This is my third in a series of commentaries from a European trip that took me to Switzerland, Germany, and Poland in mid-November. In Warsaw, I met staff of Poland-based U.S. subsidiaries for a formal discussion of the Industrial Internet.

During my European tour a few weeks ago, I held meetings with and delivered presentations to many of MAPI’s key stakeholders. Here is the first of four installments summarizing my trip.

While measuring potential GDP—the maximum output achievable without provoking inflation—is not an exact science, it is clear that U.S. potential has slowed significantly since the 1980s and 1990s. Slower labor force growth and productivity are causing the sluggishness, although it is likely that government statistics do not accurately account for several types of 21st-century innovation. 

Of all the generations, millennials may be getting the lion’s share of focus lately, but children born after 2000 are having their own impact on society and the economy; the oldest of them aren’t that many years from entering the full-time workforce.

At this still early stage, economic modeling and econometric evidence suggest that robots can have a positive and significant impact on productivity and growth. Concerns about labor market impacts should be centered on a skill bias, whereby robots negatively affect lower-skilled workers. Public investment in preparing the workforce for advancing automation will optimize domestic welfare and global competitiveness.

Synergies may justify valuations, but they pose serious challenges to realize. More than three-quarters of companies say they can’t reach return thresholds on M&A transactions without including synergies, but only a minuscule number find realizing these synergies straightforward.

• Economic freedom is about relying on markets to determine outcomes and limiting government regulation of economic decisions
• The U.S. has experienced a noticeable loss of economic freedom in the last 10 years

Repeat customers are more valuable than ever. A study of global M&A deals over a 10-year period found that customer relationship valuations had doubled, while brand valuations declined by nearly half

Corporate development executives are stuck between a rock and hard place—the current M&A market is overvalued, but boards and shareholders look to them to complete deals to meet growth targets. And the importance of getting deals right has never been higher.

Without product management, a company runs the risk of not growing in big, bold ways. Far too often, manufacturers’ innovation efforts yield little more than minor changes to existing products, rather than new forms of customer value.