and science, but cultivating an active and enquiring attitude to experiment, seek solutions and learn from multiple sources.
I was delighted when I heard Cowen assert that innovation is the key to a strong industry. If we can now put policies and programmes behind these words and focus our national development strategy on this one key theme, I believe Ireland can rebuild.
