Frozen with fear — that’s one way to describe the state most American businesses are in today. No different than most American consumers. Virtually everyone is afraid to move forward as the future is so uncertain. So we wait to see what’s going to happen. If the banks will start loaning. If demand will pick up. If the market will rally for a while.
In that waiting, people seek the silver bullet, which during this tough time seems to be “innovation,” as if the very term would resurrect the economy just by our focusing on “it.” One would think somehow that innovation, which has always been a hallmark of American business, was something entirely new that we have not been doing, or not doing nearly enough of. And that by simply being innovative we could end our economic woes.
In fact we’ve now so over-used, over-hyped, and over-exposed the term that it has essentially lost its meaning.
The truth is innovation is neither something new nor is it magic bullet. It will not save the economy.
