HD6060-.A84-2008-PDF-Athena-factor-Reversing-the-brain-drain-in-science,-engineering,-and-technology

The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology
HBR Research Report
United States Running Scared
So what does this add up to for the United States? Partly because of the shortfalls and brain
drain described above, the United States has begun to lose ground in scientific and technological
innovation (see figure 11.2).
The 21st-century global economy is driven by scientific and technical innovation. While the United
States still leads the way, Asia is quickly gaining. Until recently, a key factor behind America’s
success has been its ability to attract the best and the brightest from around the world. According
to a report recently published by Duke University, for instance, more than half of all Silicon Valley
start-ups in the 1990s were founded by immigrants.86 Furthermore, 41% of patents filed in the
United States in 2006 had a foreign national listed as the inventor.87 Now the supply of foreign or
noncitizen talent is threatened on two fronts.
We’ve already talked about a reverse brain drain to India and China. Compounding this problem
are regressive trends on the immigration front, which show up most clearly in limits on H-1B
visas. Because of security concerns following the 9/11 attacks, the cap on H-1B visas has been
set at 65,000, which doesn’t begin to satisfy demand. In each of the last three years, the cap has
been reached at an earlier date in the year, pointing to a great deal of unmet demand for highly
skilled foreigners, many of whom have SET qualifications (see figure 11.3). Business leaders are
increasingly frustrated by the rigidities of U.S. immigration policy. Alcoa CEO Alain Belda is
a case in point. Belda, Moroccan-born and a citizen of Brazil, came to the United States in the
early 1990s when immigration rules were looser. He is particularly well placed to understand the
price paid by restrictive policies that increasingly prevent Alcoa from filling key positions in the
United States with highly qualified foreign talent. In his view, this is putting U.S.-headquartered
companies at a competitive disadvantage.88
FIGURE 11.3
Demand for H-1B Visas in the United States 89
2005
2006
2007
2008
Visa quota
65,000
65,000
65,000
65,000
Month quota
reached
October ‘04
September ‘05
May ‘06
April ‘07
(Cap reached one day after
being opened for petitions.)
Conclusion
Despite these legitimate complaints, the larger truth is, in the United States and around the world,
the supply of SET talent is not keeping up with demand. While some strategies designed to up
the limit for H-1B visas in the United States have the potential of somewhat expanding the labor
supply in specific contexts, these solutions do not provide long-term answers because there simply
is not enough SET talent to go around. The answer lies in radically expanding the labor pool by
tapping into qualified women already in the pipeline, those highly qualified, extremely committed
female scientists, engineers, and technologists described in this report. The upside here is huge.
By tapping into women in their own backyard, companies can quickly and significantly expand
their talent pool. Bringing back just 25% of the highly qualified SET women who have left the labor
market—or stopping them from leaving in the first place—would add 220,000 highly qualified
women to the SET talent pool. In a global economy where such talent drives the competitiveness
of nations, that’s a goal worth rallying around.
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