As I was watching videos of winners from the CMU McGinnis Venture Competition I was amazed at the awesome power of American innovation. The teams are out solving problems, the solution to some I can barely understand.

Despite the doom and gloom in our economy today I know our future is bright because of  the ingenuity of partners from around the world solving basic and complex problems. These problems solver, titans of learning, will rise up new businesses and a new economic vitality will emerge from the ashes of derivatives.

I’ve been following the developments in Saudi Arabia as they look to diversify away from all oil to energy intensive manufacturing and knowledge economy. Their SAIGA is opening up some unique opportunities to foreign investment to be a part of building new cities and expanding their current infrastructure.

I can apply the example of Saudi Arabia in any company. What am I doing to foster innovation – how open am I to the contributions of others? Am I prepared for the next business that will disrupt my current model? (ie. blockbuster vs. netflix) What are my basic assumptions about my business, how safe are those assumptions?