As I alluded to in Forecasting Happiness, neuroceuticals will play a prominent role in accelerating productivity across all economic sectors during the neurotechnology wave.  One pervasive process that will be affected is the social process of innovation.  Innovation is a key determinant of organizational success wherein cognitive assessment and emotional compassion combine to accelerate the creation of new knowledge. 

Over the past several decades access to a growing global information web has improved innovation cycle times across every industry.  Over the next decade this trend will continue as social networks (opinions, thoughts and concerns) become embedded across this information sea, creating a knowledge web that is vastly more reliable. 

By improving cognitive clarity and emotional stability , neuroceuticals will make possible new behavioral repertoires that most of us cannot consistently attain today.  For example, enhancing an individual's working memory with cogniceuticals will play a role in extending individual creativity, a critical component of the innovation process.

As different aspects of mental health are better understood, more parts of the innovative process will be impacted such as accelerating learning via cogniceuticals to enhancing interpersonal communication with emoticeuticals. As neuroceutical usage spreads across industries it will create a new economic “playing field” wherein individuals who use neuroceuticals will achieve a higher level of productivity than those who don’t. 

The resulting competitive gap will be substantial. To put this in historical perspective, imagine the competitive advantage that a team living in the year 2003 with the Internet as their information source has over a group living in 1953 that must rely on the local library.