LatinScribe

In a recent column in El Economista, former Director of Technology Innovation and Education in the Fox administration, Dr. Alejandro Gonzalez, pondered the age-old question why there weren’t more innovative Mexican products in the world.

To better understand this issue, Dr. González said it was first necessary to “analyze every single link in the innovation chain” and then repair “any ruptured connection that may impede its continuity and integrity”.

Unlike many commentators, Dr. González does not blame the government. In fact, he claims that a new supra-agency (Asociación Mexicana de Secretarías de Desarrollo Económico), created to facilitate coordination between key government agencies such as Conayt, IMPI and the Economic Ministry, is "doing an excellent job".

By virtue of these programs, he says, unprecedented efforts are now being made to encourage innovation.

Despite these efforts, however, there is still one gap: researchers.

“Researchers in Mexico are the missing link,” says Dr. Gonzalez. “Although this connection represents a vital element for innovation, it is virtually absent from every layer of Mexico’s industrial cycle”.

Many Mexicans would agree. In fact, if you mentioned the words "lack of technological innovation" to an average Mexican, they'd shake their head in agreement, then reel off a litany of factors to explain why: low teacher salaries, shoddy certification, poor training, corruption, etc.

At which you’d finally shake your head in agreement. “Low salaries, inadequate training”… It makes sense. Of course.

There’d only be one problem: not all Mexican instructors are badly trained, and not all schools are inadequate.

In fact, the conventional explanation of poverty, poor classrooms, bad diet and untrained teachers fails simply because it defies demographics.

With nearly 110 million people, Mexico is a hugely diverse nation, currently the 11th biggest on earth.

Millions of students in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey and smaller provincial cities such as Aguascalientes, Queretaro and Jalapa attend private schools. Many of these students enjoy access to facilities that match or exceed the best private schools in the world. Even public schools have some good teachers.

Why then are we hard-pressed to name 10 innovative Mexican products?

Is there a study about the roots of this “missing link”? Is the only way to address this problem by throwing money at it? Is a top-down approach the most efficient and/or effective way to cultivate innovation?

There are some questions that come immediately to my mind.

I’ll end this entry with the word “spirit”, a soft, fuzzy and abstract term whose undefined nature seems opposed to intellectual rigor. But the spirit to innovate, the “spark” of curiosity, the desire to make things better is, in many ways, akin to the spirit that drives world-class athletes (and successful people) to win.

Without it, the job doesn’t get done.

Is there something here that goes deeper than materialist causes, something beyond inadequate teacher training or poor textbooks? Perhaps the atmosphere in which both teachers and students live and work? Is there a certain attitude (to use another “fuzzy” term) or a set of values or world view associated with being Mexican that fails to encourage innovation?

Is anybody out there brave enough to explore?