Japan is the Worlds Most Innovative Country - Report

Japan is the world's most innovative nation, followed by Switzerland, the US and Sweden, according to a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by Cisco. The Economist Intelligence Unit compiled a ranking of 82 economies based on their level of innovation in 2002-06 and, predicted how the ranking would change in 2007-11. The top four will maintain their positions, according to the forecast, while China will move up five places to 54th and Mexico will climb six places to 39th.

The aims of the study were to analyse the importance of innovation, then determine which countries innovate the best and why. To achieve this, the Economist Intelligence Unit compiled the ranking and also conducted a survey of 485 senior executives worldwide on their opinions regarding innovation. Answers from the survey were used to set the weightings for the factors that drive innovation and to examine how and where companies innovate.

Heightened global competition is forcing governments and companies to find new ways to increase productivity, and this is creating renewed interest in the need to innovate. But there is no single, best method to do so. The countries at the top of the ranking are large and small; some value rote learning, while others emphasise spontaneity. All of the leading nations stress the use of government policies to encourage innovation, along with education systems that produce large numbers of scientists and engineers.

"The message for governments is that there is no substitute for good education, nor for policies that encourage investment in IT and communications infrastructure," says Nigel Holloway, the editor of the report. "For companies, the process of renewal should, if anything, be accelerated. The proportion of total sales from new products and services needs to increase."

The report is one of three studies conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit for Cisco that describe the development of the "interactions" economy, in which customers, suppliers, owners, workers and others go beyond mere transactions to exchange information for mutual benefit. The other two research projects investigate the role of collaboration and personalisation in the interactions economy.

You can download the report (pdf file, 44 pages) free of charge at www.eiu.com/Innovation"

Posted to the site on 17th May 2007