Last week I attended the monthly meeting of a local chapter of SIM (Society of Information Management), a professional society that I have belonged to for years. The after-dinner topic was “The 2010 Annual Report on Technology, Innovation and the Economy.” The last of the three panelists presented statistics and survey data showing that small businesses, particularly in the technology sector, were responsible for most, if not all, of the jobs created during previous recovery periods through innovation and, therefore, should be the recipient of all federal stimulus money targeted at job creation.

During the meeting I asked the speaker to explain his assertion that it was innovation by small businesses that led to their job creation ability. I offered that nothing in the numbers and analysis presented had demonstrated a linkage between the two. As is usually the case Read more …