Intel announced a $3.5 billion initiative “to support investment in U.S.-based growth-oriented industries and detailed a commitment to significantly increase jobs available this year for recent college graduates.”

The headline of Intel’s press release says, “Invest in America Alliance to Fund American Technology Companies, Create Jobs for College Grads.” The story was covered bytechnology reporter Claire Cain Miller in the  New York Times, as well as by many others.

Miller begins her article by saying, “Technologists have been worrying aloud for years that America is losing its competitive edge as other countries invest more heavily in technology education and innovation.”

The alliance is led by Intel and is supported by 24 leading venture capital firms and corporations, aims to further anchor America’s competitiveness on the global stage. Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini said the announcement represents ”an investment in the country’s innovators and a signal to the global marketplace about America’s commitment to innovation and future competitiveness.” (read the full transcript of Otellini’s speech).

Venture Capital firms joining the Invest in America alliance include:

• Advanced Technology Ventures
• Braemar Energy Ventures
• Bridgescale Partners
• Canaan Partners
• DCM
• Draper Fisher Jurvetson
• Flywheel Ventures
• Good Energies
• Institutional Venture Partners
• Investcorp Technology Partners
• Khosla Ventures
• Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
• Menlo Ventures
• Mohr Davidow Ventures
• New Enterprise Associates
• North Bridge Venture Partners
• QuestMark Partners
• Sevin Rosen Funds
• Storm Ventures
• Telesoft Partners
• Updata Partners
• U.S. Venture Partners
• Venrock and Walden International

Companies joining the Invest in America alliance include:

• Accenture
• Adobe Systems Incorporated
• Autodesk
• Broadcom Corporation
• CDW LLC.
• Cisco
• Dell
• eBay
• Inc.
• EMC Corporation
• GE
• Google
• Inc.
• HP
• Liberty Mutual Group
• Marvell Semiconductor Inc.
• Microsoft Corporation
• Yahoo!

Uncategorized education, innovation, Technology Public Relations, venture capital

In a blog post that could only have struck the most resonant chords in my heart, Jeffrey Phillips writes, “Innovation does not equal technology.”

Phillips isVP of Sales and Marketing at OVO, the innovation consulting division of NetCentrics. He blogged that while giving a speech recently to a university audience, he was confronted by a senior staff member who argued that innovation was equated to technology, and only scientists and engineers could bring new technologies to life. 

Phillips argument in response was (rightly!) that “that definition of innovation is awfully narrow.” Readers of this blog, and anyone who has taken my “Markting Complex Innovation” course will know that my cardinal equation is:

Innovation = Invention + Marketing

As I tell my students, and as I frequently tell our clients, transforming inventions into innovations is how money is made. And those transformations are not just the responsibility of your technical staff. To quote myself (because I can), “Without great technology PR, every great innovation is worth less, and maybe even worthless.” That is to say that innovation management is not only about creating a technology for the market, but also about creating a market for the technology, or what I like to call “engineering perception.”

Phillips says, “Technology innovation is a subset of innovation generally, and while all technology innovation is innovation, all innovation is not technology innovation.” Well put. And it’s because I love engineering and the technological invention it produces that I’ve spent most of my adult life dedicated to giving a voice to those technologies. Because that’s how invention turns into innovation.

Uncategorized innovation, Technology Public Relations