Panel discusses hindrances, helpers of innovation

A forum on “drivers and impediments” to innovation, held Monday at the Kauffman Foundation, put permission to fail high among the “drivers.”

“We celebrate innovation, even when it doesn’t work,” said William Zollars, chief executive of YRC Worldwide. “Our only rule is ‘fail fast.’ ”

Zollars said YRC has worked to break down its former hierarchical chain of command and push decision-making closer to the customer, making it easier to introduce innovations.

Tops on the “impediments” list: a U.S. education system that’s not turning out appropriately qualified graduates for the workplace, the panel said.

“Education and work worlds too often are spinning in separate orbits,” said Emily DeRocco, president of the Manufacturing Institute. “As the boomers line up at the exit doors in our manufacturing plants, we find almost no young workers ready to replace them.”

She said government incentives, educators and parents need to redirect attention to the value of technology-based education, keyed to the needs of today’s workplace.

Zollars and fellow Kansas City area chief executive Len Rodman of Black & Veatch contributed their business leaders’ perspective to a discussion led by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and Kauffman chief executive Carl Schramm.

Rodman said his engineering company sees three impediments to innovation — the declining trend in U.S. science and engineering graduates, U.S. immigration policies that limit access to foreign-born talent, and “legislation driven by concern of terror” that limits foreigners’ access to proprietary computerized information (which is a must for any company doing international business).

Gutierrez said that the U.S. has the ability to maintain its historical role as an innovation leader, but that businesses could benefit from “greater predictability on taxes” to help make investment decisions.

Also, Gutierrez said, U.S. isolationism is not the solution.

“We should put out the welcome sign for foreign investment,” he said.

“We shouldn’t be having debates about staying in NAFTA. … This is the most open economy in the world and we should stay that way.”

Schramm said the young U.S. generation entering the work force is demanding that businesses provide climates where innovation can foster.

“If they don’t get it, they will take their careers and go elsewhere,” Schramm said.