Innovation in a Reinvented World: 10 Essential Elements to Succeed in the New World of Business

Disruptions Are All around Us

America has changed. From the security wake-up call of September 11, 2001, to our financial wake-up call of 2008, this decade has wrought vast changes for our country.

The Great Recession affected us all—directly or indirectly—although to what degree depends on your economic status going into it and the safety nets available to you throughout the recession, which officially ended in June 2009. Big business, small business, start-ups, or microenterprises—no business has come through unscathed.

Bruised as a society, we watch as our economic might and position as a world leader come under attack. Unprepared for the economic tsunami of the Great Recession, we watch in desperation as our already frayed social fabric further unravels.

Continuous winning at something hasn't made Americans gracious losers. Unfortunately, we find ourselves internalizing the pain, watching as it plays out in our society in unhealthy ways: political polarity, racial biases and cultural prejudices, and violence against one another.

But even as the economy gathers steam, unemployment numbers will remain high as unemployed workers who had stopped looking for work return to the unemployment lines. As skills deteriorate based on the length of time someone is unemployed, it becomes harder to find a job, partly because of a mismatch between workers' skills and what employers are looking for.

Some analysts predict this recession may take as long as a decade before we can expect to come ...