Identifying Innovation, 2011
Key developments:
The Global Innovation Index claimed to show which nations are on the rise and which are not.
In Eye on Innovation. Dialog explored how the right information can help organisations find and monitor innovation. R ecent topics included: Creating an Innovation Pipeline; Smart Meters: Yea or nay?;Robots - Innovations resulting from military research; A power greedy world - Can innovation save the day?
Deloitte
held its annual “Innovative thinking” contest.
Innovation lessons from the "Big Apple"
Monitoring the "front end of innovation".
Booz & Co’s annual study of the world’s biggest R&D spenders showed why highly innovative
companies are able to consistently outperform. Their secret appears to be that they’re good at the right things, not at everything.
In Fostering Innovation Through a Diverse Workforce, Forbes Insights released a new study of the world's largest companies which shows the link between a diverse
and inclusive workforce and the creation of new products, services and business processes.
The pace of innovation in pharmaceuticals
has reportedly slowed to a crawl and industry profits have fallen.
INSEAD
, partnered by, inter alia, Booz & Company
released the results of The Global Innovation Index 2011, which ranked Switzerland
as the most innovative country in the world
Innovation can be a key to kickstarting economies, especially if companies can master the global innovation economy
The best companies in the world are increasingly embracing agility and continuous innovation, according to new research conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity and Human Resource Executive
However, a majority of global executives are dissatisfied with the level of innovation in their companies, according to an "Executive Quiz" commissioned by The Korn/Ferry Institute
This gives extra impetus to understanding the role of chief innovation officers
Harvard launched a new innovation lab and HBR described the three-box approach to business model reinvention, while also launching with McKinsey the management innovation awards
Commentators watched the rise of Chinese and Indian innovation, as part of a wider focus on innovation in government
Bruegel talked about better innovation policies for better lives and planned an innovation dinner
Apple's "innovation premium" was analysed, as was the process of "innovating innovation"
Yet the FT wondered whether radical innovation may be a thing of the past, since with technology fuelling small-scale improvements a ‘eureka’ moment appears all the less likely
Are we entering an era of "innovation starvation"?
PwC Germany promoted its Innovation Management survey.
In Time to innovate, Deloitte
argued that despite an uneven and unpredictable recovery, growth and transformation are on the minds and agendas of forward-thinking executives and that uncertain times can be catalysts for innovation – for those willing and able to be bold.
The Economist argued innovation is today’s equivalent of the Holy Grail: rich-world governments
see it as a way of staving off stagnation and poor governments see it as a way of speeding up growth.
An HBR article argued that corporate innovators should rebalance their innovation portfolios, by taking a look at where they are spending their money, and finding ways to increase investment in efforts where they search for and create tomorrow's markets.
In The Innovation Revelation, a leading academic
argued that innovation initiatives work the same way as climbing a mountain: the struggle to launch something new can be substantial, but most of us forget that what comes after can be even harder.
In its Innovation Extravaganza briefing, Trendwatching argued that innovation is the only way to survive in an ever more global, competitive business arena.
The UK's Work Foundation announced the official launch of the Big Innovation Centre, a new initiative working across government, public and private sectors and higher education institutions to turn the UK
into a global innovation hub.
A new book, The Innovative Leader, looked at how to turn "cubicle dwellers into innovation warriors" and how to replace "a culture of comfortable incremental progress into one of hungry adventure".
Another new book, Look at More, examined why innovation is so beneficial, five drivers that impel innovation; and how to make the most of innovation’s guiding principles.
