Episode 56: Innovation Conference 2007

It has been difficult to get enough time to write lately. I am that middle of that job change time where I seem to be doing two full time jobs - finishing my commitments as CDO while fully engaging with the new team. What is really hard is that there is so much going on to talk about. 

Today, EMC is holding it first “Innovation Conference.” It started as an idea to bring innovations and innovators from across the organization together for a conference specifically dedicated to innovation.

We had Don Tapscott (the Author of Wikinomics) speak at the conference this evening. Don is a great speaker and gave the team a compelling set of arguments as to how new forms of collaboration will change how companies operate. 

To me, the one thing I have learned as a strategist (and sometimes inventor) is that that ideas come from everywhere. If you relegate you idea generation to any small group of people you will not get the best results. Mass collaboration becomes the critical element to generating the best possible ideas and solutions.

In test past, we were effectively “technology limited” in our ability to collaborate on a wide scale. Email was just not going to get us there. Today, however, we have the tools to truly collaborate on a global scale. 

The other key element, to me, of innovation is the ability of an individual or company to turn ideas into real products – implementation if you will. Innovation is really invention + implementation. Here, companies must provide both the support and establish a culture that fosters innovation.

More on the conference as it continues…

 

 

Comments

[Shankar N]

Hi Mark,

Your thought about innovation coming from unlikely sources is right on.

I found MIT's Eric von Hippel's video lectures on systematizing innovation very instructive on the subject.

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-356Spring2004/VideoLectures/index.htm

Best,
-shankar n.

[Vivek Pamadi]

Hello Sir,

It was really great to come here present our ideas, also meet people from various technical expertises across different geographical locations under one roof.
The whole event was simply amazing.
I just had one question how are we proceeding further with these ideas, as i remember that you had mentioned, we have make ideas as kinetic energy and not potential energy. Are we getting any kind of funding to go head and come up as a product?

Thanks
Vivek