Innovation Ecosystems: Leveraging their Power for Organizational Success and Strategic Change Presented by: Phil Budden , MIT Sloan Senior Lecturer and Fiona Murray , MIT Sloan Professor of Entrepreneurship Moderated by Dr. Peter Hirst Senior Associate Dean, MIT Sloan Executive Education December 18, 2018 MIT Sloan Executive Education Webinar executive.mit.edu #MITWEBINAR
INNOVATION@WORK TM Webinar Series Hear the latest insights from world-renowned MIT Sloan faculty • Each webinar features current research from professors and lecturers who teach in our • Executive Education programs Visit executive.mit.edu for more information on MIT Sloan Executive Education. • Budden and Murray teach Innovation Ecosystems: A New Approach to Accelerating Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship (two-day, in-person course) and Corporate Innovation: Strategies for Leveraging Ecosystems (self-paced, online course) MIT Sloan Executive Education Webinar executive.mit.edu #MITWEBINAR
About our speakers Phil Budden MIT Sloan Senior Lecturer in the Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic • Management (TIES) Group • He has been an executive in both the public and private sectors Budden focuses on taking insights from the frontier of innovation and making them useful • for executives and managers in a variety of industries and sectors Fiona Murray • Associate Dean For Innovation, Co-Director MIT Innovation Initiative, William Porter (1967) Professor of Entrepreneurship, and Faculty Director of the MIT Legatum Center • She is also an Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and serves on the British Prime Minister’s Council on Science and Technology (CST) • Murray is recognized as an international expert on the transformation of investments in scientific and technical innovation into innovation-based entrepreneurship MIT Sloan Executive Education Webinar executive.mit.edu #MITWEBINAR
What we will cover § MITii definition of innovation and how that informs your approach to innovation § Why “the world isn’t flat” for innovation that thrives in certain ecosystems § Which are the 5 key stakeholders in the most successful innovation ecosystems § What this means for business leaders and especially for corporate innovation § How executives can leverage such innovation ecosystems for their organization
Innovation?
Innovation § MIT’s Innovation Initiative (MITii) defines ‘innovation’ simply as the: “process of taking ideas from inception to impact” ; § Focusing on process (not products/services), highlighting the entire journey; § Emphasizing that an ‘ idea ’ is the match between a problem and a solution ; § Observing that a range of different organizations engaged in the process — from universities and startups, to corporations and even governments.
Distinguish ‘Innovation’ & ‘innovative’ MIT collaboratively researches and teaches about innovation, both: - ‘Innovation’ (with a capital “I”), meaning formal processes of taking science, research, and technology through to impact, and; - ‘innovative behaviour’ (with a little “i”), signifying a more widely applicable behaviour/culture in both the public and private sectors. Many of the insights about ‘innovative behaviour’ are informed by research into the practices at the frontier of world-class ‘Innovation’, so the two are mutually supportive…
Spectrum from little “i” innovative behaviour out to capital “I” Innovation Innovation? i i i
Important to recall that ‘innovation’ is… …more than just technology, though new digital technologies (from cutting-edge ‘Innovation’) do enable more ‘innovative behaviours’; …more than just a ‘buzzword’, though there are plenty of those around (e.g. agile, lean, intrapreneurs, sprint, scrum, platform, hackathon, etc.); …and in need of managing and leadership (as it can support change in uncertain times, allow for greater diversity/inclusion, and also empower ‘end users’ to experiment with frontline changes). Leadership of innovation really matters. Without more ‘innovative behaviour’, an organisation will not get a return on its investment in technology, achieve its full potential during uncertainty, or retain/engage the best staff.
An innovative ‘idea’ usually starts with a problem or a solution…
…and innovation comes from the match between a problem and a solution
Where in the innovation landscape is the problem/solution ‘match’? Degree of novelty PROBLEM Degree of novelty SOLUTION
Where in the innovation landscape is the problem/solution ‘match’? Degree of novelty Innovation? PROBLEM Business As Usual (BAU) Degree of novelty SOLUTION
It’s crucial to know which innovation is being attempted and where on the innovation vector it is… Horizon? Degree of novelty Innovation PROBLEM Frontier? i i i BAU Degree of novelty SOLUTION
In the new global economy, the world of innovation is NOT flat… …with a growing number of innovation ecosystems that have unique comparative advantage that can support ‘innovation-driven entrepreneurship’.
MIT sees this with regional partners globally… reap.mit.edu
Poll: In which part of the world are you? reap.mit.edu
Even within regions, innovation is highly concentrated in ‘innovation ecosystems’
Even downtown, the Kendall Square innovation ecosystem is highly concentrated
To generate innovation, organizations used to focus internally…
Recent approaches shifted to ‘open innovation’ and emphasized wide global engagement…
Today’s organizations are more geographically focused on specific ‘innovation ecosystems’
Innovation in ecosystems involves five key regional stakeholders
Poll: With which innovation ecosystem stakeholder do you identify?
For large corporations, this means they need to improve engagement with entrepreneurs and universities
This means understanding the innovation process taking place in innovation ecosystems: § Entrepreneurial start-ups are critical stakeholders in an innovation ecosystem § They are very effective at driving the early stages of the innovation process § They start with a hypothesis of the possible match between a problem and a solution § They define, order, and test assumptions through a series of innovation loops
Innovation Loops* Experiment Evaluate Choose the next steps based on Test ideas rapidly and effectively the lessons from your so as to maximize cost-effective experiment—guided by the information gathering and evidence and emphasizing your learning. assumptions. *As in lean start-up, agile, disciplined entrepreneurship, business model canvas…
Many large organizations find these loops challenging to implement internally (so would benefit from iEcosystem engagement) Experiment Evaluate • Focusing on evidence to prove or • Hard to test rapidly if your processes disprove assumptions emphasize precision over speed • Hard to make decisions with so • Difficult to talk to customers directly little information • Few methods to create “rough & ready” • Comparison to “business as prototypes for cost-effective information usual” projects is likely to be poor gathering and learning
What this means for business leaders, especially for corporate innovation… The world of innovation is (rather unfairly) not flat and innovation occurs best in certain key ecosystems § In which ecosystem does your business need to be? § To what specific ends will you engage the ecosystem? § How will you engage the ecosystem’s key stakeholders? § And at what stage in their innovation loops? What is your organization’s innovation strategy for innovation ecosystem engagement?
Common leadership challenges? The usual challenges and issues with leading change in a complex organizational system apply to innovation, and they need to be understood and addressed: § A fear of ‘failure’ (the ‘F-word’) § A desire for immediate results § A wish to do things that make a splash § Aversion to small experiments § A lack of clear reporting or “air cover” § Problems of re-integration of successful projects
What we covered § MITii definition of innovation and how that informs your approach to innovation § Why “the world isn’t flat” for innovation that thrives in certain ecosystems § Which are the 5 key stakeholders in the most successful innovation ecosystems § What this means for business leaders and especially for corporate innovation § How executives can leverage such innovation ecosystems for their organization
For Q&A Please submit your questions through the webinar panel MIT Sloan Executive Education Webinar executive.mit.edu #MITWEBINAR
Recommend
More recommend
