Is Germany the World’s Most Innovative Country?
The latest Bloomberg Innovation Index is out (2020 edition), and Germany has risen to first place, breaking South Korea’s six-year winning streak, while the U.S. fell one notch to No. 9.
“Innovation is a critical driver of growth and prosperity. China’s move up the rankings, and the U.S. drop, is a reminder that without investment in education and research, trade tariffs aren’t going to maintain America’s economic edge.” –Tom Orlik, Bloomberg Economics chief economist
The rankings are based on dozens of criteria centered around seven metrics:
- For patent activity
- For research personnel concentration
- For tertiary education
- For technology company density
- For productivity
- For manufacturing value added
- For research and development expenditures
The Bloomberg Innovation Index tries to measure and rank countries on the ability of their economies to innovate, which will be a key theme at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland taking place Jan. 21-24.
While spending on research and development continues to be important, shifts in productivity and education effectiveness (among other factors) will continue to encourage significant changes in the index from year to year.
What do you think?
Does Bloomberg get it right or are there other innovation rankings or indexes that do a better job?
Which is more important to the relative innovativeness of a country, efforts by the government or by industry?
Which countries do the best job of achieving successful public/private partnerships to encourage innovation?
Click here to see the full 2020 Bloomberg Innovation Index rankings
Image credits: Bloomberg
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[author image=”https://www.disruptorleague.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Braden-Kelley-70.jpg”]Braden Kelley is a Director of Design Thinking, Innovation and Transformation at Oracle, and a popular innovation speaker and workshop facilitator. He is the author of two five-star books, Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire and Charting Change, and the creator of a revolutionary new Change Planning Toolkit™. Follow him on Linkedin and Twitter (@innovate).[/author]
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Thanks Braden. Interesting to see the differences between Bloomberg and INSEAD/WIPO’s Global Innovation Index (2019 list published last July).
Their Top 10 for 2019:
1. Switzerland
2. Sweden
3. United States
4. Netherlands
5. United Kingdom
6. Finland
7. Denmark
8. Singapore
9. Germany
10. Israel
Of note is that China is ranked #14. They have steadily risen the ranks since 2010 when they were #43.
Do you think American and European companies will ever rue their short-term pursuit of profits as Chinese companies now take them on head-to-head in many markets after all of the up-skilling and intellectual property theft that has occurred over the last twenty years or so?
I guess the most prominent markets people would point to are semiconductors, mobile, solar, and 5G…
Has outsourcing helped or hindered innovation in your mind?