Innovation during difficult times
Artikel auf Deutsch: NZZ
Whenever I give a talk about innovation in Switzerland, I start with a picture of Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau and I tell the audience that, to me, this is one of the most interesting Swiss stories of ambitious innovation, and failure that I know in Switzerland. It is the story of Adolf Guyer-Zeller, who ran a spinning mill who set himself the goal to build a train all the way to the summit of Jungfrau. It took only 3 years for the Swiss government to give him the concession to build the train and a powerplant to power it – no innovator wins alone, and governments can help or hurt them. And when in 1912 Jungfraujoch opened, it was clear that Guyer-Zeller’s initial goal of reaching the summit of Jungfrau was not going to be achieved. And despite all that, the Top of Europe has become a visible beacon of Swiss tourism and ingenuity.
After returning to Switzerland from decades in the US, I had landed in Zurich early in the morning and was in a train to Interlaken. By the time I arrived there, two well-meaning individuals who had recognized me and introduced themselves, tried to convince me that it is impossible to do big innovative things in this country. “We are conservative”, “Failing is not an option here” and many other things were said that may be true in many cases but are certainly not all Swiss innovation. I asked them to look at the Jungfraujoch when we arrived in Interlaken. “That too is Swiss innovation”, I said.
Switzerland is a hugely successful country for a variety of reasons. But, without any doubt, Switzerland is doing well today because of the innovators that built it during the decades and centuries past. It is pioneers like Guyer-Zeller, Escher-Wyss, Nestle, Hoffman-LaRoche, Brown and Boveri, and thousands of others with names known in specific industries or regions, who all came up with new ideas and often took enormous personal risks and helped create jobs and income for many till today. To provide opportunities for the world in the future, it is critical that we continue to enable such innovators.
I have visited dozens of companies since moving to Switzerland and I have seen innovators and entrepreneurs of all ages and in many industries who are good or better than many of the leaders I know in the USA and beyond. That is, in part, because of the excellent education system in Switzerland that provides educational opportunities from vocational apprenticeships till PhDs at ETH and other Swiss universities who lead the world in domains of research and innovation. Empowered and educated talent, it turns out, is one of the core-pillars on which future innovation is built, including inventing new ways of construction, traffic, and farming that are needed as we move towards hotter summers, and shifts that are inevitable now. Innovators know that change is always opportunity as well. In fact, after spending a few months in Switzerland I am even more convinced of the enormous potential Switzerland has in high-tech manufactured products that are critical for “Space Tech”, “Green Tech”, “Robotics”, intelligent systems, and many others.
But for us to achieve that potential, and especially in a time of financial difficulties in Europe and elsewhere, I believe we need to focus on three priorities short term that will have important impacts in the long run.
First, we must not allow the tactical challenges we have today to get us to divest from the very organizations that crank out the innovators we seek to empower. It is perfectly appropriate for government officials to push their universities, educational entities, and research institutes to focus on innovation and focus on the impact of their research to the well-being of Switzerland and beyond. Universities, like government entities and companies run the risk of turning into bureaucracies and focusing away from excellence and impact. They all need leadership that pushes them. But, divesting from them has consequences for a long time.
Second, government entities, together with the private sector to help translate innovative ideas from research organizations and grow companies in Switzerland. Switzerland, a famed innovator told me lead, either because we are smarter, more agile or both. We want to focus on this and continually look at our processes and systems within the government and in the private sector and optimize for that. Further, we cannot be ok with a model in which we educate innovators and top talent who may even start companies but watch so many of them move abroad. There are amazing promoters of entrepreneurship in Switzerland who have huge experience in building and growing companies. How do we build momentum together, as a team to not only out-perform international competitors in building companies, but also in growing them.
Third, and finally, my wish is that we celebrate the amazing innovators that are in Switzerland and focus more on the Guyer-Zeller, Escher-Wyss and other kinds of stories and actively fight a defeatist attitude that stops us from taking full advantage of the excellence that is Switzerland, the excellence that I recognized worldwide and appreciated. When we do that, let’s remember the fact that change is certain but those to think and act ahead of others can take advantage of it more than others.
