‘Innovation’ has become an all too common word, with almost everyone in the business world using it to develop a process to develop and transform new ideas into improved business processes, technologies, or services. In the modern economy, innovation has become a key success factor for corporations, large and small. ‘Innovation’ departments have been introduced to hit the ground running with new ideas and bring them to market to give companies a competitive edge in the market. Technology has been pivotal for allowing organizations to develop new products quicker and to think outside of the box in ways not possible a few years ago.
Many factors have contributed to the rise of the role of innovation in organizations: globalization and recession of recent years are certainly strong drivers of innovation, when companies have to do more with less. But technology has also enabled more information to be available to companies and consumers, leading to an ability to harness ‘big data’ and use analytics to deliver better experiences to consumers and also transform business processes while optimizing use of scarce resources.
This is turn has led to the rise of the ‘Chief Innovation Officer’ (CINO) within corporations. Fulfilling something in between the role of a research and development director (or chief technical officer) and chief operating officer, they help companies to formalize the process of innovation, to stay ahead of the game. These CINOs take an executive management team role to oversee ensure constant progress. They help to ensure the infrastructure and procedures are in place to encourage innovation and to ensure all possible avenues are being explored to maximize progress.
With this growth in the CINO, the ‘Chief Innovation Officer Summit’, convening in London on 16-17 October 2014, and hosted by Innovation Enterprise, will see over 150 senior professionals gather to discuss how innovation has positively impacted their organizations, as well as share best practices on how to create a positive innovation culture.
Shomila Malik, head of The Lab at O2, will deliver the keynote at the London summit, exploring the innovation journey, sharing her extensive experience of creating and delivering innovative products for companies undergoing digital transformation. She will be joined by other influential innovation professionals from Tesco Labs, Siemens, BNP Paribas, McCain Foods and more. Burton Lee from Stanford’s European Entrepreneurship & Innovation will also be presenting.
One of the sponsors, Mindjet, will deliver a keynote presentation discussing how to harness greater insights from the crowd, and they will be joined by Dr Norman Lewis, director, PwC who leads PwC’s crowd sourced innovation program called One. Lewis, who has worked in innovation for 15 years, holding positions such as director of technology research at Orange and chief innovation officer at Open-Knowledge UK, will draw on his experiences running PwC’s crowd sourced innovation program for their clients supported by Mindjet’s innovation management platform.
Mindjet’s Kevin Cochrane says, “Businesses all over the world are embracing innovation, but not all know how to truly make the most of their best resource – the crowd. The Chief Innovation Officer summit provides a great opportunity for us to showcase the great achievements that enterprises like PwC have made in innovation to-date, whilst looking at what the future of innovation management really is.”
Cochrane and Lewis’ keynote session will focus on the next generation of crowd innovation, including the role that advanced crowd science and analytics will play in developing innovation processes that enable predictable outcomes and measurable results. Lewis will discuss how PwC has engaged its 17,000 UK partners and staff to identify new business opportunities and deliver exceptional value for their clients. He will share his expert knowledge about how the crowd should be engaged to refine and develop – not just generate – ideas.
The Chief Innovation Officer Summit features interactive learning and networking opportunities for innovation industry professionals. Delegates include entrepreneurs, R&D specialists, and marketing and technology teams; anybody who is responsible for innovation within their enterprise.
For a complete list of speakers, presentations and registration details for the Chief Innovation Officer, London Summit click here.
