Periodic Table of Innovation vs. Roadmap

Here's a great periodic table of U.S. innovation elements (the "eco-system") created by the folks at usinnovation.org.

The eco-system is composed of eight kinds of elements, and they seem pretty reasonable:

We at Kauffman have established a roadmap for national policymakers -- four issues that if acted upon would boost American entrepreneurship and economic growth. In my words, these four are:

1. Ensure a Skilled Workforce. Human capital is the key to economic growth. America's strengths are universal education and a culture of entrepreneurial risk-taking. But a major concern is whether the "mindset" of interest in science is waning. And the traditonal openness to immigration is also in decline, which makes least sense when America deports engineering Ph.D.s who want to stay.
2. Reform Health Care. This is about costs, not nationalizing medicine. The only way to cut the Gordian knot of health care costs is to treat employer health benefits as taxable income. If Congress removes gold-plated insurance deductibility from the tax code, it immediately reduces health care inequality and corrects a massive market failure.
3. Promote Innovation. Patent law, IP rights, low taxes, ease of doing business, and the whole parade of pro-growth institutions are American strengths. Well, some are (U.S. corporate taxes are second highest in the world ... and apparently Congress won't settle until we're number one). A nagging problem is the difficulty of commercializing university-based innovations.
4. Limit regulation and litigation. Abuse of the legal system in class action suits is a threat to employers. A larger movement is underway to balance costs and benefits of business regulation rather than focus on benefits alone.

I like the framework in the periodic elements. I think the Kauffman roadmap emphasizes many of the same things, but I wonder what things we might have missed by narrowing our messaging down to four points? And does their periodic table miss any elements?

Comments

[Charlie Poole]

Additional item: protect private property.

[Rob Jacobs]

How about education as one of the inputs? Public Schools, 4 year Private Colleges and Universities, junior colleges, technical schools, etc.