Innovation from the Bottom Up - An Argument for Iwate's Approach

An earlier post discusses the differences between Iwate Prefecture's bottom up approach and Miyagi Prefectures nationwide-sourcing approach to recovery. That post cites Miyagi criticism of Iwate's approach. How is Iwate to come up with anything new? Ryu Matsumoto's insulting and career-killing "No smarts, no help" remark to Iwate Governor Tasso played on this criticism.



Most experts and members of the intelligentsia will hold that Miyagi's approach will yield more innovative solutions. This is an underlying premise of recent books and publications on the Tohoku disaster. Examples are Reimagining Japan, a collection of essays published by McKinsey & Company, and MIT's Japan 3/11 Initiative.

But, a growing number of innovation experts believes that bottom-up is better than top-down. A good discussion of this view is in The New York Times Dot Earth blog post "Innovation from the Bottom Up." This view holds that people in the front trenches are better positioned and better informed, so they produce better innovation. According to this view, Iwate's approach should produce better innovation.