Management consulting firm McKinsey conducted a study to find the most innovative regions (and nations) across the globe.  They helpfully present their findings with an interactive version (which, like true consultants, divides the world into analogous bodies of water, including “dynamic oceans” “silent lakes” and “shrinking pools” — and no, I am not making this up).

One can bail water out (sorry) to reveal specific geographic regions.  In the US, Silicon Valley leads (as a “dynamic ocean”), followed by (no order) Chicago, LA, NY, Boston, Minneapolis, SF and Anaheim.  And if the visual does not hold water, you can head over to the online Daily Beast, which helpfully provides a slideshow ranking the top 12 countries.  In order: USA, Singapore, Finland, Israel, South Korea, etc.

The Daily Beast also lists the top schools at producing technology leaders (including another slideshow), with some surprising results as none of the top four are technical schools (of which the highest is MIT at #5, and Cal Poly does not make the list).  The highest-ranked school for technology leaders?  Well, just imagine if Flounder founded Google…