The Future of Innovation: a CNBC.com Special Report
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Invention and innovation can change how an economy, a company, even the human body, works — quickly and profoundly. Our special report, "The Future of Innovation," is about defining innovation in the 21st century, and seeking out where it is alive and well in America.
What it Takes
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Audi and MIT have teamed up to create a website that tells users how the roadways and drivers’ moods in their city compare to others nationwide and how urban planners can improve the transportation system.Index findings can tell planners which road segments to improve for the most efficient results. It can also reveal how drivers change their motoring routines when they have more information
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Innovators question the status quo, observe like anthropologists, network for new ideas, and experiment. In short, innovators consistently act differently to think differently.
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Can India transition from being the favored destination for offshored services to a locus of innovation?
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Many would-be innovators have misconceptions about the process of innovation itself. Here, we review some common myths of innovation and separate fiction from fact.
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A Booz & Company study found that companies whose innovation strategies are clearly aligned with their business and culture goals delivered 17-percent higher profit growth over five-year periods than those lacking such tight alignment.
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With so much need that must be met, businesses with that “bigger is always better” mentality are struggling with how to capture all of the opportunity.
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What a terrible time to try to sell an innovation. Oh, for the boom years of a decade ago, when investment capital was as plentiful as the dew.
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Great new ideas are only the first link in a chain that includes government and corporate allies in an economy that supports risk.
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Necessity no longer seems to be the mother of invention. The disposable consumer society has facilitated rapid-paced innovation that has blurred the line between good and bad.
How it Works
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For the first time in roughly a century — since the transition from the one-room schoolhouse to the classroom- and age-based school — a dramatic change in the basic way we structure our educational system is afoot.
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While some believe government intervention in health-care reform is the only way forward, there are already health-care organizations around the country that can deliver better quality care at a lower cost.
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Some of the the best tech innovators are college dropouts. Now one of them is paying aspiring ones to quit school and brainstorm. Peter Thiel's fellowship program is now underway.
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A growing number of parents and educators are leveraging technology to transform grade-school education into a stay-at-home, online experience, partly because of shrinking public budgets and curricula.
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The city of Charlotte, N.C. and a handful of major companies are hoping cutting-edge technology can show 82,000 workers in the biggest downtown office towers how to save energy
Interactive Features
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In the past half-century scientific advances and innovation have transformed our world, how much do you know about innovation?
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As the landscape of innovation becomes increasingly global, there's growing concern that the U.S is no longer the leader.
Slideshows
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States like to promote themselves as fertile ground for innovation — so we put those claims to the test. Click ahead to see the leaders in innovation.
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Here is our list of the 15 of the most influential inventions over the past 50 years, created using a variety of studies as reference points, including ones from Knowledge@Wharton and Popular Mechanics.
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Many entrepreneurs with simple ideas and humble beginnings have been able to effectively turn those ideas into booming businesses.
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Did you know that the popsicle, ear muffs AND the trampoline were invented by kids? Here are 10 cool and inspiring inventions by kids — and how they did it!