TORC

Kerry's Tadhg Kennelly Doing a Riverdance Impression (Photographer: Tom Connolly)

This spectacular photo of Kerry footballer, Tadhg Kennelly, in a recent dance-off with teammate, Kieran Donaghy, has minded me of Michael Flatley & Riverdance … & how their innovations begot a whole new industry of Irish Dancing.

For these days, innovation is rightly trumpeted as the cornerstone of economic & commercial success – even, if often there seems to be little consensus on how to make it happen in practice.

The Smart Economy
Here in Ireland, the government is an especially strong advocate; with it’s 2008 publication Building Ireland’s Smart Economy being presented in the style of TK Whitaker’s original First Programme For Economic Expansion, that so enlivened the economy half a century ago.

But innovation is a slippery fish. And, a lively debate has ensued as to whether innovation can in fact be programmed in the fashion outlined in this new government blueprint.

Among the sceptics appear some prominent academic economists: most notably, UCD’s Colm McCarthy and UCC’s Declan Jordan and Eoin O’Leary.

At the heart of the debate is the central part Government expects our universities to play with the doubling of 4^th level graduates in the Sciences.

Innovation: Knowledge or Entrepreneurial-Based?
McCarthy, Jordan & O’Leary argue that commercial innovation has little to do with increasing the level of academic knowledge & research in an area.

They place their faith more in the entrepreneurial ingenuity of the Irish race and would be happier if government simply got out of the way, apart from providing an innovation-friendly environment.

Both sides can claim some shining examples to bolster their respective positions:

Government can point to some successful academic spin-outs such as Iona, Baltimore & Opsona.

The other side can offer equally strong examples, born more out of the market-focussed ingenuity of individual entrepreneurs: Cuisine de France, Baileys Cream Liqueur, Ryanair.

Well, who is right? In a way. I suspect, both may be … at least, half-right.

The Prepared Mind
Certainly, knowledge and ingenuity are each necessary, but independently not sufficient, conditions. It is the combination of both that truly loads the innovation dice in today’s world.

So, the real challenge for Ireland’s Smart Economy maybe as much to increase the stock of entrepreneurial ingenuity in the workforce, as it is the stock of science Ph.D’s in the universities.

This speaks to instilling a broader set of innovation-focussed competencies within & beyond the walls of academia – utilising the requisite training, mentoring and programme management interventions that will ensure all this knowledge finds the prepared minds that Pasteur stressed all those years ago.

(For some illustrative examples of the Prepared Mind in action, please refer to our related slide-set: Innovation: Prepared Minds & Ingenious Twists).