---
title: "Has innovation really changed much with the meltdown?"
canonical: https://jimcarroll.com/2009/07/has-innovation-really-changed-much-with-the-meltdown/
updated: 2020-02-23T11:30:40+00:00
---

# Has innovation really changed much with the meltdown?

One year ago today, I was on stage in Sydney, Australia, opening the 2008 Toshiba Mobility Exchange Conference.

Part of my talk focused on the issue of “innovation in the high velocity economy.”

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yjro_z4w5SY

Looking back at a clip from the talk, one year after the global economic meltdown, some key points continue to remain extremely valid going forward as the economic recovery begins.

In a summary, my point then, and my point now, is that innovative organizations concentrate on:

- an accelerated innovation cycle

- rapid ingestion of new technologies / methodologies

- faster time to market

- rapid re-focusing of resources for opportunity or threat

- rabid focus on operational excellence

- innovating for rapid customer change

- nomadic workforce

- rapid response to volatility

If you can nail those things, you are well positioned to deal with what the global economy tosses your way.

Looking back at my slide deck, I concluded with the observation that high-velocity innovators concentrate on “*global scalability, rapid assembly of teams, and hierarchy destroyed, because of a relentless focus on fast, emerging opportunity*.”

I don’t think any of that has changed despite everything that has gone in the last year, and it still provides a good framework for innovative thinking.