Innovation, yes, but where are the jobs?

Americans are being asked to focus on innovation and competitiveness.

But what is the end purpose of all this? And how are we defining "innovation?" Should our direction, for example, drive us to develop many more Facebooks?

We have seen Facebook's twenty-something Mark Zuckerberg be named Fortune's CEO of the year and Time Magazine's "Person of The Year." Aaron Sorkin wrote an award-winning movie about him, "The Social Network."

But does any of this really matter? Are Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook the real face of innovation, transformation and entrepreneurship? This 67-year-old troglodyte has two simple questions:

• How does this improve our lives? and,

• Where are the jobs?

As this wave of image-making PR has washed over us, a handful of people sponsored by former Motorola CEO Bob Galvin have been searching for the innovations that really matter in the transformation of the U.S. electricity system. And we have been examining a few exemplars of job-creating innovation for timeless lessons. Our exemplars?

• Cargill, founded during the administration of Abe Lincoln. Cargill employs more than 130,000 people around the world.

• Mayo Clinic, established by the brothers Mayo and the Sisters of St. Francis (3rd Order, Rochester) dates back to the golden years of Chester A. Arthur. Mayo employs 57,000 people, mostly in the Midwest.

• Ford Motor Co., the newbie of our trio, was founded in 1903 during the age of Teddy Roosevelt. Ford employs 150,000 people around the globe.

Facebook, according to recent reports, employs a mere 1,700 people.

Doing the arithmetic, Mayo, Ford and Cargill employ more than 335,000 people. That's 200 times the number of Facebook employees. Moreover, in the next couple of years, these three oldsters will likely add about 17,000 more jobs. In addition to these being good middle class jobs with solid wages and benefits, they are enabling employees to lead meaningful lives providing things we all need, want and will pay for: reliable transportation, safe food and world-leading health care.

No disrespect meant to the estimable Mr. Zuckerberg, but let us examine some leaders who actually do change the world for the better.

Ford continues to pursue Henry Ford's dream, captured in the title of Douglas Brinkley's history of the company -- "Wheels For The World." Henry Ford dreamed of an agrarian people freed from the horse and halter, from the oxen, and from agonizing stoop labor. Ford helped enable a society of freedom, mobility, joy and an industrial middle class.

Now, billions of our fellow humans in China, India and elsewhere stand at the frontier of a similar revolution. And Bill Ford and CEO Alan Mulally want to put them behind the wheel of the safest, highest quality, cleanest and most reliable efficient vehicles possible -- preferably including lots of Fords. And for all of Ford achievements in the past four years, none is more stunning than this -- Ford is now No. 1 in the U.S. for "owner loyalty." Who imagined that four years ago?

Cargill, the quiet giant whose mission is world leader in nutrition, obviously does many things well, including both innovation and quality. Greg Page is the fourth consecutive CEO to adopt the discipline of measuring all 75 business units against the exacting standards of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. That is two decades of ceaseless pursuit of business excellence. Cargill moves, processes and distributes more food to more people at reasonable prices than any other company.

Mayo saves lives and improves health every day. Its commitment to measure and improve the quality and safety of health outcomes is mind-blowing. Here's how it works: First, they establish by research and benchmarking the best outcomes for a procedure. Then they document, analyze, improve, and then standardize the best process for that procedure. Then every Mayo clinical team in every Mayo location is measured against that best outcome.

Then they help the rest of the world to learn and adopt the practice. Mayo is currently led by a tall, lanky Canadian doc named John Noseworthy. He's not on the cover of Fortune or Time, but I predict that Mayo's influence on our lives, our jobs and our economy will be profound.

Greater than Facebook's? Probably so.