Chile Forum

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Maybe not as much as we might have hoped.

Article in today's EMOL: of the 61 countries in the survey, Chile comes in 50th. Trounced by the likes of Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina.

The article goes on to say that one of the greatest deficiencies noted in Chilean industry is the lack of patents for new inventions and products, and investment in research and development. In the case of new patents, the figure for Chile comes in at scarcely one percent of the rate for Japan, considered in the study to be the world's leader in innovation. As far as investment in R&D, the report indicates a falloff in Chilean industrial investment from a prior low of just 0.7% to a new low of 0.4 % (percentage of PIB, producto interno bruto, or Gross Domestic Product - GDP in English).

Source: Cámara de Comercio de Santiago (CCS), versión 2010,

Índice de innovación ubica a Chile en el lugar 50 entre 61 países

SANTIAGO.- Pese a que durante los últimos años la discusión en torno al tema de la innovación se ha posicionado como uno de los grandes desafíos de Chile de cara a convertirse en un país desarrollado no ha servido para mejorar dicho aspecto.

Certain innovations [mostly related to either "high technology" or "bio technology"], though they may seem to be quite beneficial to the humanity, in reality caused nothing but harm, both to the planet and to the people.

-A

araucaniax wrote:Certain innovations [mostly related to either "high technology" or "bio technology"], though they may seem to be quite beneficial to the humanity, in reality caused nothing but harm, both to the planet and to the people.

-A

Yes, light bulbs and penicillin are highly overrated.

Don't forget DDT. Bad, bad, bad.

What a strange rejoinder. No argument about Chile & innovation, just a statement that some/much/???? innovation is bad for Mama Gaia and the little Peeps. I wonder which innovations we should give up. I'll start with MTV and Jersey Shore, including Chilena Snookie.

John Hyre, Knuckle Dragger for Innovation

I say we give up the taxes. Very bad innovation, causes world wide pain and suffering for those paying and those being bombed.

As for Chile's innovations, not in the culture. I highly doubt it has anything to do with patent law.

By the way, I might point out that pantent laws tend to be the effect of lots of innovation in a culture, not the cause.

So, what are thoughts out there on the reason for lack of investment in R&D in Chile? Are we talking an oligopoly-type situation in which a few big boy owners are content with their markup on imported goods to the extent that R&D just isn't worth the expense? Why would I invent something, I've already divvied the market exclusively and comfortably with few others. We can just play margin games now amongst ourselves. Supermarket biggies, department store biggies, maybe a small ownership spread of existing car dealers in Chile. Research and development are usually fueled by competing businesses' need to beat their competition, i.e. provide a better product that will attract the consumer. Here it seems the big boys are just content playing wholesaler and have no reason to enter the next phase of development: boning up some R&D and inventing their own toys. Maybe it's a technology input leap away, but there's got to be some room for invention in tech sector here, right? Other sectors?

Hmm, comparatively, Chile lacks tax incentives for citizens to donate to charities and such. Just wondering if the tax system also lacks tax incentives for businesses to invest some R&D pesos...

I'm not so sure about the lack of innovative minds.

It takes some real innovative thinking to repair an ox cart wheel with a piece of baling twine and a flattened out tin can. So Chilean brains can do it.

Are there any countries on that top innovation list that aren't wealthy countries? All that research costs a big packet of cash and the customers to buy the new product must have disposable income.

Innovation requires several things, the most important are education, sources of capital, and a culture that honors it. Look at California in the mid 19th century. We had some thriving settlements started by Mormons and a few Europeans and they set up an education system for the next generation. The gold rush and railroads brought in wealth and capital, and the culture allowed entrepreneurs the freedom to do what the wanted.

Chile resembles California in many ways. You have abundant resources, seaports, and indigenous people that aren't box-o-rocks dumb. Chile even had several injections of European brain stock over the centuries. So why hasn't anything spontaneous happened? IMO it's the Spanish culture of iron bars (visible or not) and its caste system that seriously impede grass roots entrepreneurs. Capital is there, for the connected few, and the rest just look at it all from below and say "Mañana".

Agree that causes could include the system, the "caste system" as GJ mentioned; and closely related to that education.

I read the article as that patent applications is used as one of the measurement tool as part of compiling the indicator, rather than a reason.

It again highlights the contrasts here. Here's a story. A bridge near my house was recently reopened following earthquake repairs. Traffic onto the autopista had meanwhile been diverted through a new road over old landfill, and everyone is of course used to using it.

Now the bridge is repaired, the MOW has removed all the signposting and traffic flows as "normal"... but normal for what it used to be, plus thousands of people who are used to using the now un signposted diversion. Result: massive crashes on an almost daily basis.

Now, some locals have painted up some old table tennis bats and stand there all day directing traffic, with a bottle out for tips.

For me it kind of sums it up every day; on a personal, local, maybe campesino level, there is innovation. But systematically, to meet the needs of a global environment... perhaps the word is easy to misconstrue, but "innovation" on a business level here is definitely against the grain. Table tennis bats, certainly possible and creative. Business innovation, no.

oregon woodsmoke wrote:
Are there any countries on that top innovation list that aren't wealthy countries? All that research costs a big packet of cash

For Mexico to show well ahead of Chile in a test of innovation should be embarrassing.

.. takes some real innovative thinking to repair an ox cart wheel...

Yes, fixing an ox-cart wheel reveals cleverness in a nation. But cleverness is not marketable technical innovation in a competitive modern world. What is significant is that.... in Chile they are still trying to be clever with those 17th century ox-carts.

Maybe we just have nations that are recognised innovators, and others that are simply quaint.

There are clever people in chile, and Chileans do invent things. Just perhaps not at the scale they should relative to the population. First you got a population that is only 15 million, of a country a generation or so ago was still struggling with serious poverty. Also inventing something is one thing, but taking that invention to market is a whole different animal that involves a larger skill set and life opportunities that is missing from much of the population of Chile.

The factor I think that is most important is a culture of entrepreneurship. You need a culture of risk takers, and Chileans overall are not that.

I recall seeing the blood drain from the face of Chilean friends or at least shear confusion when we told them what we were doing when we said we were starting our business years ago. The horror is the lack of security, while not understanding the potential rewards. They simply could not fathom the idea of quiting their jobs and risking everything to start their own business.

For me it was almost the other way around. For me the 9-5 job working for someone else is the horror. My father rarely hammered any serious mandates in to me, but there was one, "always work for yourself". I am a third generations entrepreneur, and I have run dozens of businesses over the years. One of my grandfathers died with over 150 patents under his belt for various products, and both of my grandfathers started successful companies. Innovation comes in many ways, not just hard products. My father did it with law. My wife and I have all kinds of strange processes we have developed over the years to get things done in Chile.

My wife luckily comes from a rare Chilean family that has also had a lot of business people, self-employed professionals, and entrepreneurs. She is also at least a third-generation entrepreneur. So, we did not have any issues with her family trying to talk us out of it and most were very encouraging and excited about the idea, but I am sure in many Chilean households the kids get talked out of it in favor of steady paycheck and safety.

My mantra now is, 'I own time clocks, I don't punch time clocks'.