Innovation
Here are a few snippets that stood out for me from President Obama’s State of the Union address last week:
“We need to out-innovate the rest of the world.”
“…re-inventing ourselves….”
“An economy driven by new skills and ideas….”
“We can’t win the future with the government of the past.”
As I listened to all this talk about innovation, I kept thinking about this administration’s pro-union stance, such as business-unfriendly nominations to the National Labor Relations Board during a time that it seems we want to encourage job growth. One example of many: the NLRB issuing a proposed rule last month requiring covered employers to post notices informing employees of their rights to seek unionization.
In my opinion, pushing unionization doesn’t feed innovation. In fact, I see the two at odds with each other. Maybe it’s just me and maybe I’m wrong, but I see unions as tied to the industrial age rather than the information age. I see them as bureaucratic, old school, leading to unwieldy business operations. It doesn’t appear that the most cutting-edge, lean, progressive companies are unionized. It doesn’t seem that unions encourage innovation, but that they reward tenure regardless of performance or lack thereof. If I’m wrong–and my husband can attest it wouldn’t be the first time–please share your exceptions in the comments.
On the other hand….Obama’s 1/27/11 “Your Interview with the President,” where our President went on camera to field questions submitted by YouTube members: now that’s innovation.
More of that. Let’s have more of that.
And less of the former.