In a recent issue, Time magazine had an interesting story on
the “Spirit of Invention” that explored attitudes towards invention across “mature”
(developed) and emerging (developing economies). The survey addressed middle
class consumers, broad elites and business decision makers. India was one of the
17 countries surveyed.
Considering the number of path-breaking inventions that
happened during the first part of the 20th century (antibiotics,
transistors, jet engines, radar, lasers to name just a few), one thing I found
surprising about this poll is that respondents across countries saw the
post-1980s digital revolution as the most inventive period. The mobile phone
and the internet seem to cast a big shadow over everything else, but I wonder
how things will appear when people look back 100 years from now!
My interest in this story was to understand perceptions of
invention in India, as this will help us understand the Indian environment for
innovation better. Luckily, apart from the Time story, Qualcomm (the sponsor of
the study) has also placed online more details of the data collected.
India and Invention
Drivers and Barriers
Emerging countries like India ranked a good higher education
system (29% for India) as more important than “a society that values creativity
and ingenuity over wealth and financial gain” (23%) as the most important
factor to foster inventiveness. In contrast, the corresponding scores for the
US were 22% and 31% respectively. This could reflect both a stage of evolution
theme as well as widespread current dissatisfaction with higher education in
India.
While consumers from most countries saw a poor education
system or lack of protection for inventors’ rights as the biggest barrier to
invention, Indian consumers chose political instability as the biggest barrier
to invention. Looks like the 2014 elections are looming large on people’s minds
as, by international standards, we have seen stable government for well over a
decade!
Like the rest of the world, Indians think (by a ratio of
almost 4:1) that invention is a much more collaborative process than it was in
the past. By a similar ratio, they also believe that collaboration leads to
better inventions. This seems strange to me because, on the ground, India
appears to see much less collaboration happening than elsewhere. Or, perhaps,
there is a “saying-doing” gap?
Overall, emerging country respondents (including those from
India) gave more importance to the role of national governments in facilitating
invention than did respondents from mature economies (typically 60% vs. 40%; India
was a tad higher than other emerging countries at 70%).
Inventors: Born or Made?
43% of Indian respondents (the highest among all the
countries surveyed) felt that genuine inventions are rare (“once in a lifetime”)
as opposed to happening everywhere In general, emerging countries felt more
like India, and differently from developed nations on this score. Korea seems
to have completely embraced the invention buzz: 95% of Korean respondents felt
that invention is happening everywhere!.
Belief in the democratization of invention is generally
significantly higher in mature economies than in emerging countries. Only 23%
of respondents from India believed that “anyone can be an inventor” compared to
38% for the US and a breathtaking 68% for Korea. There is something fascinating
happening in Korea that I still don’t fully understand – while the chaebol
continue to dominate the economy, clearly the cache of the individual inventor
has completely transformed in the last decade as a result of the digital and
mobile revolutions!.
One piece of good news is that survey respondents generally
felt that inventiveness can be learnt. India reflected this overall trend with
only 23% of the consumer respondents saying that inventiveness is inherited and
the other 77% saying that it can be learnt. But I wonder how this gels with the
previous observation on the democratization of invention – if inventiveness can
be learnt, then why can’t more Indians be inventors? The only way of explaining
this is that Indians believe that external factors will prevent them from
exercising their inventiveness.
An amazing 99% of consumers in Indonesia said that
inventiveness can be learnt. I wonder where this comes from - is this just a
general reflection of current optimism about the Indonesian economy?
Are you an inventor?
I was surprised that a greater proportion of Business
decision makers in India see themselves as inventive compared to the emerging
markets average – 67% vs 50%. I wonder where this number comes from. My guess is
that it’s a reflection of the number of challenges that businesses in India
have to overcome with the constant change in regulations and tax laws, and the
increasing quantum of competition.
Korea offers some mind-boggling numbers on this same
question of whether people see themselves as inventors. 94% of consumers, 89%
of broad elites and 90% of business decision makers see themselves as inventors
compared to the global average of 38, 43 and 46% respectively. The more I think
about this, I wonder whether this is the “Samsung effect.” Samsung’s success in
taking on Apple, a company often rated as the world’s most innovative, may have
had a rub-off effect on the Korean people. How else do you explain such a big difference?
India has one of the highest scores on respect for
inventors: 91% of consumer respondents (against 71% across all countries
surveyed) believed that inventors are respected by society. On this score, the
only country ahead of India is the UAE. Korea scores only 49% on this dimension.
That’s puzzling, doesn’t seem to match the other data reported above.
One measure gives a critical insight into why India is not
as inventive as we would like it to be: this is the set of responses related to
critical attributes of an individual inventor. Only 17% of Indian respondents
rated persistence as one of the top 10 attributes needed by an individual
inventor. In contrast, most other countries rated this much higher (in the US,
50+%). Indian respondents rated imagination and ambition as much more important
than persistence! Remember Edison’s comment on 1% inspiration and 99%
perspiration? No wonder we don’t see Edisons from India!
Motivation for Invention
Emerging countries like China, India and Indonesia see
social good as significantly more important than making money as a motivator
for invention.
Some more food for thought: Respondents in China, Kenya and
India see invention as important for society (95. 92 and 91% respectively)
while only 56% of Korean respondents see invention as very important for
society.
Patents
With the passage of the new Patents Act and efforts by Dr Mashelkar
and others, you might have thought that patent awareness has improved in India.
Think again! Indian consumers had one of the lowest awareness of patents (only
Kenya and UAE below us) at 72% (against an average of 86%).
Amazingly, though, according to this survey, India has one
of the best systems to protect inventor rights. In the consumer category, India
had the highest score – 42% think that the country protects inventor rights
well (against 18% for the US and 5% for Korea). Even among broad elites and
business decision makers, the perception that India protects inventor rights
well is among the highest of all countries. I just don’t know how to explain
this as it conflicts with what most people tell us. At same time India also has
the highest score (23%) of people (consumers) who believe that “an inventor’s
hard work should not be protected from unauthorized use by others.” Somewhat
bizarre!!
The Future of Invention in India
Indians are quite optimistic and confident about the future.
32% of Indian respondents voted for India as likely to be the most inventive
country of the next century! In contrast, only 1% of American and 2% of Chinese
respondents voted for India!! Not clear how we are going to achieve this if we
fail to emphasise persistence as an individual trait.
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