I have the privilege of giving many talks about our economy and invention and Edison. I have always admired the GE slogan, "Progress is our most important product".
This slogan, originally emblazoned on the wall of GE's Outdoor Lighting Center in North Carolina in 1958, certainly champions the importance of progress, but it also has another powerful message....meaning that process is more important than content (any products that can be developed); that is, it does not matter how "smart" a company is, their true value lies in what they can do with what they know, and how fast they can do this for strategic advantage in global markets.
This is just what Thomas Edison would applaud as well. He was all about process-the entire mantra behind R&D labs as an example. In the 80's/90's great companies rejuvenated this process philosophy by emphasizing "strategic corporate processes for success". Now in our current Internet driven world, I do think we need to bring that powerful process message back again.
Incidentally, this is the value of a STEM education, for nowhere else in the national educational curriculum does the message about process get told and practiced, certainly not in the traditional academic curriculum which stubbornly emphasizes content--- with the result that students struggle to "apply" what they have learned. STEM holds a clear advantage for students going into technical fields. Employers want STEM educated applicants for their workforce. By the way, Edison is the great, grand-daddy of STEM! His long established process for converting raw ideas to products for sale is what STEM teachers refer to today as the "engineering design process".
Talk to you again soon...
Harry