The Innovation Drought

Overhype

from the it's-all-going-away dept

Business Week has a long article looking at how the sudden drop in venture capital spending may be leading to an innovation drought in the US. They look carefully at what investors are putting money towards, and go sector by sector pointing out “innovative” failures. While there’s some truth to what they’re saying, I also think it’s a bit overblown. The companies they’re talking about innovated – but often did so badly. They never innovated for the market. They innovated just to get rich by IPO. Sure, some of the companies that are now out of business had good products – they just ran out of time. That’s a fault, mainly, of the changing economic times. However, there are still plenty of companies being started these days, but they’re being a lot smarter about what they produce and how they spend their money. So, I don’t think that innovation is dead. Sure, it might not be as far out as it was a couple of years ago, but it will be more useful and more practical.