Governments Look to Private Sector, CIOs

Innovation is not a new phenomenon, but many companies have begun formally recognizing its importance by promoting their most innovative minds to the corporate level.  By late 2010, industry leaders Coca Cola, Citigroup, AMD and many others had placed Chief Innovation Officers (CIOs) in leadership positions, with several competitors following suit.  Mark Johnson, Chairman and Co-Founder of the innovation consulting and research firm, Innosight noted that the “relatively new” role of the CIO has emerged to meet the demands of a digital age where a company’s average shelf life on the S&P 500 has dropped by almost half since the 1980s. The ability of corporations to reinvigorate “mature industries” through innovation, as GE is attempting to do with its “Ecomagination” initiative, helps companies weather market shifts.  While innovation once held importance only in the IT world, revolutionary “disruptive innovation” can threaten the status quo and requires agile responses that conform to new economic trends

Joel Levinson, CIO at Maximus Canada Inc., a business process outsourcing provider of government and public sector services, described the unique benefits of his position at the Gartner CIO Leadership Forum in March.  Removed from the daily operational responsibilities, a CIO can “see across multiple divisions” in order to offer “innovative, clever solutions” about technology integration.  Knowing the limits and possibilities of technology’s applications, the CIO can offer the “art of the possible” to help companies remain aware of all available economies.

In an effort to improve their own efficiency and handle rising expenditures, governments at all levels are beginning to adopt the private sector’s CIO model.  Maryland recently installed Bryan Sivak, former Washington D.C. Chief Technology Officer, as its first CIO to work on tracking health care costs.  In February, President Obama hired Chris Vein to be his new CTO for innovation from his post as San Francisco’s CIO, where he championed innovative solutions across departments.

Information Week ranked their top 50 government CIOs in a March report that celebrated innovators across federal departments for their important role in “driving IT innovation, efficiency, and new levels of performance.” Government agencies have long been a step behind the private sector adopting new technology, what federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra called the “tech gap” of the U.S. government. The report noted that “many of the CIOs on our list are taking steps to change that by deploying a newer generation of tools, and…shifting away from long-term, monolithic IT projects to faster, nimbler ones.”

Posted by: John Coit

Sources: Business Week, codeforamerica.org, govtech.com, Information Week, searchcio.com

Photo Credit: The Great Leap Forward by flickr user caribb

You are Invited: India’s Quest for a Lower Carbon Footprint

THE ASIA PROGRAM and THE GLOBAL ENERGY INITIATIVE

present:

India’s Quest for a Lower Carbon Footprint

Tuesday, May 10, 2011    4:00 pm–5:30 pm

6^th Floor Board Room

Featuring: Ajay Shankar

FICCI Scholar, WoodrowWilsonCenter

Media organizations are requested to contact the Asia Program in advance at 202/691-4020 or asia@wilsoncenter.org. Otherwise, RSVPs are NOT necessary. Please allow for routine security procedures when you arrive at the Center. A photo ID is required for entry. The Center is located in the southeast wing of the Ronald Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. The closest Metro station is Federal Triangle on the blue and orange lines. For detailed directions, please visit the Center’s website, www.wilsoncenter.org/directions.

Posted by: PAGE Staff

You are Invited: A Conversation with Ricardo Martinelli, President of Panama: Economic Growth and Democratic Stability in Latin America

A Conversation with
His Excellency Ricardo Martinelli,
President of the Republic of Panama:
Economic Growth and Democratic Stability in Latin America

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To RSVP acceptance or to receive further information, send an email to Maria-Stella Gatzoulis at maria-stella.gatzoulis@wilsoncenter.org.  Please provide your name and professional affiliation.

Please allow time on arrival at the building for routine security procedures. A photo ID is required.Individuals attending Woodrow Wilson Center events may be audiotaped, videotaped, or photographed during the course of a meeting, and by attending grant permission for their likenesses and the content of their comments, if any, to be broadcast, webcast, published, or otherwise reported or recorded.

Posted by: PAGE Staff

You are Invited: Liberal Arts at the Brink

United States Studies and the Program on America and the Global Economy (PAGE)

Present:

Liberal Arts at the Brink

Featuring Author: Victor Ferrall, President Emeritus, Beloit College

Commentators: Scott Jaschik, Founding Editor, Inside Higher Ed; Francis Oakley, President Emeritus,

Williams College

Liberal Arts College represent a tiny portion of the higher education market – no more than 2 percent of enrollees.  Yet they produce a stunningly large percentage of America’s leaders virtually every field of endeavor.  The educational experience they offer – small classes led by professors devoted to teaching and mentoring, in a community dedicated to learning – has been a uniquely American higher education ideal.  With Liberal Arts at the Brink, Victor Ferrall hopes to send a wake-up call for everyone who values liberal arts education.  A former college president trained in law and economics, he shows how a spiraling demand for career-related education has pressured liberal arts colleges to become vocational, distorting their mission and core values.  Despite the daunting realities, he makes a spirited case for the unique benefits of the education they offer – to students and the nation.  Ferrall urges liberal arts colleges to stop going it alone and instead band together to promote their vision and ensure their future.

Tuesday, April 26th:  3:00 to 4:30 p.m Woodrow Wilson Center

Fourth Floor Conference Room

RSVP (acceptances only) to usstudies@wilsoncenter.org

Posted by: PAGE Staff

STEM Vital Signs

This morning, Change The Equation, a non-profit, non-partisan CEO-led initiative designed to address America’s innovation challenges, unveiled their Vital Signs Report.  The report aims to mine the data on all 50 states and the District of Columbia with the goal of improving STEM education nationwide.  In his remarks this morning, Craig R. Barrett, current Chair of Change The Equation and the former CEO/Chairman of the Board for Intel, noted that after over fifty years of concern over our country’s science and mathematics education, and after fifty years of mixed progress, now is the time for action as it relates to America’s educational system.

Posted by: Clark Taylor

Sources: Change The Equation

Photo Credit: Change The Equation

Public-Private STEM Collaboration

At its annual summit of education and business leaders last week, the Chamber of Commerce hosted superintendents and CEOs to discuss the “essential role business plays in the success of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.” The Chamber’s Institute for a Competitive Workforce released a report at the event, written by the Institute for a Competitive Workforce, entitled The Case for Being Bold: A New Agenda for Business in Improving STEM Education to outline industry’s role in innovating how America teaches its children.

The report called on leaders to “apply innovative and fresh thinking to areas of protracted debate, such as academic standards, human capital, and new school models.”  Joel Klein, former New York City Schools Chancellor and current NewsCorp Executive Vice President, suggested that school systems invest in more technology that can be used to tap into the interests and learning styles of today’s youth.  He noted that “remedies engineered to fit comfortably within today’s system will be hard-pressed to fundamentally transform STEM education… most [proposals] leave largely undisturbed the organizing assumptions of schools designed to process the masses and educate the few.”

In Memphis, the private sector and educators are collaborating to create just such a cooperative atmosphere that will encourage innovative curricula and reward schools that enrich their STEM education.  The Mid-South STEM Alliance is already “hosting summer camps and developing specific objectives and programs that can be instituted throughout the K-12 system” to encourage student interest and perfect teaching practices.  The programs aim to instill creative thinking-based classrooms with real-world applications in hopes of developing as a “STEM hub” that will attract business to the region.

Posted by: John Coit

Sources: diverseeducation.com, Institute for a Competitive Workforce, memphisdailynews.com, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Photo Credit: Business Class courtesy of flickr user Tulane Public Relations

Reminder – You are Invited: Perspectives on the U.S. – Korea Free Trade Agreement

The Program on America and the Global Economy (PAGE)

Presents

Perspectives on the U.S. – Korea Free Trade Agreement

Featuring: Jose W. Fernandez, Assistant Secretary of State for

Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs

Moderated by: Kent Hughes, Director, Program on America and the Global Economy, Woodrow Wilson Center; Discussant: William E. Craft Jr., Deputy Assistant Secretary for Trade Policy and Programs; Discusant: William Krist, Senior Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center

Mr. Fernandez serves as the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Business Affairs. He leads the Bureau that is responsible for overseeing work on international trade and investment policy; international finance, development, and debt policy; economic sanctions and combating terrorist financing; international energy security policy; international telecommunications and transportation policies; and support for U.S. businesses and the private sector overseas.

Mr. Fernandez served as a partner in the New York office of Latham & Watkins, and Global Chair of the firm’s Latin America practice. For nearly three decades, his practice has focused on Latin America, Europe and Africa, advising clients on international mergers and acquisitions, financings, trade and other matters as the economies of these regions have evolved. Mr. Fernandez was named one of the “World’s Leading Lawyers” by Chambers Global for his M&A and corporate expertise, an “Expert” in International Financial Law Review’s “Guide to the World’s Leading Project Finance Lawyers”, and one of the “World’s Leading Privatization Lawyers” by Euromoney Publications.

Assistant Secretary of State Jose W. Fernandez will speak about the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA).  He will focus on the positive economic implications of the agreement – exports, jobs, and its impact on the American economy – as well as its strengthening of a vital strategic alliance in the Asia-Pacific.  President Obama intends to submit KORUS to Congress in the next few weeks and will work with Congress to secure its approval this spring.

Tuesday, April 19th:  3:00 to 4:30 p.m.

6^th Floor Flom Auditorium, Woodrow Wilson Center

RSVP (acceptances only) to page@wilsoncenter.org

Posted by: PAGE Staff

A New Manufacturing Strategy

In the face of increasingly visible signs of manufacturing decay, some are fighting back.  Towards that end, Senators Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) recently introduced the National Manufacturing Strategy Act of 2011, a bill that aims to make American manufacturing more competitive.  The bill aims to accomplish this through high-tech manufacturing and the use of emerging technologies.  Specific components of the proposed legislation include the adoption of a National Manufacturing Strategy and the creation of a public-private National Manufacturing Board tasked with analyzing American manufacturing and identifying areas for improvement.

The bill, which has received support from the AFL-CIO , comes on the heels of several other pieces of innovation and competitiveness related legislation weighed both by the previous Congress and today’s Congress. Of specific note, late last year, Congress approved a National Economic Competitiveness Strategy within the re-authorization of the AMERICA Competes Act.

In formulating this strategy, the Department of Commerce is currently studying American competitiveness and innovation in areas ranging from entrepreneurship to education to the exchange of ideas.  Submissions for a Request for Information (RFI) released by the Department were due at the beginning of this month. The Department is required by law to complete its study by January 2012.

Posted by Rachel Barker

Sources: AFL-CIO, Athena Alliance, Department of Commerce, Industry Week, Media-Newswire

Photo Credit: Janesville GM Assembly Plant courtesy of flickr user Cliff1066

The Failures of Innovation

In business, today’s hottest innovation may become tomorrow’s old news.  This week Cisco announced that it is halting production of its highly successful FlipCam, which allowed millions of consumers to easily shoot, edit, and share video.  Media reports suggested that the Flipcam struggled to compete as smartphones became more and more integrated.  “It was unusually fast,” Pacific Crest Securities analyst Brent Bracelin said of the FlipCam, “It’s a testament to the pace of innovation in consumer electronics and smartphone technology…”

However, for newly obsolete innovations such as these, all is not lost.  Out of the ashes of situations such as these arise opportunities to develop new and innovative products and technologies.

The two most prominent examples of this phenomenon are two of America’s most innovative companies: Apple and Google. Apple introduced the wildly successful Mac computers only after learning from its failed prototype, LISA.  Likewise, Columbia Business School Professor Rita McGrath argues that it is precisely because Google is willing to take risks and has promoted numerous failed innovations, among them Google Wave and Google Notebook, that it has become so successful.

Some argue that failure is more than an opportunity, but that it is this very failure that lends itself towards creativity and innovation.  Mitchell Osak, a business consultant, has said, “The sooner firms realize that failure is not bad, the quicker they will be on their way to breakthrough innovation.”

Posted by Rachel Barker

Sources: Business Week, Financial Post, Harvard Business Review, New York Times

Photo Credit: Flip Morning courtesy of flickr user Artotem

Watch Live: The Free-Market Path to Electric Cars

The live webcast of this event has concluded.  To view a video archive please check back here.

The Program on America and the Global Economy (PAGE)

Presents

The Free-Market Path to Electric Cars

Featuring: Peter Huber, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute

Moderated by: Kent Hughes, Director, Program on America and the Global Economy, Woodrow Wilson Center; Commentator: Max Parness, MIT Energy Fellow and Switzer Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Peter Huber is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute writing on the issues of drug development, energy, technology, and the law.

He most recently wrote The Bottomless Well, coauthored with Mark Mills, which Bill Gates said “is the only book I’ve ever seen that really explains energy, its history and what it will be like going forward”. Huber’s previous book, Hard Green: Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists (Basic Books, 2000), which was called “the richest contribution ever made to the greening of the political mind” by William F. Buckley, Jr., set out a new conservative manifesto on the environment which advocates a return to conservation and environmental policy based on sound science and market economics. In 1997 he authored two books, Law and Disorder in Cyberspace: Abolish the FCC and Let Common Law Rule the Telecosm, which is an examination of telecommunications policy (Oxford University Press) and (with the University of Pennsylvania’s Kenneth Foster) Judging Science, Scientific Knowledge and the Federal Courts (MIT Press). Previous books include Orwell’s Revenge: The 1984 Palimpsest, (Free Press, 1994), Galileo’s Revenge: Junk Science in the Courtroom (Perseus Book Group, 1991); and Liability: The Legal Revolution and its Consequences (Basic Books, 1988).

Max Parness is an Energy-MIT Energy Fellow and Switzer Fellow pursuing his Master of Science degree in Technology and Policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research addresses the environmental and cost impacts of electric vehicles on electric power production. Prior to beginning his studies at MIT, Max worked on industrial energy efficiency in the Beijing office of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University.

Thursday, April 14:  2:00 to 3:30 p.m.

5^th Floor Conference Room, Woodrow Wilson Center

RSVP (acceptances only) to page@wilsoncenter.org

Posted by: PAGE Staff