Innovation used to be a term dedicated to a company’s visions for growth. Keeping one eye on the roots of your business and the other on long-term prospects was a smart strategy. Against a backdrop of a nose-diving economy, however, it seems as if “innovation” now has less to do with growth and more to do with survival.

Consider, for example, a Dec. 4 Washington Post article quoting Bill Gates as he urged President-Elect Obama to increase deficit spending to stimulate the economy. The report states, Gates “described the financial crisis as an opportunity for innovation, likening it to the economic woes of the 1970s, which gave rise to America’s information technology boom, during which Microsoft was born. ‘Difficult times can launch great ideas,’ he said.”

Amidst bailouts and bankruptcies, it’s clearly evident that the desperate need for real innovation now is not restricted to the world of IT. Roche’s CEO Severin Schwan, in a Dec. 8 article in the Wall Street Journal said “Those who fail to bring sufficient innovation will be squeezed out of this market….No one is immune to this failure. That applies equally to small companies and big companies.” Failure of some drug manufacturers, predicts the report, will be the direct result of not having enough innovative medicines that health insurers will be willing to pay for.

With all due respect, I’m not sure whether I agree. Although it is true that innovation is necessary for surviving a difficult economy, I have to wonder how many past “innovations” generated that economy in the first place. And, Microsoft aside, although tough times may give birth to great ideas, I’m thinking they also can bring on very bad ones.