Creating actionable knowledge through close ties with industry
Sofia Börjesson is Director of the Center for Business Innovation (CBI) at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. She is Associate Professor in Technology Management and has extensive experience in leading university-company research projects. Professor Börjesson’s university office is frequently unoccupied – she spends a great deal of time visiting companies and organizations in order to see at first hand and to understand how they are working with innovation. She brings with her the latest academic trends based on the work of her group at CBI and their research in the field, in order to help firms to become more innovative and more efficient. InnovationManagement.se asked her a few questions.
Intel Initiative Aims for More IT Enabled Innovation
The Innovation Value Institute (IVI) is a unique industry-academic open innovation consortium. IVI researches and develops unifying frameworks and road-maps for IT and Business executives to create more value from IT and better deliver IT enabled innovation.
Challenges for Innovation in Network Markets
Markets can be quite hostile to new products launched, and in fact they refuse most new products. This hostility to new products can even be stronger in network markets, where all players are interconnected. Read more about the challenges to be addressed when you enter into network markets in this third article in a series of five by Gunjan Bhardwaj, head of Ernst & Young´s Global Business Performance Think-tank.
The Sound of One Hand Creating: Making the Most of Constraints
There's awesome power in constraints, which force us to be more creative, according to John Armato. Instead of complaining about constraints, why not learn to create within them?
Understanding the value of a strategic innovation approach
For companies desiring organic growth and whose innovation efforts are not yielding the results demanded, using a Strategic Innovation approach using structured tools and methods will produce higher value products, services, systems, and environments that will resonate deeper with people to encourage them to become loyal customers. This approach delivers better solutions that are feasible to build, viable for profit, and desirable to the user.
Innovation Strategy: Matching What is Possible with What is Needed
Corporate innovation has traditionally been driven from the technology side; from departments like R&D and engineering. It’s an approach that can be very successful. Indeed, it has often led to great breakthroughs. But if a company wants to win in today’s value-based economy, this is no longer the best way of doing things.
The Impact of the Location on Innovation
Not only internal, but also external factors are strong drivers of innovation. Why have, for instance, some places emerged as “hot spots” for innovation? The impact of the location on innovation is the second in a series of five articles by Gunjan Bhardwaj, head of Ernst & Young´s Global Business Performance Think-tank. The topics of the other articles are: Disruptive Innovation; Innovation in Networks; Social Innovation; and Business Model Innovation.
Adding Value to Customers Through Collaborative Innovation
The role of innovation in industry has changed. What used to be a closed and often secretive exclusive business of the R&D department is now being transformed to an open and collaborative eco system in many companies. InnovationManagement.se spoke to GBS Bindra, Global Innovation Director at Logica about the role of innovation.
The Rise of Re-Invention
The evolution of invention is speeding up exponentially, observes John Amato in this thought-provoking article.
The critical connection between trust, collaboration and innovation
Trust is fundamental to the highest levels of collaboration, but how do you know if that level of trust exists?
How to Align Innovation with Your Corporate Strategy
For any corporate innovation initiative to succeed, it is important that it is aligned with corporate strategy. Jeffrey Baumgartner shares a simple three step approach to help ensure that this happens and to avoid common pitfalls.
To Nurture Innovation, Focus on What Went Right
In looking for improvements and innovations we tend to focus our attention on what went wrong. We try to fix problems. A typical management meeting consists of a group of people who are looking at what is not working and trying their hardest to come up with ways to put things right. But in the process they are often allocating blame, arguing, becoming negative and getting frustrated.
Opinion: Innovation – Walk the Talk!
Most managers agree that innovation is the Nordic region’s last stronghold for competing in a global economy. Moreover, they are interested and fascinated by the thought of working systematically with innovation in order to gain a breakthrough to create growth and profitability for their organisations. But why then, is there so much talk and so little action, argue Gunnar Storfeldt (CEO) and Orren Shalit (Founder), S I T Scandinavia.
When is an Innovation Not an Innovation?
Adjustable-rate mortgages. Zero calorie colas. Television webisodes! Even in tough times, companies maintain a healthy slate of new products and ideas by creating new markets or boosting market share in existing segments. But is every new product or service offered to customers an innovation? In this article, Dr. Gaurav Bhalla, with over 30 years of global experience in the fields of strategy, innovation, and marketing shares his thoughts on the subject of innovation.
Focus on Business Model Innovation and Increase Growth
There are many different types of innovation, but business model innovation shows the strongest correlation with increased operating margin. Focus on Business Model Innovation is the first in a series of five articles by Gunjan Bhardwaj, head of Ernst & Young´s Global Business Performance Think-tank. The topics of the other articles are: Disruptive Innovation; Innovation in Networks; Social Innovation; and the Impact of Location on Innovation.
Editorial: From fortress of innovation to eco systems
Leading companies in Europe have abandoned their old and more or less closed systems, and are building new eco systems that include collaboration with academies, suppliers and sometimes even competitors to create more value for their customers. These companies are examples of a successfully managed innovation process.
How to Increase Your ROI by Measuring and Managing Your Innovation
Studies have shown that companies’ return on innovation (ROI) or hit rate is somewhere between 2-10%. That is another way of saying that around 90% of all innovation efforts are never commercialised or used in general. Jørn Bang Andersen, senior advisor to the Nordic Innovation Centre (NICe), presents a NICe case study on possible ways to dramatically change that.
The Legal Side of Open Innovation
There is one area in which open innovation differs significantly from in-house innovation: the legal element. The consequences of ignoring the legal side of open innovation can be catastrophically expensive, warns Jeffrey Baumgartner.
When no one wants to change: 6 questions that lower the defenses to improving innovation
Why is change so hard? Most people will tell you that it’s because people naturally resist change. I really like Eli Goldratt’s response to this argument: If a very wealthy person that you knew and [...]
Innovation and Customer Insight at Ericsson
A desire to act as a bridge builder between technology and people has taken him from Sweden to New Delhi where he now heads Ericsson ConsumerLab Asia Pacific, a unit within the Ericsson Group that gathers in, processes and analyses data on end consumer needs. Their surveys are based on a cross section of the world’s population in all parts of the world.
The Innovative Leader vs. the Command-and-Control Leader
There are many different ways to lead. CEOs with markedly divergent styles can be successful in different ways. The same leader will often adopt different styles in different circumstances. There is no one correct way to lead or manage. Ultimately the right way is the one that works for you and for the organization in delivering the goals you set out to achieve. In this article, Paul Sloane compares and contrasts the characteristics of innovative and command-and-control leaders.
How do you Deliver Innovation in a Research Environment?
Research at Lund University is world-class. Research is undertaken in areas such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, automatic control, wireless communication, logistics, ecology and cognitive science.
How organizations can access their latent creative capacity: Dr. Win Wenger interview
In this latest interview in the Creativity in Business series, Dr. Win Wenger explains how organizations can draw upon more of their latent creative capacity to meet their own needs and that of the greater good.
“We are in a Major Paradigm Shift”
We are in the middle of a huge shift in our economy. According to Eric von Hippel, one of the hottest names in the area of innovation, that also includes a major paradigm shift, from closed manufacturer-centered innovation to an innovation system centered on “open” - intellectual property-free - innovation that is often developed by users. Manufacturers have to learn how to adapt their business models to this.