Skills, Jobs, Competitiveness and Innovation :: AO

Skills, Jobs, Competitiveness and Innovation :: AO: "There is no doubt that the US has been a leader in innovation over the last century, reinventing itself and its economy from time to time, most recently with the rise of the Internet in the mid-1990s. Clearly, one of the qualities that have made us innovation leaders is our talent. Talent, especially technical talent, is more important than ever, given the fast-changing, complex and unpredictable world in which we live. At the recent IBM Business Leadership Forum in Rome, Tom Friedman observed, 'We've really gone from the Industrial Age to the Information Age; what we're now in is what I would call the Talent Age. You see, when the world is flat, all the tools of collaboration and innovation are increasingly becoming commodities, distributed to more people than ever before. The only sustainable edge you have, therefore, as a country, company or an individual, is actually your human talent.' "