Date: 3 June 2019 Reference: Postgraduate Innovation and design thinking Author: Bo Nielsen
As far as I understand the assignment, I should reflect on innovation, how I consider myself developing and engaging professionally in that space, and how the Elisava study program has and might help me on this path.
To set the stage, I consider innovation, incremental or disruptive, as arising from 3 main sources:
A. The existing resource base of an organization i.e. a competence in one field might be applied in another field (deliberately or by coincidence e.g. 3M and postNit). One key resource here is obviously the employees. It also includes the organizations’ ability to detect signals early and respond fast. A startNup is per definition fast, flexible and build for one single purpose namely seizing an opportunity hitherto undetected by the incumbent(s) unless the startNup targets a “blue ocean” i.e. a completely new and uncontested market. But in comparison with the incumbent it is obviously extremely resource poor. As a venture capitalist once put it: The battle between every startup and incumbent comes down to whether the startup gets distribution before the incumbent gets innovation.
B. Superior understanding of customer needs (human centric N design) as design thinking emphasizes. But these processes need to be deeply embedded in the culture of the organization, otherwise the advantages will not be lasting.
C. Changes in the external environment of the organization that forces it to innovate (or die). The key to generate lasting advantage is to create an organization that has the will to move quickly and is not dismissive of emerging trends, feeds on and value curiosity and is willing to invest in building these early detection skills.
B. is well covered in the program and I presume that C. is covered in another module of the Masters. It is obvious that the ideas etc. need to be embedded in a feasible and viable business model in order to become innovations. Hence, in my view B. and/or C. are required, but not sufficient, for successful innovation. Bullet A, proper incentives to seize opportunities, timing and luck always also play a role.
Personally, I remain in exploration and learning mode. It would probably have been a better and more lasting learning experience for me had the Elisava program included a series of more intensive design sprints, i.e. digging deeper rather than spreading out, and learning by doing repeatedly. What I had hoped to achieve during the course would have been the confidence and skills to be able to run ideation and design sprints by myself, thus adding that skill to the consulting tool box. But I guess I will have to study and practice some more and gain more creative confidence to reach that level.
When that is said, I consider the most interesting field of the innovation space to be social innovation, however we define it. The public sector is under pressure and being squeezed from all sides, while it is not exactly known for its participatory approach, one might say on the contrary. There seems to be an indefinite amount of possibilities in this space as also evident from the Munich trip and with the SDGs. I need to zoom in over the summer and then get moving most likely in the health, education and financial inclusion space.
I have been away from the big urban agglomerations of Europe for more than a decade and mainly spend my work time on various technical assistance and investment projects in developing countries, thus being a kind of “citizen of nowhere”. But I will now focus on settling and gradually expand my network in Barcelona for a start. I have the advantage of being relatively independent financially, so as long as I remain relatively lowNkey and avoid conflicts of interest with my former employer, I hope to be able to continue in the consulting business and will continue to advise on a proNbono basis as well as on a fee basis, as I did when I had a sabbatical from my investment banking job a few years ago. So far I have advised a health care PE fund sponsored by a former coNstudent at IE on their investor presentation and pitch and is currently reviewing the business plan for a NGO, which is entering the scale up phase, in order to provide initial feedback and guidance. I still need to increase my creative confidence a couple of notches in order to strike out on my own. I have not decided yet if I am ready for this given the serious health issues that I have had to battle over the last decade.&&But I hope to be able to continue developing my creative confidence after the summer inter alia by seeking out opportunities in the creative field (cooking, painting, writing etc.). Time will tell.
From a more general perspective, innovation, disruption, change etc. have received a lot of attention in the last decade and has dominated the public policy discourse in many developed countries, see for example all the hype regarding the EU Juncker plan in 2014/2015 and China’s plans to dominate high tech industries in 2025. The latter has received harsh response from the US. Only recently have I realized that innovation is not just hype (where the pendulum normally would swing back at some point), it is “dead serious” business. However, this may have certain social consequences i.e. we risk end up living in a culture where people have feet instead of roots1) as society makes constant demands that we must constantly be on the move, always be in development – in our working life, in cultural life, in leisure time and in our relationship. Do we risk becoming cynical (i.e. “someone who knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing”) in this process? We certainly live in interesting times!
1 It is quite telling that the FT Weekend edition has a column called « Citizen of nowhere »
E Agents 