With the end of the long summer holidays, business conferences, symposiums and seminars are popping up on the schedule one after another. It appears that in this season businesspeople and other individuals renew their effort to learn, so that they can catch up with and proactively respond to the waves of new technology.
Innovation has been a favorite topic of these meetings in recent years. This indicates that the Japanese (both businesses and individuals) have been interested in this topic for some time, and that such interest is not waning. Since innovation is the foundation of competitiveness today for organizations and countries, this continued interest is warranted.
However, I see some issues about the way innovation is addressed and discussed in this country. The Japanese like to talk about "defining" innovation. They also like to hear about specific examples of innovation. I see a problem with both of these approaches.