Last time I promised to talk more about innovation and Professor Jeff DeGraff’s talk at TEDxDetroit. DeGraff, Clinical Professor and "Dean of Innovation" at The University of Michigan Ross School of Business, began his presentation by succinctly stating “In a down market, innovation is your only friend.” To support his claim, he delivered an argument that R D expenditures at many US companies are consistently dropping during the Great Recession, while expanding within international corporations. To avoid blatantly plagiarizing I attempted to swipe some stats myself on the internets.