China and Innovation

I'll be leading an Inner Circle in Hong Kong next week and have had fascinating phone calls with participants who will be there.

The topic is innovation and our Inner Circle folks appear to have strong opinions on it. 

Many of the people with whom I have spoken thus far point to the dearth of innovation from China, compared to what they see as the Western --especially American --juggernaut of innovation.

But they could be shortsighted.  One of the most interesting phone calls thus far was with Po Chi Wu, an Adjunct Professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.  Beyond that, Po Chi has a string of achievements and involvements not only in academia but also as a highly successful international venture capitalist and entrepreneur.  Po Chi has lived and worked in the US and Asia, and is gung ho about innovation and the opportunities it represents for Mainland China.

Po Chi pointed out that if Bill Gates is right in saying that there is one genius per any million people in a population, that means there are many, many young geniuses-in-the-making in Mainland China.  Po Chi says that these young geniuses-in-the-making are getting the kind of education now that will have them poised to do amazing things in China soon.  He predicts that within the next ten years, there is going to be an explosion of innovation, led by these young people, and they will be driving advancements that right now we can only imagine.  They will be involved in health, government, technology, retail, you name it.

We'll have an interesting Inner Circle discussing this.  And it has already given me a broader perspective of the kind of advancements we can expect from China.  It makes me realize how shortsighted we Americans may be about how global attention--and the global economy--may shift soon.