Intellectual capital is global. Therefore the innovation oriented company creates an ambience that permits ideas to flow from outside in and all around. A group from the GE’s Scandinavian health-care business that was reengineering some anaesthesiology equipment visited with airplane pilots to better understand what goes through the minds of those who oversee other people’s lives in a stressful situation. The outcome was a totally integrated suite of technology that improves the quality of anaesthesiology care in operating rooms.
Procter & Gamble famous for its approach on open innovation established the target that they would partner 50 percent of the company’s innovations with outsiders. They have about eighty-five hundred researchers. Outside the organization there are another 1,5 million similar researchers with pertinent areas of expertise. Why not pick their brains?
The Innovation Forum Norway is for companies that have defined innovation as basic strategy and with high ambitions within the field. The founders were Terje Sand from Brand Management Group and the serial entrepreneur Truls Berg. Truls has started ten new companies within ICT. He built “Sybase Norge” from two to 75 people in five years during the 90’s.
The next gathering in the forum will focus on the business model as an area of innovation. The widely renowned Johan Peter Paludan from the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies will share some of his thoughts including methods and tools. Johan Peter is always on the move, giving more than 100 world-wide presentations. His publications include “The Nordic Welfare State”. He has also contributed to the production of “The Dream Society – From Information to Imagination”.
Let’s finish with Jeff Immelt from General Electric that I had the pleasure of listening to in Oslo some years ago. The only source of profit, the only reason to invest in companies in the future, is their ability to innovate and their ability to differentiate.
Have a good weekend!
