I recently asked this question on linkedin.com and the result of were interesting. Please allow me to share some of the most interesting answers with you.

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Vinit Malpani 

Hard to justify, but both the countries have shown a strong dominancein there innovativeness and creativity in getting work done as well as saving the cost. In long run the country which learns faster and adapts the technology for further development will have a wining edge.

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Nick Hawley 

Neither, having worked with Outsourcers and personnel from both Countries, what I find is that innovation is not taught or reward in either place. This may account for the lack of patients and IP. It appears to me, and I have heard friends who have been through the educational systems there, that India and China are VERY good at teaching analytics, but relatively poor at teaching the critical thinking skills necessary for innovation. In other words, if given a problem, one from these educational systems will work the problem very well based on known methods, techniques and analytics. If the problem
cannot be solved using know analytics, methods and techniques, the one from these educational systems will tend to be less successful.

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Garrett Hartzog 

None of the above! I’ve seen little to suggest that either country is a hotbed of innovation. Even when Japan, Inc. was doing nothing but refining ideas that others had failed to make work, they still ranked higher on the innovation scale.

Right now China seems too busy ripping off the intellectual property of others to be innovative. Likewise, my experience with projects that have been outsourced to India make me doubt that there’s much desire to think outside of the box.

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Simon Berglund 

neither country is innovative at all! They are however, exceptionally well positioned to adopt new technologies and deploy them on a grand scale and at a lower cost.

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Vijay Ayyar 

I agree with most people that neither has displayed the kind of innovativeness for anyone to tag them as such. But I can tell that India is definitely on its way there. The economy is more open and free, regulations are improving and people are taking up opportunities. Lots of people from my university have started their own innovative ventures and are beginning to do well. I cannot comment on China, since I’m not very aware of the ground realities there. But I can vouch for the fact that Indian businessmen are beginning to get very savvy and have innovation on the top of their minds. I’m pretty sure that soon,we well see a lot of innovative successful ventures out of India.
Mark Hesseling

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Damien, 

India, hands-down.

Although people in both cultures have a drive to succeed, from my experience, Curiosity is much more part of Indian culture than in China. Have a booth at any international trade show and see who comes to learn from you: the Indians, not the Chinese.

Let’s look at some innovative products or processes: what country was (still is?) the world’s call center in the first half of the naughties (2000 - 2005)? That was radical organizational innovation implemented in India, with Indians (as well as westerners, of course, which leads to another topic, can you work as a team to implement ideas?).

Reverse example. We all know many products are copied in China. This even goes to the extent that western design mistakes are copied exactly, without even the incremental product innovation necessary to make it better! I understand why the Chinese “copy”, but if they were innovative as a nation, they would at least slightly improve on the original.

Finally, I once facilitated a meeting in Shanghai. During part of it, we wanted to gather input from our Chinese colleagues, brainstorm a bit. This was impossible since it is highly unusual to challenge a senior manager or propose a better way than how things are done now; it could disrespect the manager’s leadership and knowledge. How then, can processes be innovated in China? You are dependent on individuals / entrepreneurs that embody many aspects necessary to realize innovate ideas.

In India, in my view, people are much more willing and able to discuss issues (including highly technical), and challenge each other in one-on-one and group environments. It is through such dialog and challenging that we ultimately understand how to improve on the status quo.

Regards,

Mark

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Ng Wai Mun, Paul 

Hi Damien.

Coming from a Asian… I would say China.

+ points

1. China dun just produce so many Olympic winners just by being a copycat. Try doing it yourself. Chinese culture tends to be more driven, $$$ + result oriented, etc…. which is good to be innovative… u really need to crack your brain to make $.

2. Good designs partners / neighbors - it doesn’t hurt to have Korea, Japan , Hong Kong next to you for inspirations.

3. Education level is increasing - more n more pple are speaking English now. Or let’s put it this way, just pop by your local
university see how much more China students are being enrolled now as compared to 5 years ago. Things changed a lot these days.

- points

Sure china is lacking in IP/Patents. But soon it will change these things take time…

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Chandana Sunder 

None! India and China are both known to be the ‘low-cost’ destinations; India for its low-cost educated labor and China for low-cost manufacturing. China has recently expanded into IT services and you can see that IT giants have set up offices in China. Meanwhile China is beefing up its infrastructure (where India lacks) like never before!

Indian IT giants are fully utilizing the low-cost educated labor of India. If the IT giants decide to innovate then there might be chances of India having an e-d-g-e here. India is yet to make B-I-G in manufacturing.

According to me both countries are trying to have what the other country has. China definitely has an edge in infrastructure,

Who will ultimately have an edge (not innovative edge) ? Only time will tell.

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Steve Aditya 

Hard to say but I think image has something to do with communication, meaning image is something you communicate to others to shape their opinion and one thing I notice is that working with colleagues from both nations, Indians are in general has better English than Chinese. This doesn’t imply Indians are more innovative or smarter than their counterpart but I’ve seen the power of good communication in shaping image.

From my observation, both nations show different culture in terms of image. Indians are more outwardly spoken and more expressive while Chinese tend to be more low profile and minding about the reaction of the environment.

My colleagues from these nations are certainly smart people they just have different way of saying it.

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Damien Duhamel

Managing Partner

www.clearstate.com

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Rule number 4: Recruit beyond the obvious circles

Too many CEOs recruit their colleagues from the same top Business schools, the same “McKinsey alumni circles”, the same towns, the same country clubs, the same nationality, and often, the same race. What do you get? A safe bet, with people with the same mindset and the same vision. Wrong wrong and wrong! Diversity is the only road to innovation in small and large enterprises. There are obvious corporate role where it will be hard to recruit beyond the obvious profile: our dear accountants will rarely come from an anthropologist background…But there are many other corporate functions where the obvious choice is the wrong choice…

Pepsi Co. astonished the world (but why?) by bringing an Indian woman to lead Pepsi to new horizons. Did Pepsi made an innocent move by placing Indra Nooyi as new CEO, was it because there was nobody else able to do the job, or was this a well-calculated plan to have a fairly young, bold, Indian, female as new CEO of one of the world’s largest MNC? Did I hear “young-bold-Indian-female”? This really sounds like the anti-Christ description of Wall Street “obvious circles”…

Check your team, if you want to be a company that lives and breathes innovation you should have on your team people from very different backgrounds: a molecular engineer, an English literature graduate, a retired US navy pilot, a museum curator, an ex-private banker, a failed entrepreneur, a computer geek, etc.

However, don’t force diversity. Ultimately don’t try to build a fake dream team for the sake of it and good PR. The point is simple: don’t close your door to someone who does not fit your CV mold or your company typical ideal profile. The Cirque du Soleil, was not built by recruiting typical clowns and typical acrobats; it has nonetheless succeeded to become a near USD 1 billion global business…

It is no hazard if today’s most innovative countries are also the most cosmopolitan. A melting pot of origins will create a melting pot of ideas. I know it is a different debate, but little surprises if all the most disruptive innovations still come from the US. Diversity churns exchanges, exchanges churn debates, debates churn ideas, and ideas churn innovation.

Conclusion: if you recruit within your comfort zone, you will not innovate. Focus on DNA, not GPA!

Next: “Kill the red tape”

Damien Duhamel

Managing Partner

www.cleartate.com