Former PM for Finland Esko Aho on Enthusiasm About Innovation

Alfredo Moreno on Innovation as a Key to Success

The OECD Innovation Strategy: Getting a Head Start on Tomorrow

EXTRACTED FROM THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY from

THE OECD INNOVATION STRATEGY: GETTING A HEAD START ON TOMORROW – © OECD 2010

People should be empowered to innovate

Human capital is the essence of innovation. Empowering people to innovate relies on broad and relevant education as well as on the development of wide-ranging skills that complement formal education. Curricula and pedagogies need to be adapted to equip students with the capacity to learn and apply new skills throughout their lives. At the same time, education and skills development systems require reform to ensure they are efficient and meet the requirements of society today. Improving teacher quality is particularly important for enhancing outcomes; this might include better initial selection of teachers, ongoing evaluation to identify areas for improvement, and recognizing and rewarding effective teaching.

Universities, colleges and vocational training centres are essential nodes in the innovation system, both producing and attracting the human capital needed for innovation.

These institutions act as essential bridges between players – businesses, governments and countries – in broader and more open systems of innovation. The major policy challenge is to recognize the essential role of universities in the innovation enterprise rather view them, as is all too commonly the case, simply as providers of essential public goods. This requires a greater focus of policy makers on ensuring independence, competition, excellence, entrepreneurial spirit and flexibility in universities.

Entrepreneurs are particularly important actors in innovation, as they help to turn ideas into commercial applications. In the United States in 2007, firms less than five years old accounted for nearly two-thirds of net new jobs. Successful entrepreneurship often comes with practice, hence the importance of experimentation, entry and exit. Yet, only a small part of the population receives entrepreneurial education. Education and training policies should help foster an entrepreneurial culture by instilling the skills and attitudes needed for creative enterprise.

Internationally mobile talent contributes to the creation and diffusion of knowledge, particularly tacit knowledge. To encourage this circulation of knowledge, governments should build absorptive capacity, open labor markets to foreign students, and ensure that the tax regime does not penalize mobile skilled workers. For their part, sending countries can put into place policies that provide opportunities for expatriate researchers to re-enter the domestic labor market. Migration regimes for the highly skilled should be efficient, transparent and simple and enable movement on a short-term or circular basis. Related policies need to be coherent with the wider migration agenda, and with development and aid policies, so as to contribute to the effective management of migration.

People participate in innovation not only by creating, diffusing or adapting technologies in the workplace, but also as consumers. Consumer policy regimes and consumer education should improve the functioning of markets by helping to equip consumers to become active participants in the innovation process and enable them to make informed choices. This has the added benefit of strengthening competition between businesses. It is essential to ensure that the information provided to consumers is easily understandable and takes account of how people process information.

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