The lunch panel session I attended at Davos on Friday was aptly titled "A New Way for a New Day." Listening to the discussion reminded me again of two fundamental truths in business.

The first is that all recessions—even this one—will eventually come to an end. The second, and an important corollary, is that the companies that will make it to the other side are the ones that continue to invest in innovation when times are bad.

Why? Because when business improves, it will be because people have found something they are excited to buy.

You can be sure when it comes to technology consumers won't find excitement in ideas that don't solve a pain point—or provide them with something unexpected and useful. Customers, both consumers and businesses, will be excited only for something that meets a real need and solves a real problem for them in an innovative way.

We have to go one step further, especially in the consumer market. Great technology alone won't win the day. Companies have to include in their innovation strategies the notion that winners will create products that become true objects of desire.

This is convergence of a different kind—a blending of motivations, of how people make choices, and of what they seek in the products they choose. Technology has become more than something we use. It is often a statement of who we are. This increasingly powerful driver of preference has to be part of the vision for innovation.

That's the real dilemma for companies looking to cut costs in the downturn. Reduced spending on innovation, on R&D, looks appealing in the short term to keep expenses in line, but that's incredibly short sighted.

No company can simply innovate overnight when business comes back. You need to keep investing now, keep the fires of innovation burning, because it will take too long to reignite them later.

There's a great example of this in action in my industry right now in the form of netbooks. Here is an innovation that we've pursued despite the downturn—and, despite the fact that customers are spending less overall, is proving very popular.

It has addressed something the panel discussed—moving out of our siloed approach for developing products and really pursuing the promise of convergence.

We talk a lot about convergence in technology, making it possible for people to carry fewer devices that do more for them—entertain them, inform them, keep them connected, let them talk, and send messages. But we haven't really delivered very well on it until now.

Netbooks are a step in the right direction, but there is more work to do. It's something we're continuing to work on as part of our continued investment in innovation for the long run.