Do large companies need a Chief Innovation Officer? First they need to think more clearly about the range of issues they can innovate their way through and those that they cannot.

In last week’s IM article we looked beyond national innovation metrics at how in the French system innovation is stifled by education, culture and systemic factors. Can we recalibrate innovation through national policy? This weeks concluding article looks at how the policy makers should be redirecting their efforts beyond traditional measures.

National innovation statistics are regularly produced to make some Government agencies feel good about themselves and others feel bad – but do they really tell us how to make innovation happen more easily? In the first of a two part series we see how the French example holds salutary lessons for companies and governments.

Policy makers who want to stimulate innovation need to look at the new generation of people coming into the workforce. But are they properly prepared to play a role in invention and change? Rob Blaauboer looks at Dutch experience of teaching them how.

MIT has an incredible reputation, is an amazing brand, and is connected to numerous tech transfer successes. It is true that the system in the US is very different to that in Sweden: The laws are different, there is more money available in most parts of the US system, the domestic market is larger and the culture is very different. However, this is not say that Sweden cannot learn from the example of MIT, and apply whatever is feasible.

Public sector innovation is a necessity, if we are to reduce public spending and address changing demographics. The public sector is lagging behind the private sector in transforming ideas into innovation, which made me question whether we are pursuing the wrong approach. This is not to say that I am questioning the abilities of people working in the public sector, but merely provoking a dialogue with the reader. You are all invited to join in!

In this tough economy, companies often put innovation on the back burner. In a recent survey of executives, innovation has dropped as a priority for senior management teams. In some sense, this seems logical. Why invest your company’s capital in long-term innovation efforts when short-term survival is key? Do you really need to invest in technology R&D when the payoff in revenue and profitability growth might be years away?

So here we are already in December. Budgets are being argued, numbers fixed, concepts and plans discussed, high hopes build for a successful 2011. Tell me what did we learn from 2010 from an innovation perspective that we can build upon in 2011?

This is the first piece in a blog series written by Ehsan Ehsani on innovation management leading practices.

Máire Geoghegan Quinn, the Commissioner for Research & Innovation in Europe, set a goal for Europe to become an innovation economy. By removing innovation bottlenecks, focusing on societal challenges and introducing a new form of Partnerships (European Innovation Partnerships) where (pan) European stakeholders can work together, Europe will create 3,7 million new jobs and position itself as a world player if not leader in innovation.

Now that you have successfully developed an innovative new product or service, how do you stimulate market demand? Your customers are overwhelmed with the number of product and service choices that exist in the market today and the volume of marketing messages that bombard them. It is estimated that the average American is exposed to hundreds of advertisements a day and this number is only growing. The only way to stand out from the competition is to step back and establish a clear and credible point of distinction.

“We welcome your visit, but only if you are prepared to enter meaningful collaboration immediately!” This is the message that the Innovation Unit of the Central Denmark Region distribute to our international colleagues – and it seems to work. A case of breaking the paradigm of co-creating in the public sector.

Certainly business model innovation is high on many businesses agenda so as to achieve this fresh growth and renewal we are all looking to need, following the recent more difficult times we have been facing. The question is how do we go about it? This week Paul Hobcraft is reviewing two books that can certainly help. “Business Model Generation” by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur, and “Seizing the White Space by ”Mark Johnson.

The most recent European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS, 2009), ranks Denmark among the top-five innovation leaders, an impressive number that hides a rather grim reality. Denmark and two other of the countries in the top-five, Sweden and the United Kingdom, have not experienced annual growth in innovation performance and thus are the slow growers among the innovation leaders. In Denmark’s case, one of the reasons for this is that Danish companies are not entering into external collaborations, according to Jeffrey Saunders, Futurist at the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies, in a presentation to the Danes Abroad Business Group Online forum. The EIS shows an 8% decline over the last five years in the collaboration among innovative SMEs in Denmark.

Amid news headlines of financial crisis and unemployment rates, China is moving ahead, steadily bouncing back from any dips in the country’s growth during the last two years. Multinational companies in China are bracing for a renewed talent war of job-hopping and poaching, as economic growth accelerates. Although the talent war will likely emerge first in the East, it will spread to become global as demographic shifts become more pronounced. InnovationManagement interviewed Sam Kondo Steffensen, CEO of MillionBrains, to get his perspective on how talent should be recruited and managed.