“We live in an era of rapid innovation.” I’m sure you’ve heard that phrase, or some variant, over and over again. But what if the conventional wisdom is wrong？ There’s growing evidence that the innovation shortfall of the past decade is not only real but may also have contributed to today’s financial crisis. Think back to 1998, the early days of the dot-com bubble. At the time, the news was filled with reports of startling breakthroughs in science and medicine. With the hindsight of a decade, one thing is abundantly clear: The commercial impact of most of those breakthroughs fell far short of expectations——not just in the U.S. but around the world.