Every year, IdeaScale asks our customers what their main priorities are for the coming year, and without fail one of the top two priorities is to create a culture of innovation. Every innovation thought leader, every organizational engagement specialist, every pundit or leader in transformation says that this is the secret to avoiding disruption.
As two intermediaries from Hamburg that foster open and cross innovation processes, Science Scout (an initiative of Hamburg Innovation) and Cross Innovation Hub (Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft) joined forces to start a discussion around the stimulation and measurement of open and cross innovation processes.
Of the many risks that directors should be aware of, innovation is the most complex. A corporation that invests in innovation risks failure. A corporation that doesn't invest in innovation risks annihilation due to the many threats from small startups and mega-corporations alike, in a variety of areas.
As innovation professionals, we too often look for inspiration from organizations such as Apple, Amazon, Tesla, Spotify, Google, etc. Cultures within these businesses are encourage transparency, experimentation and autonomy resulting in engaged workforce of the best and brightest minds, pumping out game changing products on-schedule, on-budget and on-point. We want that for the organizations that we support. We want to drive those behaviors.
Over the past few months I have been spending time with a range of Australian companies, getting to better understand their business models and approaches to innovation. While there is plenty of good news for Australian businesses and their innovation practices (see my previous article), there is a justified sense of concern around maintaining sustained, robust growth in the face of digital and exponential disruption.
Over the past few months I have been spending time with a range of Australian companies, getting to better understand their business models and approaches to innovation. After working with US / European organizations for many years, it’s been refreshing to see the actions and impact of innovation in this market.
In theory, most of us like the idea (or at least see the necessity) of regulations. Just look at a recent survey from Pew, that shows 74% of Americans think “the country should do whatever it takes to protect the environment.”
In the context of business management and economics, innovation has mainly been considered as a source of profit and growth. But innovation can also have a transformative role and recently more and more innovators and entrepreneurs are not only considering the financial returns of their projects, but also the societal impacts that they might bring with them.
We are over flooded with massive innovation lacking commercialization; we have qualifications, certifications and degrees but seriously lacking directions; we have incubators and accelerators exhausted like real estate projects…we have make-believe economical development games but the real progress is not there. So what else we need?
For many years, companies were convinced of the competitive advantage of closed research and development. They jealously protected their intellectual property behind closed doors and dramatically revealed it to the public after years of development. This old model has since been replaced by open innovation.
Is Germany loosing the connection to today’s speed of change? In his new book “Germany’s Innovation Jam – How we create a new generation of founders,” Author Jürgen Stäudtner looks at German innovation pitfalls and corresponding resolutions.
Innovation policy is about the challenge of contributing to the wide objectives such as employment, sustainability and economic growth. How to approach such a task? The answer is simple but the effort complex: Aim for a strong innovation eco-system. Referring to the case of the IMP³rove Euromed Project the article suggests four systematic steps on how to establish an effective, innovation inducing eco-system.
Previously in the Standardization Series, we argued that the worth of a management standard addressing innovation will chiefly rest on its ability to provide guidance on how to achieve sustained success through new product, service or business model development. But how will this “guidance” be generally received and which are the key drivers for the adoption of innovation management standards? The following article explains.
This year's Innovation Union Scoreboard shows that most Member States have improved their innovation performance. This allows the European Union to maintain a clear lead over the emerging economies of China, Brazil, India, Russia, and South Africa, but not to close the existing gap with innovation leaders such as the United States, Japan and South Korea. More efforts are therefore needed so as to address the EU's weaknesses. One area in the spotlight is related to firms' innovation activities.
Demand for food grown locally has become a major trend. But local food also includes rising concern about ‘food deserts’, areas where residents have no easy access to fresh fruit and vegetables; the closure of local shops; health inequalities and the obesity. Add in convenience, new technology, and a few entrepreneurs and the result is an emerging redefinition of local stores.
