And then there's basic R&D

Speaking of innovation, Business Week has another interesting - and I think important - piece on R&D investment.

It looks at the impact of the decline in pure academic and basic research. While this is no time to focus on investment without apparent returns, the long-term effect of so much practicality may harm us more than we realize.

Bill Buxton, Principal Scientist at Microsoft Research writes that "industry needs to look past the myth that research is something it cannot afford or that only extremely large companies can afford. I funded my research program at the 500-person, 3D-graphics-software company, Alias Research, on about 1% of revenue (which was about $100 million). With larger companies, as little as 0.5% is sufficient to support a research group worthy of the name."

He goes on: "What we are doing is not working. The current worldwide economic crisis and the repeated cries for innovation and game-change are only-too-visible indicators of that. We are largely paying the price for policy decisions made a quarter of a century ago."

While some companies are beginning to focus more on the "R" of "R&D" (see GGI's survey results), too many don't. I think a value shift may be in order to restore what has been a core competency of our country -- one which our global future depends on.