An Innovation Ranking

It is quite popular to see rankings of all sorts in newspapers or TV shows. We are always intringued and want to know who is first, where we are, how others are ranked…  human after all, right ?

INSEAD, Cornell University and the WIPO have published a new edition of the Global Innovation Index. Similar to the Shanghai ranking, it is quite ambitious and aims at ranking the most innovative countries, not only the universities.  And number one is… Switzerland followed by UK, Sweeden, Finland and the Netherlands.

I love Switzerland, I spent 20 years at the border and worked many times with great researchers and engineers from Swiss schools. But still, this results is a little surprising isn’t it ?

The country has great schools, EPFL and EPFZ for instance, and also industry mammoths as Nestlé, Novartis and Roche who indeed are amongst the most innovative consumer goods manufacturers. But I don’t think this makes an innovation culture at the country level, when services and primarily banking represent 73% of GDP! May be it is a matter of definitions ?

According to me the ranking took too many financials or political stability factors into account (market or business sophistication, institutions etc …) and, in the end, we are far from what most people would define as ‘innovation’. I am more inclined to think that innovation is accelerated by changing conditions, by moving parts and sometimes necessity rather than by an old, stable infrastruture. Israel for instance is only 15th on the list but has a much more innovative industry than many countries listed higher. One could say that my reaction is dictated by the fact that France is only 22nd between Iceland and Estonia, may be true…

But the good news is that wherever innovation is, the open innovation approach allows any company to grasp the best results. You can make up your mind about this Innovation ranking report here at GlobalInnovationIndex