In an economic environment where competitive advantage is ephemeral, business cycles are accelerating, and customers are becoming more savvy consumers, the quality of the innovation ecosystem is more important than ever for companies and cities to maintain their competitive advantage. Technological advances including mobile and cloud computing are continually lowering the barriers for new ideas and smaller firms to compete with incumbent firms. These changes allow for faster business cycles where experimentation and testing are integral to market success.
Deloitte's Shift Index, an index measuring these and other forces shaping the US economy, continues to rise. The index indicates the dramatic changes taking place across the economic landscape and the anxiety it is inducing. In meeting these volatile changes, their 2016 index stresses the importance of companies participating and harnessing the flows of knowledge rather than stockpiling knowledge within an organization. This advantage is now less about efficiencies and more about the network around them to quickly develop and deploy solutions. Companies are needing to draw on a vast array of expertise both internally and externally to compete.
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