Silicon Valley crumbling in on innovation?

If you thought the economic slowdown was the only thing that has been hammering Silicon Valley off late, then you’d be in for a surprise if you were to read Judy Estrin’s new book “Closing the Innovation Gap”. In this she points out, that Silicon Valley is running out of fresh ideas, and innovation is at its depleting best, such that if things go on the way they are now, the valley would be in dire straits a decade from now. Now, that is definitely bad news, what say! It’s like getting the skin off a beauty queen. The whole identity is lost then, eh?

What does Judy say the reasons for this are? Well, for starters entrepreneurs and venture capitalists started focusing more on starting companies to turn around and sell them and less on building successful companies for the long term, which in turn led to a complete dearth of innovation. Part of the reason, she said, was that Cisco and other fast-growing big companies started acquiring start-ups with innovative technologies instead of developing new ideas internally. Entrepreneurs began founding companies with the goal of selling to a big tech company, and venture investors encouraged that.

“In some ways, we have the problem that it looks like innovation is flourishing, but too much of it is short-term, incremental innovation,” she said.  As per her, the best way to tackle this issue would be if venture capitalists start taking more risks, hoping to keep innovation at its bustling best.