Super-Flexible Ecosystems: Innovating by Recycling

Abstract

How does the Silicon Valley ecosystem maintain the pace of innovation and entrepreneurial creativity? How does it adapt to the ups and downs of business cycles and innovation loops? How does it nurture the relentless entrepreneurial spirit? How does it remain super-flexible? The principle of “recycling” may be one piece of this complex puzzle. It describes how talent, ideas, products, and technologies are re-blended, reconfigured, re-packaged, re-purposed, and ultimately “recycled”. Recycling, we propose, is the cornerstone of the adaptation process in Silicon Valley. It enables the ecosystem to harness “failures”, to learn from setbacks, and to become re-vitalized in the process. The “recycling” lessons of Silicon Valley may be useful for other entrepreneurial hubs around the world, and for established global corporations that have to continuously innovate by introducing new products and services.